What do you use for dosing?

[kimberbee]

I have been using Red Sea Foundation A, B, C plus their trace elements (a, b, c, d). I've also been using their Coral Pro salt. 

 

It seems a bit expensive, I don't need alk so high, and dosing 7 items is a bit annoying. I am planning to switch to a different brand when I run out. I'd like to go 3-4 weeks between water changes, so I imagine I'll still need to dose something when I make the switch. 

 

Just looking for other options that people seem to like. Here are the parameters I'd like to keep:

Ca: 440

Alk: 9

Mag 1350

 

Keep primarily LPS, leathers, mushrooms, rfas, and gorgonians. 

[burtbollinger]

Bionic ESV...manually.  Couldn’t pay me to switch.

[mitten_reef]

I'm on similar Red Sea system, ABC plus abcd, but with their Blue bucket.  The minor trace elements are mainly useful if you're  trying to "dial" those specific colors and monitor them.  Because I dose it per Cal usage as instructed, it seems to not mean anything in the long run.    

 

Thinking of going back to RSCP, and ditch the abcd. 

 

Or just jump ship and go to Aquavitro stuff - which may be similar in price overall.  

 

I have used Reef Fusion in the past with good results, never tried others.

 

most 2-part systems have Ca and Mg mixed into one part, with Alk as the second, which lessen the complication, as well as that 3rd bottle $$ when compared to red sea.    

[Garf]

Tropic Marin All for Reef, manually. Of course, I have a small 13.5g tank otherwise I would probably be doing something else.

[kimberbee]

58 minutes ago, Garf said:

Tropic Marin All for Reef, manually. Of course, I have a small 13.5g tank otherwise I would probably be doing something else.

How long have you been using the all for reef? How does it compare to anything you've used in the past?

 

My tanks are lightly stocked, so I don't think I have to dose much compared to larger more heavily stocked tanks. But being able to stretch out water changes with no ill effects would be so nice!

[jbb]

Used Bionic for years with great results,  switched to BRS and wasn't happy with it,  now I'm back to Bionic . 

[SliceGolfer]

I use Red Sea blue bucket, supplemented with BRS Alk, Ca, Mg, Greenleaf Aquariums KNO3 and KH2P04, and Quantum USA Bio-Enhance, Bio-Kalium, Bio-Metals, and Bio-Gen. All set up to dose automatically. I dose P04 manually as needed.

 

[billygoat]

Simple BRS Ca and Alk for me, dosed manually. Salt is Red Sea blue bucket. I keep a lot of the same inverts (mostly soft corals, RFAs, and gorgonians) and I've had good results without having to worry about trace element supplementation.

[kimberbee]

31 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Simple BRS Ca and Alk for me, dosed manually. Salt is Red Sea blue bucket. I keep a lot of the same inverts (mostly soft corals, RFAs, and gorgonians) and I've had good results without having to worry about trace element supplementation.

Yep... you keep similar items to me! How often are you doing water changes? I need to keep things simple!

[ECLS Reefer]

I use the RSCP salt and then I dose Seachem RF 1 and 2, brightwell magnesion and some iodide in the doser. Oh and I give a little bit of strontium every 8 days, Seachem Trace every Wednesday. 

[billygoat]

2 hours ago, kimberbee said:

Yep... you keep similar items to me! How often are you doing water changes? I need to keep things simple!

I've been doing 15% water changes once a week, but I am thinking about experimenting with pushing that back to 2 weeks. I have a feeling that the tank won't be any worse for wear with less frequent WCs.

 

Interestingly, I've noticed that my softie-dominated system consumes Alk at a much higher rate than it consumes Ca or Mg. I believe that this is due to the Alk being consumed by various microorganisms in addition to the corals and other inverts. I dose Alk daily, but Ca only once or twice a week. My Mg normally gets covered by water changes alone, but that may be something to keep an eye on if you do WCs less frequently.

[ECLS Reefer]

I changed water last in the SCA on Jan 31st. I’ve been stirring the sand and turkey basting there rocks as close to every day as I can. Same for the Evo. I will test water chemistry tomorrow and see where I am on nutrients and whether this pushing it to a month experiment will work. 

[WindyCityReefer.]

ESV B-Ionic for me. I have had great results with it and it has been around forever. I do use Reef Crystals salt.

[Steemax]

+1 for Tropic Marin All for Reef. Too easy, have it connected to the Kamoer x1 nano doser. Just dosing 0.6ml twice a day to maintain the Alk/CA levels that my IO reef crystal salt makes. It also includes trace elements, idoine, etc... so it's not just Alk/Ca/Mag.

 

If I had a larger tank with a bigger demand, I would probably use B-ionic just for cost savings sake. 

[jservedio]

Lots of Kalk dosed through my ATO and still have a nice amount of headroom (less than 50% saturation). I keep my Alk much lower than most people on here (6-7dkh) and with quite a few bigger old colonies it keeps growth at manageable levels. I used to dose Reef Fusion through a Bubble Magus doser, but took it offline when I realized I could just drop my alkalinity and make my life a lot easier.

