Adding Chemicals to Tank????

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kjord97

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 21, 2005
Messages
42
Location
chaptico, md
So hear i am talkin to my buddy at the LFS here in virgina. I ask him, how does his pom pom's xenia and all his leathers grow so fast and spread? I mean his saltwater show reef tank at the store is very beautiful, everything grows so fast and is so healthy. He said it is all about the way you dose your chemicals, and add your freshwater. Stated that xenia's will slow there growth down alot when there is a big change in salinaty if freshwater is added to fast. I told him about every 3 days i just dump a gallon of freshwater slowly over a powerhead. I here that is not good. I also asked about how he added chemicals. I told him i added my chemicals, ie. calcium, iodine, etc, by filling cap and dumpin slowly over powerhead every few days as needed. that is if you use liquid chemicals like i do. He said big no no again. Told me to get or make an aqua doser. Also to switch to powder chemicals, all i would need is calk and strotium. He said alternate them every week, calk one week and strotium the next. Also i can use the aqua drip to refil my tank everyday with freshwater. Told me to try it for a month, and i would see a wonderful difference. I was just cuiour how you guys add your chem's and do your freshwater adds. I know someone in our club has POM POM's in there nano, and they spread like crazy, i have the same POM POM's but they have only branched 2 or 3 times. Please let me know, and i am going to try the aqua doser way and see how it goes.
 
everyone's tank is different. Water parameters, the need for topping off evaporation and the need for dosing chemicals is different for every tank and depends on its size, the life forms inside and any number of other factors.

A dosing pump for additives will help once you've established a solid and stable aquarium. Until then, you should only dose as much as your tests tell you to. Even once your stable enough to use a dosing pump I would still reccomend frequent testing to be sure you don't overdose.

I would agree with his comments on not needing to dose iodine. that can be replenished just through normal water changes witha good salt mix.

I'm not sure why he would suggest dry additives over liquid... and how is he using dry additives if he's using a dosing pump...? did he offer any other information about why dry over liquid?
 
My reef tank is a 125 gallon, been established for about 1 year 9 months. everything looks happy, but i have seen very little growth. I dont even have alot of coraline algae on the glass. My shrimps shed about every other month, and my frogspawns grow like crazy, but everything else in tank, just stays the same. I was lookin at a dose drip system. He had said if you add your chemicals to fast you could burn things in the tank, and if you add freshwater to fast, you change the salinaty to fast. the main reason, he told me to go with powder, is the cost effeciency, and the amount you use. You just mix up a solution of powder in water, put in container and drip it in.
 

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cost savings is valid if you're dosing a LOT of additives. For the evaporation, there are a number of auto-top off solutions available. Check around our DIY section for some insight. These auto-top-off solutions will keep your evaporation replacement down to a minimum amount of fresh water at a time.

I don't have much experience with propigating corals so most of the advice I can offer on that would be speculation on my part.

does your system have a sump? it might be something to consider to allow you to dose and adjust without adding things directly to the display.

Also... how about feeding? what do you feed your tank?
 
I have a 175 gallon reef. I replace 5 gallons a day. I dump it into the sump all at one time as this is the only way I can do this. I take roughly 75.00 worth of store credit xenia each month to my LFS.

I guess my next question is what and why are you dosing? Water changes will replace everything that you need. As has been mentioned here in many other threads, unless you are testing for what you are dosing, you really shouldnt. It is quite easy to overdo and throw everything out of balance. I really do not see much in your tank that would consume high quanitities of anything.
 
wow 5 gallons a day, is that saltwater or you toppin off with freshwater. I only do a 5 gallon water change every 2 weeks, as that is what i have always been told to do. My nitrate, nitritie, ammonia, and ph all stay perfect. I top off about every 2 days with freshwater, put i was doing this just by adding to the main tank, now i started something new today, i took a gallon jug full of freshwater and i am letting it drip in over a powerhead. I run the largest CPR hang on tank refugium you can get. I also have a seclone 150 protein skimmer. I have 5 inches of sand and about 120lbs live rock, some rock is 4 years old, other is 4 months old. As far as feeding the tank, they get pytoplex once a week and cyclopeeze evey 3 days. My fish and inverts get marine cusine food and the ocasional flake. I know that i dont over feed, as the tank only gets someonething once a day in the evenin, it is always gone before you know it. I suppose also i can say that my bubble tip anenomes have split 9 times in last year. Something must be going right. The salt i use is instant ocean Reef crystals, have no choice in matter ( i won 12 cases of the salt at MACNA this past month) Thank you for the advice.
 
i replace my water from evaporation and saltwater for waterchanges by attaching airline to my powerhead venturi and siphoning out of a pitcher. it takes about 30 minutes to replace water after a 15% WC in my 15g nanoreef. it's slow, but i'm gonna put a valve on the airline to slow it some more.
 
I replace about 8-10 gallons a day in my tank over a 3 hour period. kjord97: To answer your question ...It is freshwater (RO/DI) I have only started using calcium supplement recently since I changed from Oceanic to IO salt. I add nothing else. (got a deal on 10,000 gal of IO salt)
 
Opinions are like armpits, We have two of them and they both stink. It`s rough when someone thinks they have a corner on how to do something. We all have different ways to do things and hopefully we have learned something over the many + years we `ve been doing this. But to all this I still say "Bring on the opinions". Have a good day
 
it is freshwater that I am replacing, you do not do top offs with salt water or you will end up with water that is way too salty. Unless I missed it somewhere, I still do not see what you are dosing or why..
 
What kind of water are you using? IMO ro/di is a must have... There are tanks out there that can do well with tap but they are very very few.
Nothing should be added to your tank unless you test first. Do you test? and if so what are your readings. Calcium and alkalinity are the only things I add to my reef and my tank is doing very well. Check out my gallery.
What kind of lights are those? I have friends who have mH lighting and there coraline grows very slow, Im not saying it impossible to get coraline with MH it just seems to grow slower with the bright light. Maybe some different bulbs may help out.
My tank took about 1.5-2 years till things started to pop and the coraline took off. And I tested daily and added my 2 part B-Ionic cal and alk additives. From what I read you need to keep the calcium and alkalinity in balance for the coraline and some corals to grow well.
I used DT's for a few years now I use liquid life coral plankton.
 
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