Does anyone actually keep corals without dosing?

[TDesaulniers]

So, are there any reef aquarists who actually keep any type of corals without dosing? If so, what salt mixes do you uses and how often do you do water changes. What skimmer do you have?

 

[Anthrax15]

I use a Aqua C Urchin skimmer. Doesnt do much good but still works.

 

[Anthrax15]

ive got a 40g BR mixed reef. SPS frags, Crocea Clam, LPS, Leathers, Softies, Zoo's, Shrooms, and a Anemone. I do a 5g water change every week or every other week using Coralife salt. It has a high calcium content so my Calcium stays around 500, dKh at 7-8 and Mag is about 1350. I also use tap water :thumbsup: Everything grows nicely.

Doing water changes works for smaller tanks (50g or less) as long as they are not SPS dominated. Otherwise, the tank needs to be dosed and tested weekly.

But there is nothing wrong with dosing. Keeps everything growing nicely.

 

[TDesaulniers]

ive got a 40g BR mixed reef. SPS frags, Crocea Clam, LPS, Leathers, Softies, Zoo's, Shrooms, and a Anemone. I do a 5g water change every week or every other week using Coralife salt. It has a high calcium content so my Calcium stays around 500, dKh at 7-8 and Mag is about 1350. I also use tap water :thumbsup: Everything grows nicely.

Doing water changes works for smaller tanks (50g or less) as long as they are not SPS dominated. Otherwise, the tank needs to be dosed and tested weekly.

I have a 29 gallon and I have not intent for having a SPS dominated tank. I feel like if I just did weekly water changes my parameters would be ok. Anyone else beg to differ?

 

[Bill Nye]

You will most likely not have to dose in such a small tank if its not going to be sps dominated. Doing weekly, fairly large water changes with a quality salt should be enough. I currently use ESV salt and I would highly recommend it.

 

[reefgeezer]

So, are there any reef aquarists who actually keep any type of corals without dosing? If so, what salt mixes do you uses and how often do you do water changes. What skimmer do you have?

I think many have built systems that require only occassional dosing to correct things like alkalinity, calcium, and/or magnesium. My 75 runs on a Reef Octo recirculating skimmer, ATO, and a kalk reactor for now. At the moment, I don't dose anything. However, the bioload is low and calcium requirements are not high. 10 gallon per week water changes seem to keep everything in order for now. HOWEVER, when the calcium demand increases I'll start dosing two-part.

 

[Fishamatank]

I think many have built systems that require only occassional dosing to correct things like alkalinity, calcium, and/or magnesium. My 75 runs on a Reef Octo recirculating skimmer, ATO, and a kalk reactor for now. At the moment, I don't dose anything. However, the bioload is low and calcium requirements are not high. 10 gallon per week water changes seem to keep everything in order for now. HOWEVER, when the calcium demand increases I'll start dosing two-part.

You can't say you don't dose anything and say you have a kalk reactor in the same sentence. Kalk is quite powerful if used properly and can supply a faily large alk / ca demand.

Typically tanks in the area of 30 gallons or less can get away with little to no dosing provided frequent water changes and are done and SPS are not the main coral in the tank.

 

[92Bow]

i use oceanic sea salt and do a 10 percent water change a week. dose nothing

 

[warbyd]

plenty of people keep reef tanks without dosing.. i personally have approx 230l reef with softies and LPS and do a monthly NSW water change without any dosing..

 

[allsps40]

I dose nothing to my 6 gallon nano cube. I just do water changes very 2 weeks 50%, no skimmer. On my 40 breeder sps mostly dosing seems to tick all the sps off and the slow growth and or lose color. I am going going back to just water changes and only dosing alk and ca when needed and I dont need to dose those much at all. I have been using Reef Crystal for a while but dont like it. Leaning to going back to a Tropic Marin product. I run an Octopus NW110 on this tank. DO NOT dose what you dont test for. I thought I had low potassium had several of the signs. So I dose potassium. Had it tested today was at 800 NSW is 400. Im going back to the KISS method.

 

[reefgeezer]

You can't say you don't dose anything and say you have a kalk reactor in the same sentence. Kalk is quite powerful if used properly and can supply a faily large alk / ca demand.QUOTE]

Agreed. I read the original post as a question about maintenance and husbandry. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that the reactor doses the tank instead of me. Water changes alone would not keep up with my current calcium/alk demand.

If by dosing, we mean adding measured quantities of solutions in an effort to modify a specified parameter... I suppose dosing in one form or another is a given in this hobby. You can do it manually on a regular or irregular basis or automate it, but you are still dosing. Even small tanks full of soft corals might require dosing of something when mature i.e. Iodine, etc. I wonder...If water changes are performed to correct ion balance and stabalize calcium and alkalinity, could it be considered dosing?

