Average Alk/Ca consumption?

[nmotz]

This question is hard to answer I know, but I'm looking for a few responses anyway just as a reference point.

I have a 40B with about 10 SPS colonies. Most of them are 1-2" inch frags with one larger monti cap and a green birdsnest (about 3" across). Growth has always been very slow in my tank. Corals live, but don't color up very much either. My monti cap was about 1 square inch, and in about 10 months has grown to a circular shape about 2.5" across. Like I said, slow.

Anyways, I feel like my alk/ca consumption is really low and that makes sense with the slow growth of my corals. I just wanna know how much other people add to their tanks on a daily basis. I add about 5ml of each per day and that seems to do the trick. I do water changes of 2-3 gallons once per week. Also, what is the average growth rate for SPS corals like monti caps and seriatopora sp?

 

[offdahooklikeoj]

I have a 80 gallon, all SPS. During the first year or so I was adding maybe 20 to 25ml daily with dosing pumps to maintain 7.5dkh while all frags were still encrusting the frag plugs. Once everything truly settled in and growth took off the consumption went to about 50ml a day to maintain 7.5dkh. Now with some decent colonies I dose around 70ml of each daily.

 

[cpllongjk]

I agree that sounds about right. Around 20-25mL per day alk, really not so much the calcium... Once things take off it'll go up fast. Make sure you are checking alk weekly at a minimum, it is the most important parameter IMO.

 

[cpllongjk]

Oh as far as the growth rates, it really depends. Some of my acros grow like crazy and some are very slow.

There are so many variables: lighting period and PAR values, nutrient levels, flow, proper spectrum, broad lighting vs point lighting.

I would shoot for the following parameters if you want fast growth:
Specific Gravity 34-35ppt (Test weekly)
dKH 8.0-8.5 (I test this daily)
Calcium 420 (I test this monthly)
Magnesium (1320-1350) (I test this monthly)
Nitrate 0.2-2.0 (Test Monthly or if I see algae)
Phosphate 0.03-0.08 (Hardly ever test unless somethings wrong)

One thing I did when I was first starting with sps was numbers chase. I jumped on the whole bandwagon that the lower nitrates and phosphates were the better. I even did zeovit for a time in order to strip all nutrients out of my tank. What I did was kill the corals from water that was too clean. Check out a guy on Youtube called ReefBum, he has some great tips for people that want to keep sps.

www.reefbum.com

 

[nmotz]

I have a 80 gallon, all SPS. During the first year or so I was adding maybe 20 to 25ml daily with dosing pumps to maintain 7.5dkh while all frags were still encrusting the frag plugs. Once everything truly settled in and growth took off the consumption went to about 50ml a day to maintain 7.5dkh. Now with some decent colonies I dose around 70ml of each daily.

Wow, yeah so your tank was originally consuming Alk/Ca at roughly twice the rate of my tank. I've never had anywhere near that. Of course I have a lot less coral than you do also.

Lately I've been checking both Alk/Ca every other day or so and the consumption doesn't ever seem steady so I don't really know how much to dose. I've noticed some white growth tips on some of my smaller Seriatopora frags and the Green birdsnest colony, but consumption of Alk/Ca is still pretty freaking low. Some days I test and there's been no measurable consumption.

 

[nmotz]

Oh as far as the growth rates, it really depends. Some of my acros grow like crazy and some are very slow.

There are so many variables: lighting period and PAR values, nutrient levels, flow, proper spectrum, broad lighting vs point lighting.

I would shoot for the following parameters if you want fast growth:
Specific Gravity 34-35ppt (Test weekly)
dKH 8.0-8.5 (I test this daily)
Calcium 420 (I test this monthly)
Magnesium (1320-1350) (I test this monthly)
Nitrate 0.2-2.0 (Test Monthly or if I see algae)
Phosphate 0.03-0.08 (Hardly ever test unless somethings wrong)

One thing I did when I was first starting with sps was numbers chase. I jumped on the whole bandwagon that the lower nitrates and phosphates were the better. I even did zeovit for a time in order to strip all nutrients out of my tank. What I did was kill the corals from water that was too clean. Check out a guy on Youtube called ReefBum, he has some great tips for people that want to keep sps.

www.reefbum.com

Thanks, yeah I agree about not stripping the water of nutrients. I don't think that's really the problem as I have a little green algae and cyano around that denotes the presence of some nutrients. My numbers for Alk/Ca/Mg and SG are actually in the ranges that you recommended. Not sure about nitrate/phosphate. I don't test for the latter at all.

I honestly think it's my lighting more than anything else that hinders my growth. I wanted to go LEDs but think I should have started with a simple T5 setup. LEDs are much harder to dial in and I've tried a lot of different variations with my AI Primes that just haven't worked for one reason or another. I bleached the corals first, but now they just don't really grow. As I've slowly ramped the lights back up, I have noticed slightly better colors in my Seriatopora, but that's the only positive so far.

 

[DaveRaz]

We have similar water volume. I am dosing 2 part at 60ml per day around the clock. 10% weekly water change. Pic for reference.

 

[nmotz]

We have similar water volume. I am dosing 2 part at 60ml per day around the clock. 10% weekly water change. Pic for reference.

Yeah similar volume, but wow you have a lot of SPS! That looks like maybe 3-4 times as many colonies as I have. But that is a lot of consumption too. Are you running T5s or Halides?

 

[DaveRaz]

T5 with reef brite led

 

[ezcompany]

if you think its your lighting try turning it down to 30-40% and work your way up. also reduce the white lighting, corals prefer the bluer spectrum.

 

[steallife904]

I have a 150gal with a mix of SPS and LPS. couple of my SPS are large (have a pink birdnest as big as a football). I only have to does 36ml cal and 48ml alk to keep my calc at 430 and my alk at 7.7

 

[joshky]

We have similar water volume. I am dosing 2 part at 60ml per day around the clock. 10% weekly water change. Pic for reference.

I dose 60ml of BRS 2-part and have less SPS colonies than you do, actually less SPS altogether than you, this is in my 80g. Just wondering what 2-part you use because it must be more concentrated than mine?

 

[RTab619]

I dose 60ml of BRS 2-part and have less SPS colonies than you do, actually less SPS altogether than you, this is in my 80g. Just wondering what 2-part you use because it must be more concentrated than mine?

Nice tank!

 

[joshky]

Nice tank!

Hehe that's not mine it's DaveRaz's, this is mine.

 

[nemodan]

65 G DT + 40G breeder fuge

B-IONIC 2 part : 50 ml of each

Was at 80 ml/day, but had an issue ~ February. Lost many colonies and nutrients went up. The consequences of my issue are less colonies and reduced growth rate. Dosing volume depends on many variables. Nutrients level is one.

Best
Daniel