Necessities to keep corals?
- Thread starter PegasisR
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Coralreefer1
Valuable Member
Depends on what coral you plan on growing first of all. Many species of coral have their own distinct husbandry requirements.
Water flow, filtration, water parameters, stability, type of coral and placement, lighting intensity(full spectrum), water changes, type of food, acclimation process, water temperature just to name a few of the variables that will need to be aware of and attentive to when buying corals and maintaining them in a closed system environment.
Water flow, filtration, water parameters, stability, type of coral and placement, lighting intensity(full spectrum), water changes, type of food, acclimation process, water temperature just to name a few of the variables that will need to be aware of and attentive to when buying corals and maintaining them in a closed system environment.
Coralreefer1
Valuable Member
Kalkwasser or a two part product incorporating both together because alkalinity and calcium tend to work in opposite directions where if your calcium level is too high, usually your alkalinity level is low and vice versa. Magnesium is also very important to reef chemistry especially with regards to calcium/alkalinity. Magnesium helps to stabilize and maintain desired levels of calcium and alkalinity.
PatW
2500 Club Member
If you have a fair number of growing SPS colonies, you will see alk and Ca consumption. It is especially important to keep Alk constant. I dose two part. I measure alk daily and dose accordingly. If alk consumption gets to the point where it declines more than 1 DKH per day, you will probably want to use a doser to dose alk on a schedule.
I find that even though I have to measure and dose alk daily, I only measure Ca weekly. Saltwater holds quite a bit of calcium. I can measure and dose it once per week.
I find that even though I have to measure and dose alk daily, I only measure Ca weekly. Saltwater holds quite a bit of calcium. I can measure and dose it once per week.
Ron Reefman
Lets Go Snorkeling!
Reef Squad
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Article Contributor
Tampa Bay Reef Keepers
MAC of SW Florida
Nobody can give you a number for how much water you need to change or how much Ca, alk or Mg you'll need to dose. Every system is different, different sizes, different salts used, different corals, different amounts of coral, different brands of Ca, alk and Mg to be added...
If you don't have much coral, you only need to do water changes to bring your Ca, alk and Mg up to a safe level. So salts are barely up to that level and you'll need to do a bigger water change. Some salts have higher Ca, alk and Mg levels and you won't have to do as big a water change.
If you want to dose you need to test Ca, alk and Mg to see what your current levels are and then dose to get them where you want them. That gets calculated by how big your system is (gallons of water in tank and sump), what your current levels are, what you want the levels to be and what brand of chemicals you will use to dose. Here is the reef chemistry calculator I use:
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html
I have a 40g tank and a 40g sump/refugium and it's mostly zoas and anemones with just a few lps and sps corals. I test weekly and end up dosing my Ca from around 400 to 425, alk from 7dKH to 9dKH. I only test Mg every 2 or 3 months and dose it up from around 1300 to 1500. High Mg like 1500 isn't required, but it isn't harmful to anything in the tank.
Coralreefer1
Valuable Member
Yes to water changes and dose
magnesium
Yes Red Sea coral pro has elevated levels of calcium alkalinity and magnesium. I’d say 10%weekly changes with a few softies like zoas is perfect I do 10% weekly changes no dosing needed yet and I can keep 2 birds nest colony’s in my 55g. Keep in mind though I am testing my parameters weekly to make sure I don’t need to change my plan.
