Can you keep a single LPS without dosing?

[Dinwooj]

Hi all,

I have a RedSea Reefer 300 G2 with soft corals only (all doing well). It is my first tank and I know my limitations and want to keep it simple, but would love to have something like a hammer at the top of the rockscape. Is it possible to keep a single LPS coral without dosing, and have the required elements come from a water change every 2 weeks? I understand the need for dosing in tanks with numerous hard corals, but wondered if it would be the same with a low number as well.

 

[CasperOe]

Hi all,

I have a RedSea Reefer 300 G2 with soft corals only (all doing well). It is my first tank and I know my limitations and want to keep it simple, but would love to have something like a hammer at the top of the rockscape. Is it possible to keep a single LPS coral without dosing, and have the required elements come from a water change every 2 weeks? I understand the need for dosing in tanks with numerous hard corals, but wondered if it would be the same with a low number as well.

How often do you test your water now with your current stock? you know better than us the consumption you have from Alk, Cal and Mag whether you can support a ‘higher consumer’..

I can not see you should have a big problem, go ahead and try- and stay on top of your testing to see if you should change your water change schedule to once per week.

Let us know how you get on!

Note: I am currently running a frag tank; mainly with LPS corals in (48 pcs now in various sizes) only replenishing elements using water change with Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt..

 

[BaliReefBox]

my 2 cents is that with water changes you should have no issues

 

[jrill]

Yes

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I think you need to test to find out.
As mentioned above, water changes will replenish the nutrients for just one coral, but, how big is your tank? People with big tanks don't do frequent water changes, thats why they have to dose.

 

[Joe31415]

Agree with the others. Especially if you're using something like Reef Crystals or another salts that runs really high parameters. Small water changes, along with not that much uptake by the few corals will probably keep the parameters propped up just fine.
I've been using Reef Crystals since I started and it was probably a year before I had to start dosing anything at all, and by then I had a lot more than just 1 LPS.

 

[ekandler]

In general I agree you should be fine. I’d buy some all for reef just to have on hand in case you do need to start dosing as you add more corals and the ones you already have grow. Hand dosing AFR is easy, no reason you can’t do that once a week if your water changes aren’t enough to keep up with demand.

Using water changes alone to keep up with parameters is not ideal because it conflicts with nutrient levels. If you have high nutrients and use water changes as an export method, that’s good. If you’re like me and have nearly 0 nutrients due to the amount of coral I have, water changes become more of a task to keep nutrients above 0.

If the water change is your only method of parameter control it could get challenging balancing nutrient requirements and your parameters.