Thinking about dosing on my 28G and 10G tanks. What do you use?

[reefernanoman]

Currently I'm using RSCP as my salt and don't dose anything, but I have seen people that do dose their tanks. I have noticed that their growth and color are better than my tanks so I was wondering if I could dose something like KM nano part A and B or something else easy like that? What do all of you use and how much? I do want to keep it simple like the KM example. Any suggestions? or is it not worth dosing while using RSCP with 15% weekly water changes? I have mixed reefs in both tanks. Thanks.

[VW_TDI_02]

Do you need to dose? The reason people dose is because their corals are taking up more Ca, Alk, and Mg than is being provided with regular water changes. For example, My tank is really young and only has some SPS corals and they're all growing well. The only thing that I dose is kalkwasser in the ATO. That's because over the course of a week, my Alk would drop more than I would like between water changes. The kalkwasser adds calcium and alkalinity to the tank. The issue is that kalkwasser also increases your pH very quickly. As a result, you don't want to use kalkwasser to raise your levels but rather to maintain them. Eventually, Kalkwasser just won't cut it and you'll need to dose way too much in order to get the desired change but by then your pH has skyrocketed to like 10 (obviously bad). So, at that point people tend to start dosing two part. Two part is just that, one part is a calcium supplement and the other is an alkalinity supplement. Simply figure out how much of each your tank is using daily and dose that much every day. That's where dosing pumps come into play since they can add the exact amount very slowly every day. Sometimes people will dose trace elements or magnesium as well. Typically that is enough unless you have some very large tanks and in that case I usually see people switch over to a calcium reactor. In that case you pump CO2 into a chamber that is filled with calcium carbonate. The CO2 dissolves into the water and that water begins to dissolve the calcium carbonate (what coral skeletons are made of) and that water is then pumped into the tank filled with all that good calcium and alkalinity.

 

There are other methods but those are the main ways that people dose a tank.

[reefernanoman]

 

Its not an "I think" sort of think in my opinion...

 

Its yes or no based on if your parameters (Namely Ca, Kh, Mg) drop excessively between water changes. Im assuming you test?

Nope. I just have seen people use stuff like KM part A and B and have had better growth results than me and better coloring too. I just bought KM part A and B and will use it for a few months and will see if it makes a difference. It was only $14 anyways.

[VW_TDI_02]

Nope. I just have seen people use stuff like KM part A and B and have had better growth results than me and better coloring too. I just bought KM part A and B and will use it for a few months and will see if it makes a difference. It was only $14 anyways.

You have to test your water first!!! The whole point of dosing is that you dose in order to maintain certain water parameters. If you don't know how much your tank is consuming on a daily basis then you can't even calculate how much you need to dose.

[reefernanoman]

You have to test your water first!!! The whole point of dosing is that you dose in order to maintain certain water parameters. If you don't know how much your tank is consuming on a daily basis then you can't even calculate how much you need to dose.

Well I have heard from some experts that it is hard to know exactly how much calcium is really inside such a small volume of water( like 10G or 28G, which is even less because of the LR and sand). Supposedly, KM part A and B can be added without having to test, and that's why some people use it. I have used it in the past before, but for a short period of time.

[reefernanoman]

 

But... Its easy to know how much Ca is in YOUR WATER (What matters with corals) using a test kit.

 

The Ca of the sand or rocks doesn't matter. Just the water, since corals take the Ca out of the water.

6,000+ posts and you only have been here since may 2015? Impressive BTW!

[VW_TDI_02]

Well I have heard from some experts that it is hard to know exactly how much calcium is really inside such a small volume of water( like 10G or 28G, which is even less because of the LR and sand). Supposedly, KM part A and B can be added without having to test, and that's why some people use it. I have used it in the past before, but for a short period of time.

 

The test kits in this hobby aren't going to be accurate enough for some university research project but for what we need, it is accurate enough. A Red Sea Foundations test kit is a great test kit and pretty affordable. It comes with Ca, Alk, and Mg and is pretty easy to use for a titration test. It doesn't matter what you are dosing, you still need to be able to figure out how much of it you need to dose. In order to do that, you have to know what the parameters of your tank water are and that's done by a test kit.

 

Lets see two examples:

Tank 1: 30 gallons of total water volume, mostly soft corals and a few LPS corals

Tank 2: 30 gallons of total water volume, SPS dominated

 

Are those going to need the same dose for both of those tanks? Of course not. The SPS dominated tank is going to be using a lot more calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium than the other tank that has mostly soft corals in it.

 

You always dose in order to make up for what the corals are using on a daily basis. To figure this out, you simply test the tank every day for 3 days while not dosing anything. You should see your alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium drop consistently. From there just figure out how much it is dropping every day. Lets say on day 1 your tank is at 440 Ca but after three days you're down to 380. That means your tank is dropping 20 ppm per day so that's how much you have to replace with dosing. There are a few calculators online that will tell you how much of a product you will need. I use BRS additives in my tank and on their website there is a calculator where you can simply type in your current and desired calcium levels (same for Alk and Mg), the product you're using, and the total water volume. If we use that same example where the tank was dropping 20 ppm per day, you would need to dose 61.4 ml of BRS 2 part Calcium Solution every day in order to compensate for what your corals are pulling out of your water.