Working Out Dosing

Working Out Dosing

By Shane Danger Coleman, MAFAresource (Marine Aquarium Fanatics Resource)
https://www.facebook.com/MAFAresource/

I've been asked a few times recently how to work out dose rates to set a dosing pump or even hand dosing daily. This is what I do, others may have different ways? This works for me. Please find attached a table of Parameters to use as a guide & a link to the online dosing calculator I use. 

• Step 1
  Test the parameters you want to focus on, let's just say Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium (CAM) for short. If your readings are low/high then proceed to step 2. If they are spot on then proceed to step 3. 
• Step 2
  Too Low? Buffer them up using the directions on the bottle of your desired dosing supplement or by using the online reef dosage calculator in the link http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html Too high? Wait for them to deplete by raising the lower levels slightly to achieve stability in order to lower them all evenly. OR, do a few water changes.  If this fails then look at the method of testing and the quality of the test kits.
• Step 3
  So you have your tank spot on? Good work.... Now feed it and care for just as you would normally but DO NOT dose any supplement that will affect the levels of CAM for a whole week (7 days). That's pretty easy, sit back for a week.
• Step 4
  Your week long holiday has come to an end... Now test the CAM levels again, you should have noticed a drop in these parameters. If not then you either have no corals, kept dosing during the last week or you stuffed the tests up. Now open up the online dosing calculator or read the back of your supplement bottles to determine how much you need to dose to raise your parameters to the right spot.
• Step 5
  You should now have a tank that's 7 days starved of supplements and a few numbers written down from the dosing calculator that tell you how much to dose. But don't dump all that in right away! That's called a parameter swing! Do it slowly over a week. To dose it safely, divide the amount by 7 for a daily dose. But while you are dosing that daily amount your tank will still be using the CAM so you'll need to double the daily dose for just one week then the following week and every week after that will be the original daily dose. I'll write a hypothetical formula below to help you understand.
• Step 6
  Keep testing weekly!!! As you add more coral and as your corals grow they will use more CAM so you will need to make adjustment doses and occasionally reprogram the dosing pump. 

Hypothetical Calcium Dosing Formula. 

• Step 1
  You have a 500L system. Test for Calcium reads 350ppm
• Step 2
  Adjust calcium with desired product to 425ppm
• Step 3
  Wait a week 
• Step 4
  Retest for calcium reads 400ppm. Using the dosing calculator you are to dose 337.9ml of Randy’s recipe #1. 
• Step 5
  Divide 337.9ml by 7 = 48.27ml PER DAY.
• Step 6
  Double the daily dose to 96.54ml for 1 week (7 days) 
• Step 7
  Revert to the original daily dose of 48.27ml per day on the 8^th day and keep dosing that. 
• Step 8
  Keep dosing and keep testing weekly to ensure the dosing is accurate.