Getting to SPS

[Bacon505]

It’s 200 gallons in the DT. I am removing most of the Anthelia next week. My LFS is going to buy them from me. I’ll end up re-homing almost all of the softies isn’t he next few months. I needed a cheap bioload to get started.. just in case I killed everything.

Wow lucky you, if i offer them at my lfs they’ll just stand there and laugh thinking its a joke lol. Your tank look still young, did you seeded with actual live rock? The caribian rock or whatever they call it?
My only advice, skip that small skimmer and get the biggest one you can afford.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

It’s 200 gallons in the DT. I am removing most of the Anthelia next week. My LFS is going to buy them from me. I’ll end up re-homing almost all of the softies isn’t he next few months. I needed a cheap bioload to get started.. just in case I killed everything.

You might also consider selling the mushroom rock to the LFS. Mushrooms are cool, no doubt, but they can also be extremely hard to get rid of when the tank is established and full of stony corals. Ditto for the green star polyps.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

It looks like I am all set to start doing. The pics below show my water parameters as of a few minutes ago. There is also a pic of the 2 Part dosing kit I got from BRS. I’ve watched the videos... done the math on their calculator. I am feeling comfortable. .....with one looming question.

background: 200 gallon. mixed reef, no SPS in tank yet... my water parameters are what my water change, bioload, feeding and all other routines produce on their own.

so, this 2 part dosing kit is really three parts : ) my only question is this... can I “not” dose the Calcium chloride and still dose the soda ash? My calcium is fine at the moment... nothing in my tank is really using it (live rock, coraline, conches and snails in tank) my calcium number never move... I’d like to increase the Alkalinity and Magnesium at a little...

the question might have gotten lost in there... can I skip the calcium chloride for now?

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

It looks like I am all set to start doing. The pics below show my water parameters as of a few minutes ago. There is also a pic of the 2 Part dosing kit I got from BRS. I’ve watched the videos... done the math on their calculator. I am feeling comfortable. .....with one looming question.

background: 200 gallon. mixed reef, no SPS in tank yet... my water parameters are what my water change, bioload, feeding and all other routines produce on their own.

so, this 2 part dosing kit is really three parts : ) my only question is this... can I “not” dose the Calcium chloride and still dose the soda ash? My calcium is fine at the moment... nothing in my tank is really using it (live rock, coraline, conches and snails in tank) my calcium number never move... I’d like to increase the Alkalinity and Magnesium at a little...

the question might have gotten lost in there... can I skip the calcium chloride for now?

I should have made this a new question... and not just added to this thread : )

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

At 438 ppm calcium, I'd dose calcium in proportion to alkalinity. if you wait until it drops substantially, you'll end up dosing what you've been skipping. That's the advantage of a two part: you do not need to be on the roller coaster of parameter changes that used to be the case before such products existed.