dosing
- Thread starter wizzdumb
- Start date
Dosing can mean different things. If you take dosing as adding calcium and alkalinity along with mag, the dosing of a reef tank would be much greater then the dosing of a fowlr tank.
A fowlr tank shouldn't need to be dosed with anything. The alkalinity will drop over time due to fish waste, but simple water changes will keep up with it.
A reef tank will need to be dosed depending on how many/type of corals are in the tank. A tank of softies won't need much, while a tank full of large sps is going to need quite a bit. The corals "use up" the calcium and alkalinity as they grow.
HTH
A fowlr tank shouldn't need to be dosed with anything. The alkalinity will drop over time due to fish waste, but simple water changes will keep up with it.
A reef tank will need to be dosed depending on how many/type of corals are in the tank. A tank of softies won't need much, while a tank full of large sps is going to need quite a bit. The corals "use up" the calcium and alkalinity as they grow.
HTH
Every tank is going to have a different demand or need for alk and calcium. It'll depend on how fast the corals are growing, their size, how many, etc.
There are 3 main ways to add calcium, alk, and mag back into the tank. Regardless of how you dose, you need to test to see how much your tank is using. Then after you have begun dosing, you need to continue testing to make sure you are adding the right amount and then make tweaks to how much you are adding. As you get comfortable on how much your tank requires, you can probably cut back on the testing.
Method 1: Adding kalk water (pickling lime) instead of straight RO water for your top-off. This solution will add both alk and calcium to the tank. You will have to rely on something else for mag.
Method 2: Adding concentrated solutions like two-part.
Method 3: Calcium reactor.
If you don't want to use use a drip (continuously added) or a calcium reactor, I would just use some brand of two part solutions. Kalk is best added by using some continuous method. With two-part, you have two solutions, one adds calcium while the other adds alkalinity. It's best to add them once a day, but depending on how much your tank requires you might just be able to add them a couple of times a week. There is also a mag solution with this method, but it doesn't need to be added very often.....so the "two-part" method actually has 3 solutions.
For some people whose tanks have low demand....you might just be able to do regular water changes and not worry about dosing.
There are 3 main ways to add calcium, alk, and mag back into the tank. Regardless of how you dose, you need to test to see how much your tank is using. Then after you have begun dosing, you need to continue testing to make sure you are adding the right amount and then make tweaks to how much you are adding. As you get comfortable on how much your tank requires, you can probably cut back on the testing.
Method 1: Adding kalk water (pickling lime) instead of straight RO water for your top-off. This solution will add both alk and calcium to the tank. You will have to rely on something else for mag.
Method 2: Adding concentrated solutions like two-part.
Method 3: Calcium reactor.
If you don't want to use use a drip (continuously added) or a calcium reactor, I would just use some brand of two part solutions. Kalk is best added by using some continuous method. With two-part, you have two solutions, one adds calcium while the other adds alkalinity. It's best to add them once a day, but depending on how much your tank requires you might just be able to add them a couple of times a week. There is also a mag solution with this method, but it doesn't need to be added very often.....so the "two-part" method actually has 3 solutions.
For some people whose tanks have low demand....you might just be able to do regular water changes and not worry about dosing.
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