2 part dosing

[jdavid]

I just picked up some Kent marine Nano Reef parts A & B for my 8g nano and my 40g frag tank.

Part A contains calcium, magnesium, strontium, iron, and "many other important trace elements" (whatever that means)

Part B is an ionically balanced buffer to Part A that increases Alk and maintains a stable pH.

The bottle says to add 1 mL per 4 gallons of each daily.

For the 40 breeder I halved that.. adding only 5 mL of each rather than 10. The tank has never been dosed before and I didn't feel comfortable adding 20 mL of chems all at one time.......

Here's my question to you guys. Do I have to add the other half, or am I fine with adding half the recommended dose? There is no part of the instructions that says anything like.. Test your levels then add x amount to raise it to desired levels.

Other question. Do I have to dose daily, now that I did it already? My tank was doing fine just not growing very fast, and wanted better colors too, as some things had better colors when I bought them, specifically a tri-color valida I picked up from Spike's corals at the expo.

Thanks for reading
JD

 

[jimmystephens]

Josh. I dosed a/b daily and tested to get to the levels i wanted then cont to test daily and dose the same. If ur cal or alk raises higher than u want u slow down on the a/b or if it is still low u dose more until u get to the level u want. Then cont to dose that amount daily. As u add coral and or ur coral grows u will need to dose more. Feel free to text or call me with questions. But u will def need to test daily until u know how much cal/alk ur tank uses

 

[ralph atl]

In order to dose properly, you have to test....

With large weekly or bi-weekly water changes you keep the minimum trace and remove nutrients somewhat, but adding Alk and Calcium is supposed to replace what is actually consumed between those changes.....

Here is a calculator....

 

[jdavid]

Lol that is the answer I feared because I havent invested in decent Ca/Alk/Mg test kits yet.

Of course what you are saying makes perfect sense. Nobody can tell me if I'm OK with my dosing because no two tanks use the same amount. only water changes in my 40g up until now for supplement.

I'll just spend the $50 for a red sea Ca/Alk/Mg kit and prb thank you later. I'll post back the results.

Edit: Kent nano reef a&b is not on the list but cool calculator

 

[jimmystephens]

If u use a better salt u can save alittle on dosing. I switched from io to rc and now to salinity (4 months now( and had to turn doqn my dosing pumps

 

[jdavid]

I use reef crystals.