Should I dose before adding corals?

I've picked up the following Kent Marine products over the last months cycle -

liquid Calcium
pro Buffer dKH
tech M Magnesium
Coral-Vite
Strontium & Molybdenum

I plan for this tank to have corals, mainly soft but I haven't completely decided but what I want to know is if I should dose these chemicals before adding corals. Also what order should I use them?

Any help is appreciated!

 

Actually, you won't need to dose at all for softies.

For stony corals, if you start with a reef-grade salt mix, you also won't need to dose until you notice a drop in elements between water changes.

 

Like Mr. Bill said, you salt will provide you with everything you need. Unless you have hard corals, you really won't need to dose as your occasional water changes will provide everything the soft coral need.

As always, if you do decides to dose, TEST first.

 

I appreciate the information. I should also mention I plan to add a clam soon after the tank finished cycling.

 

Test for anything you dose prior and after dosing.

Before dosing see if you even have to, what is the tank utilization of the big 3. As already mentioned initially even with one clam you should not need to dose for quite a while.

I never dose Strontium or Molybdenum or Iodine.

More is not better and sometimes more is a disaster waiting to happen. Any decent salt mix and routine water changes will keep things in check for quite a while.

 

well I guess its a good thing, atleast ill have the chemicals in an emergency. I appreciate all the help

 

all of this information is great except the fact that coralline algae sp? really eats up alk and ca. I'm not saying you will ever have to dose with softies but you will still need to test. I started having to dose right around the time I put my first sps in the tank. With this being said, I do only use IO salt which isn't really heavy in the ca and alk department. (it gets depleted fast anyway) I use IO because I can keep better control of my levels and I've found, over the years, it to be the most consistent salt mix.

 

Trust me it is a good thing. I know there is a huge impulse to add supplements and trace elements thinking it will excel growth and color, but initially it's basically a waste of money.

A one time or another I have added everything you listed and it made no difference what so ever, until I kept large clams and large colony sps.

Dosing is a PITA. I dose alk 3 times daily, calcium once and top off with kalk, it's a choir.

 

Cheryl....why don't you invest in a controller and some dosing pumps? Seriously, I haven't manually dosed anything in a couple of months now and my stuff is stable as heck. If it starts to creep up or down, I adjust the timers and keep going.

 

Because it's a nano and I am a control freak. But I am better now I do not test everyday any longer.