Dosing, need suggestions and help

As my tank is maturing I am figuring out the next steps.

I read a lot about ppl dosing but it never gets in depth enough to understand the need or what to use.

I plan on keeping mushrooms, zoa's, xenia, maybe leather, and definitely dendro in my 15g with a clown pair....maybe a ywg too

Can someone suggest what/when I should start dosing or share a link to info on the subject.

Thanks for all the great help

 

For those corals types all you will need is routine water changes.

 

Really. That's awesome news

 

Dosing often pertains to calcium magnesium and alkalinity, the big 3, required for good stony coral growth and health. Since you are doing mostly soft corals (dendro is a stony coral) you will not need to worry about these. This does not mean you don't have to dose. You can dose other things, such as liquid coral foods, amino acid complexes, or trace elements that soft corals typically enjoy, such as iodine or potassium. However I would research the trace elements aspect and also get some test kits, as iodine at higher levels can be toxic.

There is a lot of debate about whether dosing trace elements is even necessary so I will not say whether you should or shouldn't do it, it is up for you to research and decide.

Dosing is done usually 1 of 2 ways, manually or automatically. Manually means you're measuring out how much you have to dose and dosing it yourself into the tank. Automatically involves a dosing pump (often over $250) that will dose X amount every Y times per day. These are nice because it is more of a constant dose, as opposed to doing it yourself at greater amounts two or three times a week.

hope all this helps clear it up some.

 

Great points, dosing can mean so many things.

The one common rule is, test before you dose.

 

Thank you.

That helps a lot. I will definitely research this further.

 

Green star polyps, mushrooms, ricordea, xenia and pocillopora ... I love the way all of those look. They are beautiful corals. But they are also major pests. They grow to quick, spread like wildfire and sting other corals. For a new tank and a newbie reefer they are all good/easy choices, but if I could do things all over again, I would not add any of those to my tanks, unless I was prepared to keep them on isolate rocks and constantly watch and remove new spawns on other rocks.

I guess u can say same thing about many corals, it's a constant battle for territory and light. But for some reason those 5 seem extra aggressive to me.

 

While I agree, if I were starting out brand new. I'd still be getting the "pest" corals for starters. But, that's just me

 

I think everyone should have an Xenia and Mushroom tank once. Include a nice ToadStool and you're good to go. I will always avoid Pocilliopora and GSP, but that is because been there done that.

 

I love toadstools. I have always been captivated by soft corals and some LPS.

When I had my 55g I had xenia, love how they flow and pump, it's mesmerizing but man did they ever spread. My fault for adding 4 frags instead of one...lesson learned!

My ricordia never really spread, if anything it was the one coral that didn't. My frogspawn, bubble coral, finger leather, xenia, those just kept getting bigger and better.

Thank you all for the help. I currently have testers for Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH, Alk.
What other testers would be recommended at this stage? I know CA, Mag, phos are important but can those wait?