General Dosing

[porpoiseaquatics]

I saw a thread recently that got me to thinking. When you walk in to an LFS, you see all these chemicals available to dose. You see Iodine, Magnesium (liquid), calcium, Micro-invert, Strontium, Molybdium (spelling?), Reef Snow, etc etc....the list is long. In reality, are any of these needed if you're doing water changes like you should? Are you helping or actually hurting your reef system if you're dosing anything other than calcium, magnesium, and a buffer for alkalinity? I hate seeing money wasted if it's not warranted.

 

[shrimpy brains]

It blows my mind when I walk into a store and see shelf upon shelf full of things to dose. I agree, with proper water changes, you shouldn't have to dose anything.
Possible exception is if you have a lot of livestock that demand the same thing. (example: lots of sps) in such cases, I still wouldn't dose anything unless I first test to see if it's low. (example: calcium)

I guess there are alot of peeps buying those supplements though, or they wouldn't make them! :confused2:

 

[moebious]

It's kinda like going to the drugstore.

 

[ralph atl]

Yes, you should have a calcium alk mag maintenance plan. That could just be water changes if you do them frequently enough...........other than that, NO!