sps without dosing

bonomo53 · Jul 14, 2011

so since my tank transfer 3 months ago i have not dosed any ca or alk in my tank.. i have 11 different pieces of sps but most of them are frags.. i do 10% water changes every week and my ca and alk are mostly right on but can be high sometimes but anyway i feel like dosing is the most difficult aspect of this hobby so i was just wondering if anybody has gotten by with just water changes on a tank with mostly sps. right now iam running a small tank its only 57 gallons is it possible.. if not what is the easiest way to maintain correct levels..

Troylee · Jul 14, 2011

well weekly wc will keep them alive and they will most likely always look great but you will have slow growth.... with out a daily or every other day dose to keep that swing as little as possible they won't thrive and take off.....that's been my exp anyways.... what you could do is top off with kalk and prolly cure any little swing you might get in between your weekly wc and see great results...

m and m · Jul 14, 2011

Right now you might be able to replace what the corals use, but in a few months when they grow you might have to dose. Right now the corals are only using "x" amount of Cal/alk/mag and there all a inch big. When they are two inches big the demand for cal/alk/mag might be "X" now and then new "X" might be more then you replace each week in a water change. So the first three months you might be fine because your ALK is dropping slow but it will eventually hit a point where corals will die. IMHO a reef so young your best bet would be spend the 150 get some quality test kits and dosing solutions. Do a water change once a week then in 3-4 days test and dose to get the parameters in your range you want them then retest to make sure they are there a few hours after dosing.

soccerbag · Jul 14, 2011

Agree with posters above. You could purchase some cheap dosers (Marine Depot or Bulk Reef Supply) and have the dosers do the work for you. As SPS grow, you will need to keep up with the growing demands for the big 3. And they will consume these elements faster than you can do water changes.