No dose tank pics

[themcnertney]

Hello.

As some may know, I do not dose my tank. I have a 220 gallon mixed reef w/75 gallon sump. My tank is a mixed reef of sps, lps, softies, and inverts. My tank success is due to weekly water changes using Kent Marine salt of 50 gallons. I have experimented in the past with trying different ideas and theories, but I always resort back to water changes. I don't test my water. I typically can tell just by looking at the tank when something is wrong. When something does go wrong, I tend to fix any issue with small frequent water changes until the tank gets back on track. I am looking for others to chime in on their experiences and see their tanks.

Thanks, Dan

 

[themcnertney]

Here is my tank...

 

[DSC reef]

This has always fascinated me Dan, tank looks great.

 

[Jake270]

Looks to me like your doing something right. I also don't dose anything and just look to my tank to tell me when something is wrong. I get good growth from all of my corals, I do feed them though. Have lost a few but who hasn't. I could probably get better growth with dosing but then again maybe not. All those anemones! makes me want one so bad but I wouldn't sleep.

 

[andrewkw]

First off let me say there is nothing wrong with doing things how you're doing them your tank is beautiful and your maintenance schedule is working for now. Just keep in mind there may come a day when your corals grow enough your 50 gallon water changes are not going to be enough. You could increase to lets say 100 but you could also add a couple hundred ml of 2 part vs 100 new gallons of saltwater. Normally I wouldn't comment like this but for the past couple of weeks I've been helping a friend with a mixed reef tank who had never tested her water and just did water changes and everything from sps to softies were doing good. She added a lot more sps plus had a lot of growth and things stopped growing and started to decline. Despite increasing her water changes her dkh fell to about 6 despite using high alkalinity reef crystals salt. She didn't lose that much but now that she is doing some simple dosing things are improving without the need for a crazy amount of water changes.

You may be able to tell if something is wrong by looking at the tank, but if you even occasionally test you can tell when something is headed in the wrong direction before it gets there. Not trying to sound preachy or say you have to go out buy this and that, just telling my own experience helping someone who runs a tank the same way.

 

[stevepaynr84]

Firstly let me say that your tank lools stunnimg. I don't dose mine either and do weekly water changes. I find I'm very hit and miss with corals. Some thrive some die almost instantly this can even be with identical corals but not convinced dosing anything would make much difference to this. I tend to find my growth is slow but steady and to be honest I can live with that.

 

[themcnertney]

I was hesitant about the not testing comment to focus more on the not dosing, but I suppose dosing and testing are married hand and hand.

 

[HB AL]

I do the opposite, no water changes and I dose.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Great thread idea!

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

At the end of the day, our tanks need a certain set of parameters to be within certain ranges. If you have mostly softies, LPS and a few SPS, then water changes alone might keep these parameters within certain ranges without additional calcium, carbonate alkalinity or magnesium. However, if you have a tank full of quickly-growing SPS, it's unlikely that you'll be getting away with just water changes. Because of the high demand, the tanks parameters are likely to fall out of range faster than water changes can replace the elements.

I'd also challenge the notion that you are not dosing anything. Often, people say "I don't dose anything, I just do water changes!" Dosing by definition is adding a solution with a high concentration of a certain element to a solution that has a low concentration of that element, with the end goal of increasing overall concentration of that element. Doesn't that describe a water change? Is not a water change simply dosing seawater with more minerals with the overall goal of increasing the mineral content of your tank? This ignores exporting of nutrients, which water changes also do. But changing water with the express goal of increasing mineral content is, technically speaking, dosing. You're adding a more concentrated solution to a less concentrated solution to increase overall concentration.

