Tank 60g cube with 40g sump. Light is a t5 hybrid with 4 blue plus and an ai16 prime. Flow is an ics cap gyre. I do a 10 gal water change every 14 days. I make my own rodi and mix my own salt. I am experiencing very slow flesh loss on hammers and torches most everything else seems Stable but slow to no growth. It was suggested that there is most likely a high alk swing during water changes causing stress that dosing would even out. I have purchased the chemicals (seachem carbonate and reef complete) and pumps to do this as a 2 part but I have no idea about how much over what period of time. I have attached a screen shot of the water test the day before the water change and then the test 24 hours after the change. Hoping for Hive mind on best way to dose if dosing is my answer
Dosing question
- Thread starter Coraliscool
- Start date
Your #’s aren’t any concern from what I can tell. They are all within range. The phosphate could use a little drop but its not bad.
How old is the tank?
How old is the tank?
Tank will be two years old in jan
Could the temp be a factor?
I know it's not crazy high but has it been going up? Or staying in that range within 2 degrees?
I don't monitor it daily but when I do it's not generally more than a degree change one way or the other
Just wondering, do you have algae in your tank that's growing? I guess the only concern could be the zero nitrates. How many fish do you have and how often are you feeding them?
I do not have any algae that I am aware of. I have tried to start a refugium multiple times and it fails. I assumed it was the Amazon grow light though.
FISH 2 clowns, 1 domino, 1 small tomini tang and a file fish.
FEEDING I feed the fish a half cube of mysis every other day and the coral get a spot feeding every Monday of reef chili from brs. And i clip a piece of seaweed for the tang on mondays
FISH 2 clowns, 1 domino, 1 small tomini tang and a file fish.
FEEDING I feed the fish a half cube of mysis every other day and the coral get a spot feeding every Monday of reef chili from brs. And i clip a piece of seaweed for the tang on mondays
I asked about algae, because sometimes nitrate reading can be false if you are overwhelmed with algae cause of its consumption, but it doesn't look to be your case.
It sounds like your tank is starving. If you refuge is failing, its cause there are no nutrients in the water to feed the macro algae.
Feeding only every other day is probably why. Maybe up the feeding, but keep an eye on the phosphates. Since both will go up and you really don't want to get your phosphates up. You just want to be able to detect some nitrates in your system.
Thank you I have not tried that as I was afraid of messing up paremeters. I can't make it worse I suppose
I agree with civics and dball the tank is starving. I think you could double what you feed and still be low nutrient tank. I would assume the fish have been slow growers as well. I would double feeding and also spot feed corals with mysis a few times a month. At the moment, I'm switching to only PE Mysis because the protein content is SO much higher. Mysis runs around 4.5% and PE Mysis run around 60-70%
Thank you all for taking the time to look at this. This is the mysis I am feeding. As of today I am upping to a cube a day as opposed to 1/2 cube every other day. Which parameters will the additional feedings effect? I still am curious about my original question. Where do I need to start with dosing? Or should I hold off until I see what the addional food does to the water? Thanks again for talking me through this. I do not want to crash the tank but even more I don't want to slowly starve my tank. 
Based on your parameters, it looks like your water changes are keeping your parameters in check. I would hold off on dosing for now. I suggest keep your current routine and just increase the feeding.
1 cube of mysis a day is where I would start. This will impact your nitrates and phosphates in the tank.
Thats the best PE Mysis i have found. Watch your phosphates and nitrate once a week maybe. Alk, Cal and Mag should not be effected by feeding mysis I wouldn't think unless someone else has seen that. My experience has shown phosphates go up more with flake foods.
Once corals start growing more you may see a decline in those params and either do more water changes or start dosing accordingly. Some people never doese and just do auto water changes.
Stability is key to growth. I keep my Alk at around 8.5-9, Cal at 450 and Mag really high between 1450 and 1500 since I'm combating bryopsis (high mag is supposed to choke out bryopsis)
I can't remember what all you've got in the tank but I've found the powdered coral food Reef Roids can increase nitrates and phosphates too. I feed a little more than I need to because I also have a tank with super low nutrients. Setting up to dosing unit will give you Ca & Alk stability and that's a good thing. Increased feeding can help get the nitrates up. In my experience nitrates and phosphates tend to both go up when I feed more and your phosphate level is low enough that some increase wouldn't be the end of the world.
To set up a doser, here's my process:
To set up a doser, here's my process:
- Test Alk and/or Calcium
- Manually add a dose of the element you want to dose. I usually do 5 mL.
- Test again in a hour or two.
