Am I ready for a LPS?

[Natescorals]

Hey I saw you mentioned something about the tropic Marin all for reef supplement are you planning on dosing that?

 

[Fishbro]

Hey I saw you mentioned something about the tropic Marin all for reef supplement are you planning on dosing that?

If I have to I was planning on dosing it in the future when I have a lot of LPS but If my Alk really is 7.3 then I’m gonna start dosing it.

 

[Natescorals]

If I have to I was planning on dosing it in the future when I have a lot of LPS but If my Alk really is 7.3 then I’m gonna start dosing it.

Okay I wouldn’t dose that yet unless you know for sure alkalinity is at 7. Your calcium is also in the higher range. If I were you I’d switch over to instant ocean. And stop using reef crystals. I think they add synthetic stuff to reef crystals that the corals don’t really like. Instant ocean seems more natural. Also with instant ocean you could start dosing the all for reef when you get into the LPS. The all for reef has trace elements that really help benefit everything in the tank. With reef crystals you can’t really dose all for reef. Since the alk is wayy too high

 

[Natescorals]

I use instant ocean and I dose tropic Marin alkalinity and calcium and all for reef my corals love it

 

[Fishbro]

Okay I wouldn’t dose that yet unless you know for sure alkalinity is at 7. Your calcium is also in the higher range. If I were you I’d switch over to instant ocean. And stop using reef crystals. I think they add synthetic stuff to reef crystals that the corals don’t really like. Instant ocean seems more natural. Also with instant ocean you could start dosing the all for reef when you get into the LPS. The all for reef has trace elements that really help benefit everything in the tank. With reef crystals you can’t really dose all for reef. Since the alk is wayy too high

Ok yeah I definitely wouldn’t dose unless I knew it was 7. I think I will switch over to just IO but I’m probably can use the rest of the reef crystals box at least.

 

[Natescorals]

I only dose it twice or 3 times a week. After a water change I won’t really need it

 

[Fishbro]

I only dose it twice or 3 times a week. After a water change I won’t really need it

Do you also use all for reef? How do you like it if you do?

 

[Natescorals]

Do you also use all for reef? How do you like it if you do?

it works really well.. especially with instant ocean. if your using the tropic marin salt then you need to get the balling part A. and the part B the adjust the alkalinity. But the tropic marin salt is so much cleaner and more pure. If you really want to make your corals happy you should do that

 

[Fishbro]

it works really well.. especially with instant ocean. if your using the tropic marin salt then you need to get the balling part A. and the part B the adjust the alkalinity. But the tropic marin salt is so much cleaner and more pure. If you really want to make your corals happy you should do that

Ok if I did switch to Tropic Marine why would I have to use the Balling Parts A and B?

 

[Fishbro]

Oh never mind you said to adjust the alkalinity.

 

[Natescorals]

Ok if I did switch to Tropic Marine why would I have to use the Balling Parts A and B?

Because tropic marin salt has an alkalinity of 7-8 range. But its alot cleaner than instant ocean

 

[Natescorals]

So once you start getting more LPS than your alk will drop too low. LPS like higher alkalinity like 9-10 range. SPS like alkalinity to be 7-8

 

[Fishbro]

I think I'm gonna go with the regular IO and dose if necessary. Nate, when you dose Tropic Marine are you dosing to up all three elements or just specifically Alk?

 

[Natescorals]

I think I'm gonna go with the regular IO and dose if necessary. Nate, when you dose Tropic Marine are you dosing to up all three elements or just specifically Alk?

So basically with instant ocean when I do a water change it puts my alkalinity at around 10dkh. And calcium is around 420. After about the 3rd or 4th day alk will drop to about 8 and calcium goes to almost 380 so I’ll dose a tiny bit of all for reef on the 3rd or 4th day after water change up until the next water change. About 2 or 3ml of all for reef. That keeps things stable and parameters aren’t shifting all around. Keeps my alk and calcium magnesium and other trace elements stable. I will dose 2 or 3 times a week til the next water change.

 

[Natescorals]

When I add more LPS or if they start consuming more than I’ll adjust dosage accordingly. You just gotta keep testing.

 

[Natescorals]

One thing corals hate is sudden huge adjustments. They like things kept stable all the time. They hate change

 

[OrangeCountyReefer]

100% fine. Watch reef builders video on youtube of him adding all sorts of corals on the first day he put a tank together, it may ease your mind a bit. Run all 3 of the biocube light settings at the same time to get max PAR out of them. So run the moonlight, daylight, and sunrise/sunset settings all at once.

 

[Fishbro]

Yep was definitely user error. I made sure I was testing precisely today and I got:
Calcium: 425
Magnesium: 1250
Alkalinity: 10.2
So I think that resolves it haha.

 

[senorsancho]

Alright umm try to keep alkalinity around 9 I think that's a good number to stick with and then just try to keep it as stable as you can so it doesn't drop drastically over time! Calcium and mag should be fine! Just go off of alkalinity first and make sure that's in check and you should have no problem keeping those lps happy!! They're really not that difficult compared to soft corals and most are forgiving!