Alright. So it was time to start my dosing regiment. Now after going over how I did things with past tanks I determined that that process cost to much. I dosed a lot of different things to avoid products like Coral Snow and Reef Roids. I didn't want to have 6 or 7 bottles of product lying around and I didn't want to incur another $100 a month in maintenance. So after poking around for a bit and talking to the LFS guys here in Red Deer I decided to go with the ATI 2 Part Complete Dosing System.
This stuff is kinda impressive. Majorly covers the main Calcium/Magnesium/Alk/Potassium requirements but also claims to cover another 21 elements on top of that. So after some reading and research I determined that I am going to try this route.
So I am currently dosing at 3.5mL non diluted of each bottle each day starting today. According to the instructions, I am to monitor my Alk and Calcium everyday at the same time to determine if I need to raise or lower my dosing. So at day one my Alk is at 11.5 dKh and Calcium is at 500ppm. Dosed 3.5 ml of each part. So tomorrow we shall check again to see what I need to modify. Very interesting stuff.
If this product works out then it will drastically reduce my requirements for supplements and water changes. Plus at the max recommended dose for my tank at full stock it would take 4.5 months for me to drain these bottles. But I'm no where near that. Currently it will take me a year and half to drain them. Damn, that's cost effective at $90 for both of the bottles.
I do not believe that these will be the ultimate cure all for every requirement for the coral. Will still need to direct feed coral their favorites like mysis/phyto. And I might have to add specific trace elements to help certain corals along. But at least I will not need all the bottles I had in the past.
In the meantime, enjoy a pic of me playing with my camera and Xmas tree lighting.
