Dosing Question

Ive never dosed much of anything in my 125. In my ATO I put in Reef Builder (PH stabilizer), Prime (PH buffer), and Iodine. I keep my ATO at about 15 gallons and by they end of the week most of it is gone. Everything in my tank checks out good including alk, mag, etc etc. However, my calcium has been holding steady around 300-350. I do water changes every two weeks and this helps but I never seem to get the calcium high enough. So this weekend while at MACNA I picked up some Seachem Reef Calcium. It says it maintains cal, mag, and stron. So my question is, how much and how often should I dose with calcium? Do I need to worry about my alk or ph when doing this? Are there any other side effects I should worry about? Never liked dosing. Thanks!

 

bump

 

16 minute bump?? Wow!

I would suggest you swap to a two part. Dosing strontium and iodine is not recommended for probably 95% of hobbyists. A simple two part like the BRS bulk stuff is easy to dose and safe to use.

What are your current levels?

Alk
Cal
Mag
SG
Nitrate
Phos
?

 

I just think I am on the low side. I have been for some time too. I want to bring it up to at least 400.

 

I dose with iodine because it seems to make the corals happier. Its not much. A capful for every 15 gallons. But it makes a difference. Ive noticed my toadstool and hammer become much larger and extend more when I have iodine in my ATO regularly.

 

do you have test for your current iodine and strontium?

Also What are your current levels? How fast are you adding what you are dosing? How often?

Alk
Cal
Mag
SG
Nitrate
Phos

Its tough to help someone when we do have numbers, I currently use BRS 2 part to dose and as long as you keep the S.G., mag,alk and Ca in check everything else will fall right into place with minor dosing. Oh and weekly water changes are a much you deff can do more harm with dosing iodine and strontium than not dosing.

 

I agree with switching to a 2 part recipe from BRS, it will save you a ton of money.

But until then, since you what your cal. level is now. You will want to dose according to what the bottle suggests, and then I would test a few minutes after and see how much it has increased, and then test for the next few days to a week and see if there is a pattern to how it drops off. Then you can get an idea of how much you need to dose daily.

 

Alk-12
Cal-325
Mag- brother has my mag kit at the moment but last I checked it was fine
SG-1.024
Nitrate-0
Phos-0

 

The iodine I dose with is only 1 capful per week. I put it in my ATO and let it slowly drain into the system. I have spoken to some really experienced guys about this and they say iodine dosing will not hurt anything. In fact I have been encouraged to dose a little iodine once a week to keep my corals happy. This was coming from a guy who has a 180 dt loaded top to bottum with corals and he has been in the buisness for many years. With that in mind, I have noticed if I fill my ATO and dont add iodine the corals are noticeably different. They dont seem to be as happy.

 

You have a reef tank correct? IF so you really should bring your SG up to 1.026 and your ALK down to 9 that should make your pH stable around 7.9-8.3 then with dosing BRS 2 parts doing for your Ca you can slowly bring it up to 420 and should be good. that is what i use daily. I recently had a issue with my pH and did what i wrote above and now when the lights are on my pH is 8.18 and at night my pH is 7.93 so it stays pretty stable any higher and my clam starts bleaching and my califlower coral tips start to burn. Hope this helps.

As for the iodine i would stop dosing until you can actually test the levels. A good rule of thumb is that if you dont test for it you shouldnt add anything for it. Cause not only could you be wasting your money but could also be overdosing your coral with supplements that they already get enough of. Test twice drip in supplements once.