 

Once my alk gets down to  ~6dkh, growth drastically drops off so it's sort of self-regulating. When I kept my alk at 9dkh, I had to worry about swings in both directions, now I only have to worry about one direction and with so many corals, they just immediately soak up whatever I give them.

 

Everything with a skeleton grows significantly more slowly doing this but I've got the time to wait. Plus, with the slower growth, I get really, really great colors!

[pokerdobe]

22 hours ago, burtbollinger said:

Bionic ESV

This is pretty much the only thing I use. It's been working for me so far. 

[kimberbee]

On 2/17/2020 at 2:00 PM, burtbollinger said:

Bionic ESV...manually.  

 

On 2/17/2020 at 3:39 PM, jbb_00 said:

Used Bionic for years with great results

 

On 2/17/2020 at 9:50 PM, WindyCityReefer. said:

ESV B-Ionic for me.

 

On 2/18/2020 at 12:21 PM, pokerdobe said:

This is pretty much the only thing I use. 

I'd need to get the two-part plus the bottle of magnesium additive, right? Mag isn't included in the calcium buffer system?

[yoshii]

38 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

 

 

 

I'd need to get the two-part plus the bottle of magnesium additive, right? Mag isn't included in the calcium buffer system?

+1 to Bionic, great stuff! It basically has the rest of the trace element dosing built in.

 

Yes Mag is sold separately

[pokerdobe]

1 hour ago, kimberbee said:

 

 

 

I'd need to get the two-part plus the bottle of magnesium additive, right? Mag isn't included in the calcium buffer system?

Yep.  But regular w/c typically keep up with mag for me... I'll occasionally be low and have to use the supplements, but I basically dump the entire jug in and call it day every 4 or 5 months. 

[kimberbee]

47 minutes ago, yoshii said:

+1 to Bionic, great stuff! It basically has the rest of the trace element dosing built in.

 

Yes Mag is sold separately

I actually found a thread on another forum with information directly from someone at ESV:

 

"Our magnesium supplement is not a 3rd part of our B-Ionic 2 part, and should only be added as testing dictates. In the systems at ESV we test for magnesium once per month and find B-Ionic 2 part keeps the levels fairly stable so supplemental addition is only occasionally called for." 

[WindyCityReefer.]

Depending on your system, you may just be able to rely on water changes to replenish magnesium. At least that's what I do on my system! I use IO Reef Crystals which has elevated levels to begin with. That helps keep things in check. I honestly have not tested my magnesium until recently (was trusting my gut for almost 3 years with the water change concept). When I tested it recently I was well within normal limits.

[kimberbee]

Just now, WindyCityReefer. said:

Depending on your system, you may just be able to rely on water changes to replenish magnesium. 

My goal is to drop down to only 2x a month water changes. We'll see how it goes.

[WindyCityReefer.]

Just now, kimberbee said:

My goal is to drop down to only 2x a month water changes. We'll see how it goes.

That should be fine. Magnesium is not consumed as fast as alkalinity and calcium. 

[mcarroll]

On 2/17/2020 at 2:48 PM, kimberbee said:

I have been using Red Sea Foundation A, B, C plus their trace elements (a, b, c, d). I've also been using their Coral Pro salt. 

 

It seems a bit expensive, I don't need alk so high, and dosing 7 items is a bit annoying. I am planning to switch to a different brand when I run out. I'd like to go 3-4 weeks between water changes, so I imagine I'll still need to dose something when I make the switch. 

If you're doing regular water changes, you should be able to stop doing the trace elements.

 

Level of alkalinity is what gives you time between water changes, BTW.  The sooner it gets "low" the sooner you have to either dose or do a water change.   ("low" is 7 dKH....don't tempt fate by letting it get any lower.)

 

If you aren't doing water changes with the purpose of maintaining alkalinity (ie you're doing for that) then you may have little reason left for water changes.

 

(I'm not sure switching salts is going to help you out like you think.)

 

On 2/22/2020 at 12:56 PM, kimberbee said:

I'd need to get the two-part plus the bottle of magnesium additive, right? Mag isn't included in the calcium buffer system?

No.

On 2/22/2020 at 1:36 PM, yoshii said:

+1 to Bionic, great stuff! It basically has the rest of the trace element dosing built in.

 

Yes Mag is sold separately

Magnesium is included in the two parts.  

 

👍

 

They sell Mg as well as Alk in separate bottles, but they are for exceptional circumstances not for everyday/every tank.  (In particular the bicarbonate is for systems that tend to run on the high-side of pH and dose A LOT of material.  Continually jacking the pH up with carbonates (which pulls CO2 out of the water) can cause calcium/alkalinity precipitation.   On the flip side, the slight lowering of pH and the CO2 that the bicarbonate delivers are BOTH more healthy for corals in that circumstance.

 

On 2/22/2020 at 9:46 PM, kimberbee said:

My goal is to drop down to only 2x a month water changes.

Shouldn't be any problem since you'll be testing (alk, ca and mg) regularly.

 

If there are any big changes to chemistry, you'll see them in testing.  

 

Alk will be the most apparent.