dosing is annoying my euphylia?

[AnnaG]

Sounds good. What are you using for lighting? PAR would be great but wattage and intensity along with the length and width of the tank would be helpful.

I wanted to hire a par meter but I'm struggling to find one in Australia. I have a pair of pop bloom lights - the total wattage is 150, both at full intensity. Tank is 1200 x 700mm

 

[Lavey29]

Gotchya. Bc, i really thought this was a dosing issue. Ive had the frogspawn for aa few weeks now, and the whole time it was doing really well (pictured attached). Then in the like 4 days I was dosing It was ticked off, so i stopped and now its back to normal? Ill get
the nutrients right - ill purchase some fish soon and that should help bump up nitrates.

Are you sure about your dosing amount? With only a few corals in the tank there should be very minimal weekly drop in alk and cal and virtually none with magnesium so is 15ml daily the right amount?

 

[JNalley]

Are you sure about your dosing amount? With only a few corals in the tank there should be very minimal weekly drop in alk and cal and virtually none with magnesium so is 15ml daily the right amount?

This is a great question, and I would follow it up with, which test kit(s) are you using for each one? as well as how did you do your initial calculation for the drop in Alk/Ca/Mag. Did you test back to back after 1 day? Did you test 7 days apart? Did you test 14 days apart?

 

[Tcook]

Also for parameters,
Alk- 7
Ca- 400
Mg - 1200
Nitrate - 0.25
Phosphate - 0.1

Was your alkalinity that low when you were dosing? My euphyllia have never done well with low alk. With your coral in question only being in the tank a few weeks it may not be due to the low nutrients but possibly alk swings. How often do you measure alk. Do you have a series of values to see what the swings were?

 

[aggrofish]

Are you sure about your dosing amount? With only a few corals in the tank there should be very minimal weekly drop in alk and cal and virtually none with magnesium so is 15ml daily the right amount?

I think 15ml in a 300l is off. I have a 350l and 10ml increases dkh by .3. Another issue is that rea sea alk is carbonate and increases PH. That could have annoyed the coral, I’m not sure. I use BRS bicarbonate for making bigger changes as it doesn’t spike PH. Just for the record it takes 5x as much BRS solution to achieve the same result. The Red Sea stuff is pretty potent

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Hey, i recently bought a few corals to add to a pretty new CADE 300 litre aquarium. They are all doing great but I've decided to do dosing instead of water changes. I took my baseline readings for a few days and figured out that I lose about 0.3 dkh and 10ppm of calcium per day. So I dosed 15ml of reef foundations A and B each day and got consistent readings. However, I noticed my frogspawn was completely closed up. I have a merulina coral which is much more difficult and picky but that one is doing great. I stopped dosing for a couple of days and the frogspawn is open and fluffy again. What's going on?

Maybe it’s where and how you are dosing. It’s best to dose into very high flow area like power head making sure the particle to not touch and irritate the corals. Most time it’s best to use an auto doser and dose small amounts at a time spreading it out to avoid this also

 

[JNalley]

I think 15ml in a 300l is off. I have a 350l and 10ml increases dkh by .3. Another issue is that rea sea alk is carbonate and increases PH. That could have annoyed the coral, I’m not sure. I use BRS bicarbonate for making bigger changes as it doesn’t spike PH. Just for the record it takes 5x as much BRS solution to achieve the same result. The Red Sea stuff is pretty potent

I'm sure you're aware, but this is for the OP's benefit as much as it is for anyone else reading this. But it's super cheap to buy Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) and really easy to make your own dosing fluid with it. Much cheaper than buying the BRS branded premixed stuff...

 

[aggrofish]

I'm sure you're aware, but this is for the OP's benefit as much as it is for anyone else reading this. But it's super cheap to buy Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) and really easy to make your own dosing fluid with it. Much cheaper than buying the BRS branded premixed stuff...

Yeah the BRS is $8 for a gallon not really worth it for me personally. It’s pretty diluted though so for the time being I just use the Red Sea for everyday dosing. It’s getting pretty spendy and I may end up using one of the recipes on here One of these days.

 

[AnnaG]

Are you sure about your dosing amount? With only a few corals in the tank there should be very minimal weekly drop in alk and cal and virtually none with magnesium so is 15ml daily the right amount?

Yeah i used this calculator reef calc dosing

 

[AnnaG]

This is a great question, and I would follow it up with, which test kit(s) are you using for each one? as well as how did you do your initial calculation for the drop in Alk/Ca/Mag. Did you test back to back after 1 day? Did you test 7 days apart? Did you test 14 days apart?

