How much alkalinity+calcium will a single coral use?

[Cakebaker13]

Okay, I know that is a loaded question. I understand every coral is different and size of tank etc.
I am looking for approximations? How long will it take 1 acan frag to make a measureable change in anything in a 29 gal tank?
Do/how many softies does it take to effect anything?
How does 1 sps frag vs 1 lps frag effect the parameters differently?

Sorry for the vagueness, but I am just looking to see what the general bio-load of smaller vs larger corals is upon a tank.

Like: 1 inch of sps will take 0.1 alkinity out of 1 gallon of water in 1 day. (something like that)

 

[Sk8r]

In a 50 gallon fairly new tank, I had a 3-head hammer, 3-head caulestra, and coralline algae decide to go from no supplement needed to half a teaspoon calcium a day, after a few weeks to a whole, all within a couple of months. I began kalk dosing, which automates the dosing process via your ordinary ATO (drop kalk powder into the ro/di) and solves the problem so long as the magnesium stays above 1300 in your general parameters. The parameters I try to maintain are in my sig line: I'm sometimes above that.

 

[disc1]

Okay, I know that is a loaded question. I understand every coral is different and size of tank etc.
I am looking for approximations? How long will it take 1 acan frag to make a measureable change in anything in a 29 gal tank?
Do/how many softies does it take to effect anything?
How does 1 sps frag vs 1 lps frag effect the parameters differently?

Sorry for the vagueness, but I am just looking to see what the general bio-load of smaller vs larger corals is upon a tank.

Like: 1 inch of sps will take 0.1 alkinity out of 1 gallon of water in 1 day. (something like that)

It depends on a lot of things including the alkalinity level itself. At higher alkalinity levels the corals will suck it up more quickly and at lower levels they'll slow down. The amount of light, the pH, the amount of food, other water quality, and many many more factors play into it. It's king of like asking how much food will a person eat. The answers vary too widely to try to nail down.

There's not really any rule to look for. You just gotta put the coral in there and test test test.

 

[NeilFox]

I have 15 stony corals in a 6.25 gal tank. Some fast growing SPS, Mili's, Montis, Birdsnest, Acros and a Favites. In addition I have maybe 8 pounds of live rock with a lot of coraline. Obviously the corals aren't huge, mini colony size I guess 2" to 4". I'm now dosing about 6ml each part A and B. I started with about 1ml. Based on that, I would say a SPS colony could use about 0.50 to 0.70 ml per day. It is hard to keep up the Alk but I try to keep it over 7.5 and ideally around 8. Ca is from 380 to 420ppm and Mg around 1400. Funny thing is the Mg seems to get used up much faster than I had expected. If I were to try to come up with a dosing schedule I would start with around 0.10 per frag and go from there. That actually makes more sense than using the tank capacity. I need to use about 6 times the recommended dosage just to keep up. I have notice temperature has a lot to do with it too. I test at least every day for the big three and sometimes twice. I don't bother checking pH because there isn't much I could do about it long term anyhow. I may be wrong but for me, a good alk test is the most important one to have.

 

[Cakebaker13]

It depends on a lot of things including the alkalinity level itself. At higher alkalinity levels the corals will suck it up more quickly and at lower levels they'll slow down. The amount of light, the pH, the amount of food, other water quality, and many many more factors play into it. It's king of like asking how much food will a person eat. The answers vary too widely to try to nail down.

There's not really any rule to look for. You just gotta put the coral in there and test test test.

I can tell you a person eats on average 2000 calories a day. I can also show you calculators that would give a good rough estimate for any normal human. I'm not asking regarding the exceptions such as michael phelps in training season or a starving person.
How can you not give an approximation under average normal conditions?

 

[Cakebaker13]

I have 15 stony corals in a 6.25 gal tank. Some fast growing SPS, Mili's, Montis, Birdsnest, Acros and a Favites. In addition I have maybe 8 pounds of live rock with a lot of coraline. Obviously the corals aren't huge, mini colony size I guess 2" to 4". I'm now dosing about 6ml each part A and B. I started with about 1ml. Based on that, I would say a SPS colony could use about 0.50 to 0.70 ml per day. It is hard to keep up the Alk but I try to keep it over 7.5 and ideally around 8. Ca is from 380 to 420ppm and Mg around 1400. Funny thing is the Mg seems to get used up much faster than I had expected. If I were to try to come up with a dosing schedule I would start with around 0.10 per frag and go from there. That actually makes more sense than using the tank capacity. I need to use about 6 times the recommended dosage just to keep up. I have notice temperature has a lot to do with it too. I test at least every day for the big three and sometimes twice. I don't bother checking pH because there isn't much I could do about it long term anyhow. I may be wrong but for me, a good alk test is the most important one to have.

Thanks,
I am just staring getting some corals in my 29 gal system and after a week my alkalinity hadn't changed at all so I was wondering what time scale to look for a change.
I guess I'll just keep checking alkalinity periodically until it changes.

 

[illinijoe]

1 frag isn't going to do much since your water changes will replace anything lost. Test every week or 2 and you'll know what your coral is using.

 

[Breadman03]

I can tell you a person eats on average 2000 calories a day. I can also show you calculators that would give a good rough estimate for any normal human. I'm not asking regarding the exceptions such as michael phelps in training season or a starving person.
How can you not give an approximation under average normal conditions?

Part of the challenge is that there is a ton of money in human nutrition, and not a whole lot in coral nutrition. There are also tons of variables involved including light levels, nutrient levels, element levels, pests, water flow, size of the coral (remember that anything from a single polyp frag to a volleyball size colony is a coral) and things which we can't even test for practically.

I'm not sure what reasons you may have behind the question, but if you are concerned about the potential of dosing, know that it can be done for almost nothing with kalkwasser (Mrs. Wages pickling lime) or very expensively (Masterflex driven high end calcium reactor).