Should I dose?

Seriously don't ruin a good thing!
Always water change before consider dosing and then if water changes don't help then the option of dosing should be looked into but be cautious of overdosing it's better to be undersized than overdosed.....IMO

 

Thank you tharsis

just to clarify

testing on a weekly basis will be the prompt to tell you when it is time to dose
if your levels at the end of the week just before a water change, are lower than the levels you had at the start of the week
then the difference is the consumption

if your consumption over the course of a week, could be maintained using just the water change alone, that would be OK although IME not the best way to maintain it because little and often removes parameter swings, creates consistency and provides stability)
if the water change alone does not bring the levels back to where they where, then that is a prompt to either increase the levels in the water change water your using or better still to dose the difference divided into daily doses into your reef tank

the above become more important as the corals grow, or you add further SPS coral to the aquarium

 

So things seem to be going well with my sps, I appear to be getting new growth from all the frags. The polyp extension looks good as well.

I tested the water just now after 6 days since my last water change.

After WC: Ca=460ppm and alk=8
Right now: Ca=440ppm and alk=8

It looks like my levels are fine for now so I will keep up with just the water changes. I am guessing because my frags are so itty bitty that the Ca consumption is pretty small.

I just got a RAOK in the mail from another forum it is a seachem Mg testing kit, which also does carbonate and borate (just for the cost of shipping!!). So I will start testing my Mg this week. Is there any reason to test for borate?

 

If you keep up with water changes generally your trace elements should be replenished as long as you don't keep too many corals that require and utilize higher concentrations of trace elements. Using a good quality reef salt like Tropic Marin, will help keep the trace elements in check. Once you increase the coral bio load and the Ca, Mg, trace elements etc. become depleted faster than you can replace them via your normal water change routine you will have to start dosing as required to the levels where you want them to be. Don't forget to test for Ca, Mg, Alk regularly and for anything you dose in your tank.

 

when those frags start to really take off, and you see more demand, I would suggest getting a starter kit from BRS. Super cheap and will last a long time with a 20L.

Two Part Starter Kit - English