 

[kmu]

Its not the size of the tank, its the percentage of water changed.

A 500g tank could be kept only with 20% water changes weekly just like a 50g or 5g would.

Now there are some tanks that can be kept without water changes and just dosing which is the other way around.

 

[Sk8r]

OK: a dose of info here:
Soft corals don't require any more calcium than comes in a salt mix.
Stony corals can exist for quite a while in a kind of torpor in which they don't grow much: usually when you get them, they're 'asleep', and won't wake up easily. Last night I just fielded a post from a member who'd just experienced a coral awakening---and it's pretty shocking to the reefer who was lumping along feeding his 50 gallon tank maybe half a teaspoon of calcium a week and doing a water change once a month. Then...zingo, on a given day when the moon is in the right phase or whatever touches it off---the corals wake up and start to feed.
The half teaspoon of maintenance becomes a full, then heaping teaspoon a day. And you wonder where it's going until you see heads dividing all over, and stick-corals suddenly half an inch longer all over the tank.
Now---yes, corals can survive quite a while on just what comes in the salt mix. I had one that's slept for 3 years, after a house move---apparently dead, white skeleton I'd used in rockwork. This summer it started growing again. It's now the size of a shooter marble.
But...if you want corals living and growing, you have to supplement calcium, and not just calcium, but your buffer and magnesium, because the draw of one hungry coral can suck up what's in the salt mix PDQ.
I started with a 3-head hammer that is now the size of a regulation basketball, and when it next divides, some decisions have to be made.

The tank passed the point where I could afford to dose calcium by hand years ago: that's expensive. On the other hand---kalk isn't. I can dose the whole tank for two months for about 5.oo. It takes 2 1/2 lbs of kalk a month AND Oceanic salt (one of the highest in calcium content) to sustain one hammer, one torch, a frogspawn and a crocea clam. The hammer is a basketball, the torch and frog are both softballs, and the clam is about 5".

So your answer is: there are ONLY 3 doses, but if you prefer non-zombified corals, you do need them: calcium, alkalinity buffer, and magnesium. Salt is adequate for the trace elements.
And if you want to save money, and have a reef under 100 gallons, kalk is the way to do it.

 

[Cooper Inc]

Taging along, I have a 60 gal CUBE and have not dosed nor do regular water changes. Zoa's are doing fine in my system but I tried sps several weeks ago and they turned white. I am thinking about dosing and calcium reactor. Not sure whats best. Sorry to hi-jack your thread, but what would be better for such a small tank as mine. Keep in mind, I dont do regular water changes because of time, space, kids, wife etc.....

 

[Sk8r]

You need very strong light even MH, for most sps, and you need very clear water so the light doesn't scatter on particulate matter. Also zoas 'spit' chemical into the water to clear away neighbors and this can cause the sps to fail. And zoas generally want much lower light. They are not a combination that will easily succeed. Try, instead, some lps, which will appreciate 'rich' water: they feed on particulates much more than sps do---and run carbon constantly to try to sop up what the zoas are giving off. I'd recommend bubble (low light stony) or candy cane or branching hammer as two lps that fend for themselves fairly well.

 

[jwoyshnar]

I have around 300 gallons of reef tanks and i dont dose. I do water changes once every 2 weeks usually 10% every 2 weeks. My coral has exploded to the point that i need a huge tank now. I have mostly Lps and softies with some sps.

 

[Cooper Inc]

You need very strong light even MH, for most sps, and you need very clear water so the light doesn't scatter on particulate matter. Also zoas 'spit' chemical into the water to clear away neighbors and this can cause the sps to fail. And zoas generally want much lower light. They are not a combination that will easily succeed. Try, instead, some lps, which will appreciate 'rich' water: they feed on particulates much more than sps do---and run carbon constantly to try to sop up what the zoas are giving off. I'd recommend bubble (low light stony) or candy cane or branching hammer as two lps that fend for themselves fairly well.

Thanks, I am running LED Solaris right now on my 24" Cube. I have only one colony of Zoa's that came with the LR.

 

[TDesaulniers]

The thing I am concerned with is coming across a bad batch of salt and having it throw off all my numbers. I'm not sure of the frequency of this in our hobby but I do know this happens occasionally.

 

[mossdog]

I have run 180 gallon, a 70 gallon and a 35 gallon systems for years with out dosing and just doing regular water changes every two weeks. I have mixed SPS, LPS and softies and don't feel the need to dose. My philosophy has always been to keep it as simple and easy to look after as possible.

 

[Shaqinwi 65]

I do not dose but I use biopellets and have a kalkwasser reactor. I do water changes once a month at the most.