Dosing

[ramsey]

Heh, I have a feeling I'm going to start a war with this one but oh well. I bought some 2-part calc and magnesium to dose. I "dosed" fuel in the past but haven't since I ran out because I really didn't se that it did anything. What are you guys dosing?

[Europhyllia]

BulkReefSupply Calc
(I also have alkalinity and mag from them but seem to run low on calc long before I run low on alk or mag) In a big tank their DIY solution makes it more affordable than buying the little bottles of commercial stuff

[RayAllen]

I dose Potassium Iodide 1% Solution.

[Kristy]

We use B-Ionic 2-part and have talked about switching over to a homemade version but have not done so yet, so still using the B-Ionic for now. We use 2 T of each every evening before lights out on our 210g reef, so those big jugs of B-Ionic last quite a while for us.

Things we have noticed since using it:
Much better growth on corals that need the calcium, like the cap and the LPS.
Until we started doing this regularly, we always struggled with our pH being a little low. We would drip kalk to get it up, but it would just drop right back down immediately. Once we got our pH in line and did the daily dosing, the pH stayed up where we wanted it. Zoas and anemones always respond positively to the pH improvement for us.

In fact, since I got home from Hawaii I was frustrated to find that our cyano troubles have returned after almost a year without this problem. It recently occurred to me that one contributing factor to the cyano problem is that we had slacked off on the 2-part dosing, and our pH was low. Low pH is an inviting situation for cyano, in my experience. So now I'm back to basics and dripping kalk, using the B-Ionic 2-part and plan to stick with it.

[ramsey]

That's good to know Kristy. That's what I bought I used for the first time this morning. You dose it at night before the lights go out? I thought you needed to dose it at right before lights come on. It would be much easier for me to do it at night. :P

[Kristy]

Hmmm... there may be a very valid reason for dosing in the morning that I've never thought about. I always just did it at night for convenience. Not sure about the benefits of dosing at different times of day / night.

[ramsey]

On the label, it says to dose right before lights come on when pH is at it's lowest. Not sure if it really matters though.

[StevenSeas]

It says to dose in the morning because it will raise the ph like kalkwasser will. Doing it in the morning lessens the likelyhood of any ill effects of this.

[Submariner]

I'm using DIY 2 part solution #1 ala Randy Holmes Farley (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php). It's simpler than the article makes it sound. Important part is to dose equal parts, but he explains that in the article. I dose in the morning, but I'm going to start splitting the amount and dosing once in the morning and once at night. When I don't have the time I'll just dose in the morning to keep it simple. Since I switch from kalkwasser I'm having much better results with growth and color.

[CoryDude]

It says to dose in the morning because it will raise the ph like kalkwasser will. Doing it in the morning lessens the likelyhood of any ill effects of this.

Same here. I like the little boost to the ph it adds.

I carried the calcium reactor flag for many years and swore I'd never use a 2-part. But since switching, I've had the same results as Kristy. I no longer have chemistry imbalance issues (usually low alk and high calcium) that I had before and growth has picked up on the stonies at a rate I haven't seen in a while. Plus since my tank seems to go through carbonates faster than calcium, I'm able to adjust my 2 part supplement to compensate for this and maintain both sides equally.

All other minor and trace elements are replenished via 10% water changes each week.

[BIGBIRD123]

I dose 2-part 3 times a week and dose 1000 ml of saturated kalk water every other evening after the lights go out over 10 hrs to keep my ph stable. It works great and all corals show excellent growth. Tyree's Purple Monster is notorious for being one of the slowest growing corals (thus the high price tag) but I have gotten 3/8" growth in 3 months.