How much do you dose?

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by CM125

I don't have any SPS, so Im sure my water changes are enough to keep to keep the levels good

Lots of things consume carbonate ions, and thus lower alkalinity. Your skimmer exports quite a bit, organic acids produced by the things living in your tank, and all sorts of calcifying plants and animals you didnt buy make it in to every reef tank. It's a good idea to periodically test, even if you aren't dosing.

[mike31154]

I only have some monti caps for sps & hammer coral lps in addition to assorted soft coral. I've been somewhat delinquent in my testing routine, but when I do, I generally find alk to be chronically low. My dosing routine is erratic as well, consisting of throwing 7 to 14 teaspoons of either baked baking soda or calcium into my 7 gallon top off container. Sort of gauge it by when the last water change was as to what I dump in. I've had the tank running for a few years now and recall when I first started the alk being very high. I think that was probably my use of treated tap water from Kalamalka lake (high in calcium & alk) and the fact that I had little in the way of coral using those elements up. Since switching to RODI water years ago, alk is chronically low, no matter what I dose in my haphazard way. I use IO salt & when I test a newly mixed batch the alk is good. A few days after water change, tank tests low again & I'll dump some baked Arm & Hammer into the top off container. Once in a while I'll fire some Epsom Salt into the top off water as well.

Long story short, I tend not to chase numbers as much as I used to in the past. I see my tank every day, stuff looks good, calcifying coral like hammer & especially monti cap are growing like the dickens, there's an abundance of coralline all over the rockwork, back glass. I mostly rely on large water changes every 21 days, give or take, to keep the water chemistry levels suitable for the livestock.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

Lots of things consume carbonate ions, and thus lower alkalinity. Your skimmer exports quite a bit, organic acids produced by the things living in your tank, and all sorts of calcifying plants and animals you didnt buy make it in to every reef tank. It's a good idea to periodically test, even if you aren't dosing.

We need a chemistry forum on canreef

[CM125]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

Lots of things consume carbonate ions, and thus lower alkalinity. Your skimmer exports quite a bit, organic acids produced by the things living in your tank, and all sorts of calcifying plants and animals you didnt buy make it in to every reef tank. It's a good idea to periodically test, even if you aren't dosing.

I do test it, it seems to stay in the recommended range, but i have upgraded to a bigger tank so i might need to start dosing.

[mike31154]

With respect to larger tanks needing dosing, I'm not sure that's a valid generalization. I haven't done the math & it would largely depend on the livestock one keeps, but the way I look at it, with more water volume, wouldn't it take longer to use up the chemicals than with a smaller tank? With more volume, you have a greater reserve of those important elements, no? Most of our systems are in a constant state of change, with livestock growing, dying, changing... so I reckon testing is a good thing, particularly if you've invested many $$$s in pricey coral. I think that's why I may be getting away with my lackadaisical testing/dosing routine, I enjoy my tank, but if I'm stressing over it due to a monetary investment, that enjoyment tends to fade quickly.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by mike31154

With respect to larger tanks needing dosing, I'm not sure that's a valid generalization. I haven't done the math & it would largely depend on the livestock one keeps, but the way I look at it, with more water volume, wouldn't it take longer to use up the chemicals than with a smaller tank? With more volume, you have a greater reserve of those important elements, no? Most of our systems are in a constant state of change, with livestock growing, dying, changing... so I reckon testing is a good thing, particularly if you've invested many $$$s in pricey coral. I think that's why I may be getting away with my lackadaisical testing/dosing routine, I enjoy my tank, but if I'm stressing over it due to a monetary investment, that enjoyment tends to fade quickly.

ppm is ppm so a 1% water change on a 100 g tank with a calcium of 450ppm Will replenish the same as a 1% water change of the same on a 1000g tank


In respect though the animals use this , so a larger tank may often use more and require more but only if the animals that use it have higher demand or are more in numbers which is common as the ecosystem is larger

A 100g packed sps tank will likely have more demand than a new 1000g tank that has nothing in it for quite some time, it really comes down to who uses it and how much of it they use each animal and species is different and have different demands

[mseepman]

Thank you for everyone's input...obviously I shouldn't be worried about what I'm dosing yet as it isn't as much as I thought. I will continue with some steady bumps and measure to see how it's reacting.