- What is dosing a saltwater tank?
Or rather what do we mean by dosing
when it comes to our reef tanks?
Solid question but I think we should also talk about
when you should be dosing your reef tank
and what you should be dosing it with.
So let's get started.
Dosing a reef tank refers to any time we add something
to the water, usually in the form of a liquid,
that has a positive effect on the water chemistry,
typically in the form of sustenance for the inhabitants.
But it could also be a way to add beneficial microbes
or bacteria to the aquarium.
Dosing a tank can be done by hand, like this,
or we can also automate it by using a dosing pump
to do it for us, which makes the most sense for additives
that need to be dosed on a daily basis
so that we can take that task off of our plate
while also making it more consistent,
which can add more stability
to the water chemistry of the aquarium.
So now that we know what dosing is,
when should we be dosing our reef tanks?
There are a few different reasons why we dose our aquariums.
The first reason is to add beneficial bacteria
that provide biological filtration that breaks down
harmful ammonia into much less harmful nitrate
so that the aquarium is hospitable for fish,
corals, and invertebrates.
Dosing bacterial additives is most commonly done
when starting up a new aquarium as a way to introduce
these very important bacteria.
There are lots of bacterial additives to choose from
that are marketed specifically for starting a new tank.
And this is most likely something you'll wanna do
if you are starting a new reef tank.
The second reason is to replenish important major
and minor trace elements that corals
and other inhabitants require to grow.
More specifically, calcium and alkalinity
are important elements for coral growth
because they are quickly used up as corals
build their calcium carbonate skeletons.
And replenishing those elements so that they're always
in a safe range or concentration is important
for making sure that your corals
are healthy and able to grow.
There are also other major and minor trace elements
that should be replenished as well,
depending on what types of corals you're keeping.
The third reason is to add liquid foods like amino
and fatty acids that are important building blocks
for all living creatures, including our corals,
so that they can thrive.
Not only can many corals use their polyps
to grab food particles out of the water
but many can also pull liquid foods from the water
directly into their tissue.
Adding these types of liquid foods can often help
to make sure the corals are getting all the nutrition
that they require to really thrive and do their best.
And sometimes but not often, we dose the aquarium
with additives that help to remove
or control unwanted pollutants.
A really good example of this would be something
like using lanthanum chloride to remove phosphate,
not something most of us would need to do
and typically considered an advanced approach
but another reason why somebody might be dosing
their reef tank.
So does that mean every reef aquarium needs to be dosed
with all of these different types of additives?
Definitely not.
For the vast majority of reef aquariums,
adding bacteria when the tank is started
and dosing two-part additives for calcium and alkalinity
is often enough, especially if you're using
a high-quality reef salt for small, periodic water changes.
If you're focusing on keeping soft corals and avoid LPS
and SPS corals altogether, you may not even need
to dose calcium and alkalinity
since they consume so little of it.
Water changes with a quality reef salt just might be enough
to keep those levels within a safe range.
But to truly know what you need to dose,
you need to test your water.
Before you start dosing your tank with any additives,
it's really important to know what the current levels
of those elements are in your aquarium.
For example, if you don't know how much calcium
is currently in the water to start with,
even if you dose following the directions
on the bottle of calcium additive,
you may not be adding enough back to the tank
or you could actually end up adding way too much,
which can also be really risky for your aquarium.
By testing, you'll know exactly how much of an additive
you need to add and how often it needs to be added
to keep it within that safe range.
Dosing additives blindly is never recommended.
So just avoid it altogether and test first.
Testing your aquarium water isn't difficult at all
and there are some specific test kits
that I like to use because, well, I'm pretty lazy.
But also, I only use test kits
that are easy to use and give accurate results.
And there are five test kits that I use and love
that cover the most common parameters
that reefers are testing for and I'll tell you exactly
what makes them so dang awesome in this video right here.
(upbeat music)