Growing corals successfully is as easy as 1, 2 and 3!

[KrisReef]

Back in school they taught us that people’s basic needs are 3:
Food,
Clothing,
Shelter.

There must be an analogy with what Dana said, but I can’t make it, but might add that water temperature impacts chemistry and life in our tanks.

 

[Seminoles76]

K

Yes of course but I feel like corals can adapt to lighting and flow better than the big three. You agree?

I agree with you. I think coral inhabitants are going to adapt to less than optimal lighting or flow well before they will adapt to fluctuations of the big three. You can have a single Alk swing that can wreak havoc. I could cut my lighting schedule by 50% and maybe never see any detrimental effect.

 

[jda]

When adjusted for reefers and people, I put them in this order, assuming competence (not perfection) in all,... lighting (coral food), water movement and then water parameters. It is easy/easier for people to get water movement right and most people over do it most of the time - "just add a pump" works for most people. Lighting is harder and a lot of people think that they are lighting their tank well when they are probably deficient in one way or another. Water parameters are easy to get into a competent range, but harder to keep them there constantly. The difference in a perfect water parameter tank and a competent one is not one that I can notice, but I can notice a tank with substandard lighting.

My water parameters can swing quite a bit and nothing notices. I had an alk drop from mid-6 to about 4.0 last year (twice, hangs head in embarassment) and nothing cared when I brought it back up to 6.x with baking soda in about 2 minutes. I do have some of the best possible lighting, though. Alk or other parameter swings did not destroy tanks a decade or two ago like they do now with people under lighting their tanks or using cut-spectrum lighting... this is a pretty new phenonomen in the hobby.

 

[MnFish1]

When adjusted for reefers and people, I put them in this order, assuming competence (not perfection) in all,... lighting (coral food), water movement and then water parameters. It is easy/easier for people to get water movement right and most people over do it most of the time - "just add a pump" works for most people. Lighting is harder and a lot of people think that they are lighting their tank well when they are probably deficient in one way or another. Water parameters are easy to get into a competent range, but harder to keep them there constantly. The difference in a perfect water parameter tank and a competent one is not one that I can notice, but I can notice a tank with substandard lighting.

My water parameters can swing quite a bit and nothing notices. I had an alk drop from mid-6 to about 4.0 last year (twice, hangs head in embarassment) and nothing cared when I brought it back up to 6.x with baking soda in about 2 minutes. I do have some of the best possible lighting, though. Alk or other parameter swings did not destroy tanks a decade or two ago like they do now with people under lighting their tanks or using cut-spectrum lighting... this is a pretty new phenonomen in the hobby.

How do you know that its not people 'overlighting' their tanks now - or using a different spectrum? I would really like to know how you come to any of these 'conclusions' about what the 'average hobbyist' uses/misuses?

How do you reconcile the fact that many people have had alk swings and lots of things have died? how do you reconcile the fact that most places recommend not changing the dKH more than 1/day (yet you did 2 dKH in 2 minutes)? There is a ton of anecdotal information that goes against every one of your points. BTW - lets say your alk had gone from 8 - 10 - and then down from 10 - 8 would that have been different? How did yoru alk get to 4 in the first place?

 

[Dana Riddle]

Back in school they taught us that people’s basic needs are 3:
Food,
Clothing,
Shelter.

There must be an analogy with what Dana said, but I can’t make it, but might add that water temperature impacts chemistry and life in our tanks.

Yes! You are correct - temperature can trump all. Corals and symbionts suffer if temp is too high or too low. Good catch!

 

[User1]

Yes of course but I feel like corals can adapt to lighting and flow better than the big three. You agree?

Corals can't grow in the dark. So no, I wouldn't technically agree. But then again maybe we are talking semantics at this point.

I've seen corals, a brain coral to be specific mixed in with a few softies, as deep as 115' on a wreck dive in Hawaii. Open water dive with clear visibility 125' easy in any direction. But it was a brain coral never the less which surprised me. Didn't expect to see that and it was fat and happy - er - large.

 

[hbrochs]

Stable water
Awesome flow
Light

Of the three Alk, Ca, and Mag, stability of Alk is way more important. You can have a beautiful tank with an Alk of 6, 8, or 11 but it needs to be steady. There are also beautiful tanks with low medium and high nutrients, but many new Reefers have starving Corals because of nutrients that are too low. Flow is something I think many underestimate including me. Light spectrum and par is important for sure, but I feel like many people would put it at #1 and I think it’s less critical.

Lastly I would put detritus control and an observant eye. Good Reefers can tell something is off by the way their Corals look, or by how often they have to clean the glass, or a noise that’s out of place.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Many say water quality but STABLE water quality is essential . In addition to big three, potassium, iodine and Amino acids are a necessity

 

[VA5]

May be obvious but also salinity and pH. Auto top off with RODI and using the same salt mixture.
For what ever reason ( more knowledgeable folks may know) I only achieved good stability after changing lighting to radon’s from a previous under performing light.
Recently got the new gyeres and still trying to figure glow out with them

 

[RJ F.]

I def think Sg should be in that list. Those 3 will absolutely make corals healthy and grow but even with proper lighting, flow, and temp, if our salinity experiences swings... your gonna have a bad time.

Also with most cases proper water changes will help maintain those elements.

 

[shiftline]

Yes they are important but so is lighting and flow. And stability of them all

Corals are like a cranky old man who is set in their ways.. stability of everything is key!

Including temp and salinity which affect other ratios as well!

 

[scriptmonkey]

Little bit more. Stability is a good start on the big three but there is more . There is also Flow, Par, and nutrients.

 

[warlocktitan]

By doing an experimenting with a pico jar project that show water quality is the key, light is secondary and flow is the last.
For flow this pico reef tank only use an air stone as oxygen generator and water moment, lighting is just a good full spectrum that UV, purple 420nm, royal blue 450, blue 460 with 6500K led array at 10W to provide all the light source.

 

[Javier cortes]

When u say stable im having trouble understanding how do i get there and keep it stable anybody help knew to growing corals

 

[siggy]

There must be an analogy with what Dana said, but I can’t make it, but might add that water temperature impacts chemistry and life in our tanks.

Yes! You are correct - temperature can trump all. Corals and symbionts suffer if temp is too high or too low. Good catch!

I was going to say Temp & Salinity need to be stable in order for the big 3 to remain stable, but @KrisReef beat me to it. Now I think ALL things are equally important, almost

When u say stable im having trouble understanding how do i get there and keep it stable anybody help knew to growing corals

Hey welcome to the club @Javier cortes , Why not post a greeting in the Meet and Greet Forum to get started here. There are several threads to discuss that very topic

 

[C-Reefer]

It depends on the coral. I have maintained tanks where alk/calc/mag are crazyyyy, like alk 4, calc 200, and mag 850. He had good lights and his softies were growing like crazy. However, if he tried anything with a skeleton, it was toast. So I'd mainly say lighting and flow first, then parameters.

 

[Hallowhead]

What do you guys use to test the big three?

 

[jgvergo]

What do you guys use to test the big three?

Hanna checkers for Alk and Ca, Salifert for Mg.

 

[ReefGeezer]

What do you guys use to test the big three?

Salifert CA & MG. Hanna Checker for Alk.

 

[Hallowhead]

Hanna checkers for Alk and Ca, Salifert for Mg.

How much does the full setup cost you? You have to be reagents for those checkers regularly right?