Dosing......Minus the volume of LR?

[SeeDemTails]

Should you minus the volume of LR in your tank when calculateing you dosing? I have always wondered and figured I would ask!

 

[melosu58]

I dont know weekly PWC`s take care of my tank. No dosing needed. If you are going to dose then under dosing is always best.

 

[roka64]

I agree with melosu58, consistant PWC should replenish the depleted nutrience. I believe at least one exception to this rule, is if you have coral "overload", as in, your corals suck up more nutrience than are in the tank...but, I believe if this were the case, more frequent PWCs would probably work just as well.
If you mean stuff like, zoe/selcon and other food additives, just go with the volume of the tank.

 

[SeeDemTails]

I have been using kent nano reef for my nano tank for some time, and my corals are doing well. My SPS frag (Purple Tip Acro, A. Vaughani or something!?) has done very well in less than 2 months it has good growth.

The bottle says 2 drops per gal.....whish would be 20 drops for my tank, but I have lots of LR so I only put 15 drops in, and all seems well, for almost a year now. I took my water to my LFS and had them check the strontium, magnesium, iodine and calcium and the dude said everything is where it needs to be.

 

[MT79]

The bottle says 2 drops per gal

They don't know whether you have one coral or ten, amount of LR, etc., etc. If you have stoney corals or clam(s), especially SPS, you should monitor the CA/Alk values and calculate the daily usage of both. This will allow you to keep water parameters optimal and steady. This dosing calculator may help make things easier- http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/chemcalc.html
FWIW I prefer two part ionically balanced CA and Alk additives such as B-Ionic or the Aqua-C brand. They also contain other neccesary elemets such as magnesium, etc. in appropriate portions to each other.

Should you minus the volume of LR in your tank when calculateing you dosing?

LR takes up space and therefore affects the systems total volume of water. It should be taken into account when dosing. There is a calculator some where online that gives an approx. amount of water that X amount of LR displaces. I'll post it if I find it.

 

[melosu58]

I took my water to my LFS and had them check the strontium, magnesium, iodine and calcium and the dude said everything is where it needs to be.

This could easily be done with PWC`s.