Dosing help

True your numbers are good and in acceptable ranges but @ 450 calc your balanced alk would be 12. Pushing mag up to 1500 will make it easier to find an easy balance.

Not saying anyone else is wrong, this is just works for me. I don't feed and have pretty amazing growth on all my sps. My numbers are kept at 11dkh, 440calc, 1500mag.

 

If you want to go pro and get uber growth, its a large investment in time (reading) and resources (equipment) Corals only need 380 calcium levels to grow, the really limiting factor is Alk. A low dkh below 8 hinders stony coral growth, but an ultra high dkh or 12-13 will create brittle skeletons unless your PH is in balance at 8.4-8.5.
From your number it looks like you are in a great stable range, If you get into dosing to try and maintain consistent levels of you 'big three', you might invest in a couple of dosing pumps to shoot your couple-of-milliliter-a-day additive into your tank for you. If you start growing alot of SPS corals, these numbers really rise and you will be thankful for the automation.

 

if those are the numbers you get without dosing, i would leave it alone. what salt do you use and how often do you do water changes?

 

If you are not keeping a lot of sps corals and/or clams, you will probably not need to supplement at all.

I do believe that your alk level needs to be a bit higher though.

 

When I look on here, it's like everyone's corals are growing like weeds!! I'm jealous!! :

Ok. thanks. I'm wanting my dkh a bit higher, so I could raise mag.

Okay...I can look into some dosing machines. Is that the right word? lol I do think automatic would be easier than manual. For me at least.

I use Oceanic. I try to do water changes once a month. Since I've been sick I've been slipping a bit. But the Oceanic has crazy high calcium levels, at least for me. The water change mix has off the charts high calcium. So it stays at good levels in the DT after several weeks.

I do have quite a bit of SPS and two clams. I will watch the numbers and if they start dropping I'll start to dose. But I do want to raise alk. I agree, I want it a bit higher. But just a bit! I have some dosing stuff I bought a long time ago from BRS that I haven't even taken out of the shipping box yet, haha, so I will go look at that stuff.

Thanks for all the help!! You guys are the BEST!! I'll make sure to hit you all with some K when I get time tonight.

 

i'm not sure that it gets much easier than not having to do anything. if my levels were at what yours are without the trouble and expense of dosing, i wouldn't dose. raising your alk is no guarantee of extra coral growth. i will put an asterisk by this statement since i am in no way an expert.

 

The instructions with the BRS kit are pretty good, and so are their calculators on their website.

I manually dose daily using their kit.

 

Kc i agree with most people on here, i dont think you need to dose. Trying to force the most growth out of coral can lead to tank crashes, and your tank and levels look great!

 

Fiiine. But I'm American, I want bigger and better, and NOW! lol Instant gratification I need.

 

I would go with feeding more, especially if your cal/alk/mag are staying where you say they are.