I used salifert. I measured every 24 hours on the dot to see what my daily uptake was,

Maybe it’s where and how you are dosing. It’s best to dose into very high flow area like power head making sure the particle to not touch and irritate the corals. Most time it’s best to use an auto doser and dose small amounts at a time spreading it out to avoid this also

See that would make sense. I dosed into the sump, where the pump is. first 15ml of KH then 10 mins later, 15ml of Ca. Ill try breaking it up into 3 parts per day. Also not sure about this, but during the day is when the frogpsawn would be irritated, at night it actually seemed good.

 

[AnnaG]

Was your alkalinity that low when you were dosing? My euphyllia have never done well with low alk. With your coral in question only being in the tank a few weeks it may not be due to the low nutrients but possibly alk swings. How often do you measure alk. Do you have a series of values to see what the swings were?

I was measuring alk every day. basically it would fall 0.3dkh each day. it would fall to 6.7 so id get it back up to 7.

 

[Lavey29]

Yeah i used this calculator reef calc dosing

I honestly highly doubt a smaller tank with minimal livestock requires that level of dosing but actually your tank answered your problem for you before you even inquired here. As you stated, your corals responded positively when you stopped dosing so perhaps you need to reevaluate

 

[Lavey29]

Yeah i used this calculator reef calc dosing

To give you some perspective, I have an 80g mixed reef with about 50 corals SPS and LPS. I dose 16ml of alk and cal daily to maintain those parameters.

 

[zdrc]

No, yet everything is looking happy.

OK, so its probably not anything directly related to water changes IMO. It sounds like you didn't even go that long without a water change.

Reef aquarium biomes are complicated, and our testing tools are pretty rudimentary. The corals themselves are perhaps one of the best holistic testing methods we have. The Euphyllia reacted negatively to the dosing, and it's not completely obvious why (at least to me). However, the clear resolution is to stop dosing if you want to keep the Euphyllia. This will probably mean that you will need to resume water changes, which is probably a good thing anyway. You will probably want to raise nitrate too. I would suggest removing waste export methods to do this (e.g. ditch mechanical filtration, chaeto, etc.). You could also does nitrate, but that might lead to problems of it's own.

 

[AnnaG]

To give you some perspective, I have an 80g mixed reef with about 50 corals SPS and LPS. I dose 16ml of alk and cal daily to maintain those parameters.

Water changes wouldn't be an option for me, but yeah, I might dose a little and raise it slowly to a comfortable level. Otherwise you would just continue to lose alk and calcium every day so I need to replenish that somehow. What are you dosing with?

 

[Lavey29]

Water changes wouldn't be an option for me, but yeah, I might dose a little and raise it slowly to a comfortable level. Otherwise you would just continue to lose alk and calcium every day so I need to replenish that somehow. What are you dosing with?

I use bionic 2 part daily and I dose red sea trace elements once a week. But I also do water changes every 2 weeks or so about 15%.

 

[Wasabiroot]

Here is a question that might not have been asked. How did you apply the dose to your tank? (I.e. where, how frequently, what volume, etc)

Edit: leaving this up but I see fordtech has the same idea above

 

[Lavey29]

Here is a question that might not have been asked. How did you apply the dose to your tank? (I.e. where, how frequently, what volume, etc)

Edit: leaving this up but I see fordtech has the same idea above

Good point and also if dosing 2 part you need time between the alk dose and the cal dose.

 

[vetteguy53081]

A/B is likely annoying it as this coral needs meat and not powder or liquids for feeding. Calcium also plays an importance. Hammer corals are more subdued eaters who would benefit from the occasional feeding of a meaty marine food like mysis and brine shrimp.
Euphyllia requires Stable tank conditions, and is intolerant to major swings in water quality, and is sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water. Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400 ppm is just right.
This coral species isn’t terribly picky when it comes to the proper placement in your tank. The trick would really be just to avoid the extremes. Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low. Fast currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps (and getting an infection). Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.
Hammer corals only require a moderate amount of light for photosynthesis and can grow well in the intermediate regions of your tank. Just about any reef LED lighting should be sufficient for most tanks. Reduce white light intensity and get it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps do not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.
I feed mine Mysis 2-3X a week at lower third of tank for placement.

 

[AnnaG]

Here is a question that might not have been asked. How did you apply the dose to your tank? (I.e. where, how frequently, what volume, etc)

Edit: leaving this up but I see fordtech has the same idea above

I would dose 15ml alk and ca in the return pump section in the sump at about 1 or 2pm each day. I would leave 10 minutes in between as recommended, dosing alk first then Ca. The tank including sump is about 300 litres.