SPS noticeable change

[dave57]

Hello fellow reefers, I know many of us strive for stability in our tanks. As stability is the golden bullet in keeping sps happy. I wanted to make a list of specific changes done to our reefs that had a positive noticeable change on our sps. Whether it increased polyp extension, color, growth or anything that made you think hmmm the coral looks happier..

One change I can think about that caused me to have that “wow” moment the next day was a small water change.. next day I woke up the corals all looked perkier. Sometimes we don’t notice the subtle changes as we look at our tanks on a daily basis. Not having changed the water for a while probably depleted some elements overtime, that water change really made me have that “wow” moment.. what a difference..

 

[Reeferdood]

Not a water change fanatic so adding elements is what helps keep my system solid. This method has worked wonderfully for me for years but it is not for everyone. I am sure you will get a lot of different opinions on this topic.

 

[jda]

As far as trace elements go, adding them does not "perk coral up." Think of this as "letting them diminish damages coral." Think of this not like "vitamin C can fix scurvy" but more along the lines of "keep a balanced diet and never get scurvy." You can do this by changing water, or keep up on your additions.

I do change water somewhat routinely that is sometimes more consistent than others. I have a CaRx which adds in a bunch of macro and micro elements. I dose nothing else. Other than this, high quality lighting has been the most important thing to take my acropora to the next level, but the water is fine.

When I kept more Zoas, I would get melting and death of some of the harder-to-keep kinds if I slacked off on water changes for long. This is pretty common, I think. Most never even notice and just think that they cannot keep those kinds.

 

[jda]

BTW - I change water because I am cheap and lazy. There are some methods like Dutch Synthetic Reefing and Triton that do not change water, but they cost more and are a lot more work than just changing some water. $8 for 50 gallons of water to change and a few minutes to get some water into a container, a few minutes to mix and doctor up the mix, and then a few minutes a few days later to change the water with pumps and hoses (no buckets or spills). This is as cheap and easy as it gets. I can change 300-400 gallons of water for what a single ICP test costs.

The only no-water-change method that is less work than changing water is just doing nothing. Triton, DSR and the like all take time and effort.

 

[dave57]

BTW - I change water because I am cheap and lazy. There are some methods like Dutch Synthetic Reefing and Triton that do not change water, but they cost more and are a lot more work than just changing some water. $8 for 50 gallons of water to change and a few minutes to get some water into a container, a few minutes to mix and doctor up the mix, and then a few minutes a few days later to change the water with pumps and hoses (no buckets or spills). This is as cheap and easy as it gets. I can change 300-400 gallons of water for what a single ICP test costs.

The only no-water-change method that is less work than changing water is just doing nothing. Triton, DSR and the like all take time and effort.

Do you believe in time water changes would not meet the demands of your tank requiring you to dose or supplement trace elements? I know you mentioned you run a CARX.. but for the people who don’t have a calcium reactor do you think one would benefit from dosing traces?

 

[jda]

CaRx does more than the big 3... it also puts in strontium, mylob, potassium (according to carib sea) and everything else that was uptook when the media was being created in the ocean. Beyond this, I just do some mostly regular water changes. That is all.

I am pretty old school and do not like to add anything that I cannot test for.