Each reefer is welcome to run their tank how they please. I just personally never understood why the goal of so many reefers is to never test anything or dose anything. Testing takes about 10 minutes for the big three with Salifert test kits, and a $45 worth of Salifert test kits will likely last you a year or more. Plus, water changes are a relatively poor way to maintain elements. To raise the calcium levels in your 220g tank by 10ppm, you would need to dose 225ml of BRS liquid calcium additive. To make the same increase with water changes, you'd need to change almost 87 gallons of water, and that's if your salt mix mixes up to 450ppm calcium. To me, dumping 87 gallons of good saltwater down the drain to avoid 10 minutes of testing and dosing 225ml of concentrated supplement seems like a bit of a waste.

 

[ReefWithCare]

I imagine water changes frequently is more expensive long term to dosing?

For those who does - how often are you making water changes? I hear a lot of hobbyist not doing water changes often after they hit the 2 year mark.

 

[HB AL]

I stopped doing water changes around 6 months ago, and havnt seen any negative effects. Having so many corals water changes only would not keep up with demand.

 

[themcnertney]

So I think what some are saying is that in high demand tanks, say all sps, water changes alone wouldn’t suffice? Consistency and routine are key in this hobby. I think that even if you keep the high demand sps, if let’s say alk is low, as long as it stays consistently low then so be it. I think it’s the large swings that play more a roll, the biggest reason I love my larger sized tank.

 

[ou12004]

A lack of consistency is one of the biggest reasons I see people fail in reefing. I do a weekly 10% water change and top off with kalk. Same routine every week and my tank does great. I tried to test and dose and chase parameters but I ended up killing thousands of dollars worth of coral because I did not have the knowledge to do it correctly, despite many hours researching how to do it. I was trying to take my tank to the next level and set myself back a couple of years instead. I am slowly adding SPS back into the tank and will just aim for slow steady growth and will not be testing.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

I always like to read different ways people keep successful tanks. For me doing large water changes is a lot more work than dosing Ca, Alk, and Mg. Occasionally I add iodine as well, but this is due to the fact I do almost no water changes. I am impressed with the way you guys are able to maintain a diligent WC schedule. IMHO testing regardless of how you want to get the elements into your tank is a good idea. I don't ever recommend chasing parameters, but knowledge of where your baseline is can help avoid a catastrophic situation.

 

[themcnertney]

As kind of explained earlier, I stopped chasing numbers. I see many hobbyist doing this and I think it causes more harm then good. In my ten or so years doing this, chasing numbers never got me the results I was after. The only thing that did is having clean RO/DI with the addition of a great brand of salt (Kent Marine). I think if you find a brand of salt that meets your needs, this alone can sustain high demand tank with large demanding coral.

 

[themcnertney]

A lack of consistency is one of the biggest reasons I see people fail in reefing.

Well said

 

[User1]

Multiple ways of skinning the cat (prz don't call PETA - no cats have been harmed!!!). I personally believe water changes with larger tanks are expensive unless one is near the sea and can use NSW. At least for me in my current situation with two in college and living in California (cyclical water, weather, drought, and politics). So for me additive based reef keeping is what I'm researching with my 210 gallon mixed reef.

Then again the person sitting on my other shoulder is saying...but Scott - you can buy in bulk, and on sale, and the cost isn't an issue. Yes, that is correct Mr. other person/conscious on my other shoulder. But I still have the waste water of RI/RO to deal with. Other person says but...you can use it to water your plants, lawn, or other things you big dummy....

Great looking tank BTW and glad it is working. I wouldn't see why it wouldn't if one has good husbandry skills which you clearly have Keep up the great work!

 

[Redleg]

What kind of filtering are you doing. Skimmer,filter socks, refugium, algae reactor? Just curious if you are using any other nutrient removal besides water changes.

 

[themcnertney]

What kind of filtering are you doing. Skimmer,filter socks, refugium, algae reactor? Just curious if you are using any other nutrient removal besides water changes.

Great question(s).
One very large Coral Vue Diablo DCS Series In-Sump DCS250 protein skimmer in my refugium with a nice large section for cheato.
No filter sock, no algae reactor, no carbon reactor, no reactors; really nothing, pretty simple setup.