Should I be doing these things?

[phishman1]

46 bowfront, 3 fish, 9 beginner type corals, soft.

Parameters checked daily, all perfect.

Someone said I should be adding calcium to water and checking it as well?

Corals doing great however, always open and starting to spread now a bit as well

Not sure what to do, some articles I read say do, others say don't, LFS guys say they don't add calcium except for expensive hard to keep corals..?

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Can you list all of your parameters? Calc, alk, magnesium?

 

[cody6766]

I would venture to guess that you don't need to dose anything, but there's a small chance that you MIGHT need to.

I've never needed to dose Ca or Alk in my tanks until I get a heavy load of SPS/LPS in the tank. I use Reef Crystals salt, which has pretty high levels of Alk and Ca. If you can find someone who will test those parameters for free, you might as well get a reading. With a tank full of softies, and maybe even a few LPS or SPS, I wouldn't spend the money on Alk/Ca test kits. You'll definitely want those kits once you get more sensitive coral with higher Ca/Alk consumption demands.

 

[alice 01]

I personally never used to dose, but my dosing unit was best thing I purchased.
Never really appreciated coral growth before (although they did grow slowly of course) but since adding the dosing unit rate of growth has improved greatly even for the soft easy corals.
So I'd say you don't need to yet but you will get better results if you do at some stage as water changes alone cannot maintain it.
But may be if your levels are inline now and only being used gradually you may not need to do for another year or something so you may be able to delay the expense.

I'm only going on my own experience but by no means am i an expert so hopefully others will give further advice.


Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

 

[phishman1]

Thanks all, I will have my LFS check for calcium tomorrow. I rarely do water changes as I read and was told that unless you have an issue don't do water changes much if ever. I have been doing a partial, 10 percent at most change maybe every ten days of so..

 

[Imaexpat2]

If your doing regular water changes with a decent quality brand of salt and only have softies, there shouldnt be much of a demand for Calcium/Alk, those should be at adequate levels in your salt mix.

Now once you start adding some LPS corals with skeletons, or SPS, or Clams, then you need to seriously start keeping tabs on Calcium and Alk.

 

[dubmaneh]

Lots of good advise here. Generally no need to dose with softies, but regular water changes are important. They prevent buildup of undesirable stuff in the water and add back an elements that have been consumed.

Water changes of 5-10% a week-2 weeks is good. You'll find the rhythm for your tank. Until you get more demanding corals or something is off, a good LFS should be able test for Ca, Alk and Mg for you.

If you keep up with the above, testing once a month should be more than enough.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Oldreeferman]

Reef salt mixes give you that necessary extra minerals for coralline growth and the minerals hard corals need even when small frags 10 fold over reg sea salts for fish only tanks but remember, once coral & coralline growth is extensive you must start testing params at least weekly & begin dosing as well, ea tank is unique so keep a log & dose daily to maintain NSW lvls. Ive noticed my mag was low but my cal was high after a yr. dosing 2 part so 2 part dosing only works well at the onset with min growth.....later down the rd ive had to pre-mix mag & now dose it along with less 2 part to lower the cal & raise the mag dose higher so its a balancing act.................forever....lol, but part of the fun of a mixed reef tank is success & growth.

 

[Sk8r]

I had a 3 head hammer wake and start feeding: went from 1 tsp cal to 2 to 3 real fast (about a month) and within 2 months was having to supplement calcium hand over fist. I went with Mrs Wages as the cheap alternative. Just put MW in the topoff water and it was fine. Thing grew huge over time.