Originally Posted by
Discus-n00b
I disagree. Just weekly water changes I can't keep up with the elements my coral use now that they've grown in. Of course I have stonies but still. And obviously I don't let it drop to huge Alk swings or anything as my coral would be white or dead. Hence why my growth has slowed to very minimal to none. I'd still be dosing if real life didn't trump the tank. Like I said I'll 100% be going back to it. The tank was so much more alive and growing with the dosing. Now if we are trying to define NEED then sure, you don't NEED either, but I find the tank will thrive better with both. Early on the dosing is worthless and you can easily keep up with just water changes but if you have corals that really suck down the elements eventually it will get to a point where you're going to get tired of trying to win the race with WCs. The tank CAN live without, I wouldn't do it now given what I've experienced. Those are the types of corners I was talking about cutting earlier. I'd rather spend $100-200 and get a skimmer on the tank to pull out something in between WCs, and spend however minimal much per month or every few months on two part (pennies on kalk as that stuff will last you a lifetime) and get the tank thriving and growing rather than just existing. From a stability standpoint, weekly water changes are going to create much larger swings in numbers than weekly water changes with dosing in between.
I do think most of those additives are pretty useless apart from the general Cal, Alk, Mg. I've seen better colors dosing some aminos before but it dirties up the tank to much to be worth it. And at that point you don't know what is causing the color, the aminos or the nutrient rich water.
Kalk was the last thing I was dosing before I stopped. Switched to Kalk to try it out when my two part ran out. I liked it. Probably going the kalk route when I start dosing again though I want a larger reservoir, dripping it can deplete it fast and if you don't already have another batch ready to go you are SOL. Guess I could mix it in the ATO 5gal, would make it so much easier. I need to get the full advantage of my Apex.