Can you PRE-dose your water?

[tdam]

Can you dose your water while it's still in a five gallon bucket? or do u have to dose straight into the tank always?

 

[crewdawg1981]

A lot of people actually dose their water change water so that its up to par before swapping. Or are you talking about ATO water?

 

[tdam]

i'm talking about pre mixed saltwater. i do a 5 gallon water change weekly. just wondering if i can dose while i have the water sitting in buckets.

 

[hnguyen]

depending on what kind of salt you use, you don't need to pre-dose. Most all decent salt now have very good amounts of cal. alk. and mag. in them to start with.

 

[tdam]

so are you saying that i shouldn't even dose my tank? (i don't use salinity)

 

[jef4y]

Don't dose for anything that you don't KNOW you're deficient in. If you have a salt mix that is deficient in one element, then fine, dose it to the mix. I used to dose magnesium to my Red Sea salt mix as it was low.

 

[hnguyen]

tdam;643514 wrote: so are you saying that i shouldn't even dose my tank? (i don't use salinity)

I don't use salinity either. I use Instant Ocean's Reef Crystals. I do about 15% WC a week and my dosing is very minimal. I use to use a doser and I was only dosing 4ml to 5ml of BRS 2 part a day (unheard of with most reefers). I just switched to a calcium reactor and It barely runs.

I'm not telling you to stop dosing all together. Just saying, depending on the salt you use and depending on the coral you keep and how much cal. alk. and mag. they use and how big your system is. You MAY not need to dose. If you have all softies and just a few frags of SPS and your using decent salt with the way you do your WC now, then no you don't need to dose.

To be honest, if I up my WC a bit more even I don't need to dose at this moment. I have mainly all SPS in my tank but they are all frags, maybe 30 or so.

Now say your tank only uses a little bit of cal. alk. and mag. and you know exactly how much your tank takes up per week, then yes you can dose your new salt mix with the correct amount before a WC. But IMO I still don't think it's a good idea, because now your raising your levels too fast. I don't like the fact of weekly dosing. I like daily dosing because it keeps things stable. Thats why I liked the idea of a doser or calcium reactor. It puts back what my system uses through out the day and my params don't move at all.

 

[tdam]

sounds good. thanks.

 

[rbredding]

I buffer my RO water with Kent dKH superbuffer...

I would continue to buffer the system, not the NSW water.. (you could cause your NSW to precipitate by putting too much alk or Ca or Mg in)...

 

[chemically_balanced]

I add MAG to my ATO.

 

[cr500_af]

I used to have to dose my water (alk when I used Seachem Reef Salt, calcium when I used IO or Reef Crystals). With Salinity now I don't have to dose anything until the tank starts to consume elements in between water changes.

 

[kilo32]

You mentioned NSW. Where are you getting NSW?

 

[cr500_af]

kilo32;643636 wrote: You mentioned NSW. Where are you getting NSW?

Don't know if this is the case with Ron, but some people use NSW for New salt water rather than Natural salt water.

 

[kilo32]

OK...being from Florida the term NSW is used for "natural sea water". I was wondering who was trucking a load of sea water from the coast. That sure would be nice to have but with the gas prices it would be cost prohibative.

 

[tdam]

haha. good one!

 

[rbredding]

kilo32;643640 wrote: OK...being from Florida the term NSW is used for "natural sea water". I was wondering who was trucking a load of sea water from the coast. That sure would be nice to have but with the gas prices it would be cost prohibative.

that all depend$ on how much y'all will pay for it..




yes, NEW salt water.. (being from Atlanta, it would never occur to me that someone would automatically think 'natural')

 

[lilrobb]

I added an extra chamber to my RODI system and filled the cartridge with Aragonite.
The pH of neutral water being 7 it should technically and very slowly dissolve some of it and therefor buffer my ATO water...