Successful SPS tanks without Dosing and or low Ca/Alk?

jimrawr

jimrawr

New member
Im wondering how many people here, if any, successfully keep SPS tanks without dosing and having pretty low CA/AlK (370 - 7dkh)?

I right now have a mixed 92g corner tank, with only a few SPS pieces which are doing really nicely. I dont dose anything, and I rarely test ca/alk. When I do test its always around the 370 and 7dkh mark.

I understand that growth may be slower, and colors not as bright, but is it possible for long term success without maintaining high/optimal levels on CA and ALK?

Can anyone chime in with experience?
 
IME I did this with a couple SPS frags in the beginning and did not work out well. Long term success will not likely follow. I now dose alk, calcium, and mag and have great success with my SPS;) Once SPS grows and you have more in the tank they will consume the calcium QUICKLY!
 
I think the only reason you're getting by at this point is because your tanks volume can easily sustain a couple of frags. Assuming you do wc's, you're replenishing alk and ca levels each time. That may get you by for now, but without some sort of alk & ca dosing your SPS are bound to lose. They will simply demand more and wc's won't cut it anymore.

For example, I have to dose my tank (20g) daily for alk & ca for my SPS to thrive. If I took the same corals I have now and put them in a 300g tank with no other SPS then I wouldn't have to dose at all, just do wc's.
 
Yeah I guess that makes sense. The thing is that in the past I have tried dosing, I tried a reactor, and every time I just get tired of testing the levels and supplementing, and eventually what happens is I stop testing and things start to go bad.

I do have a kalk reactor which I dont use right now due to the fact that my top off water is lower than my kalk reactor which gives me a back flow problem..

Anyways, hoping someone will chime in on how their large sps system runs great without supplementation :)
 
Nobody's SPS system(large or small) thrives without a reactor or a dosing regimen, or outrageously huge water changes on a very regular basis. My 180g uses up 100ml per day of alk and calc 2 part, my largest colony is about 3" across. Now there is 3 clams and a few LPS in the tank but it's not a "oh my god" tank by any means.

Alk and calk management is simply a must for SPS tanks.
 
jimrawr said:
Yeah I guess that makes sense. The thing is that in the past I have tried dosing, I tried a reactor, and every time I just get tired of testing the levels and supplementing, and eventually what happens is I stop testing and things start to go bad.

I do have a kalk reactor which I dont use right now due to the fact that my top off water is lower than my kalk reactor which gives me a back flow problem..

Anyways, hoping someone will chime in on how their large sps system runs great without supplementation :)
Click to expand...

Take the mystery out of the chemistry.

Your corals consume calcium/alkalinity. All you have to do it figure out how much they are consuming. In theory, if you measure this carefully enough, you don't have to test your parameters. Testing weekly is advised but not totally necessary if you have an idea of your growth rate and demand increases.

I am quite confident that you can figure this out and keep up long term.

Use this calculator, read the reef chemistry articles, and figure it out :idea:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

If you have an auto top-off system, you can add Kalk to your top-off water, this will keep your alkalinity up but you may still have to dose calcium.
 
rmalone said:
Nobody's SPS system(large or small) thrives without a reactor or a dosing regimen, or outrageously huge water changes on a very regular basis. My 180g uses up 100ml per day of alk and calc 2 part, my largest colony is about 3" across. Now there is 3 clams and a few LPS in the tank but it's not a "oh my god" tank by any means.

Alk and calk management is simply a must for SPS tanks.
Click to expand...

funny am in the similar boat as you, i dose 120ml per day of ALK & CA on a 120 gallon system. and I have to adjust this every 6 weeks base on the growth of the corals.
 
I dose 150 mL of calcium, 120 mL of alk, and 10 mL of mag. I dose more calcium than alk because my topoff of 6 liters is lime water which maintains my alk.

Typically my alk is 8-9, calcium is 420-440, and mag at 1400-1450. When first dialing in my dosing I tested twice a week. Once you figure it out I test once a week. Since you don't keep much SPS you could top off with lime water which will help withe consumptions....
 
I know these arent boutique corals or anything but I havent dosed or supplimented anything in almost two years and only do water changes (about 15%) every couple months. I just dont have the time to dedicate to the tank that I used to plus my levels were bouncing all over because I could never get my CA reactor perfectly dialed in.

I think tanks can be run with low CA, low Ak and even low salinity but things have to be stable and only certain hardy corals will do well. You likely wont be able to keep that ultra rare $500 pink lemonaid moster tort bonzi thing ;-)

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RockyMtnReef said:
I know these arent boutique corals or anything but I havent dosed or supplimented anything in almost two years and only do water changes (about 15%) every couple months. I just dont have the time to dedicate to the tank that I used to plus my levels were bouncing all over because I could never get my CA reactor perfectly dialed in.

I think tanks can be run with low CA, low Ak and even low salinity but things have to be stable and only certain hardy corals will do well. You likely wont be able to keep that ultra rare $500 pink lemonaid moster tort bonzi thing ;-)
Click to expand...
I read this in your other thread....its hard to believe!....although I take your word for it.

Any idea what your water change water and display water parameters are?
 
jimrawr, why dont you just add kalk to your top off water if you have an ATO.? Since you have have low ca and alk you have a need for it or your salt in low in ca and alk. Start with 2 tbs per 5 gallons and see how for corals react and what your ca and alk change to. Adjust the kalk as needed. This is a simple and one of the best ways to dose ca and alk. I would not use the reactor as they only dose a saturated solution of kalk and cause large ph swings. Oh also changing salts might be a good way to increase at least ca levels. If you use IO or another basic salt try a reef salt. I like Pro Reef had great results with it. Reef Crystals is ok Ca was at 520 alk at 13 when I tested new water but I dont like the way it makes my sps look. I have been hearing good things about H2Ocean and Brightwell, Im changing to one of these 2.
 
dvanacker said:
I read this in your other thread....its hard to believe!....although I take your word for it.

Any idea what your water change water and display water parameters are?
Click to expand...

I know that it sounds a little crazy but if anyone out there lives in the Denver area shoot me a PM. I would happy to let you check things out. When you see the gunk that has grown in the CA reactor you will belive that it hasnt been in use for a longgg time :-)

I really only test for salinity in my change water. I use Reef Crystals and go for 1.025. I top off the tank with fresh via a 5 stage Spectra pure with a float value. Usually after going a while between changes my display salinity drops (due to skimmer emptying I guess). The change bumps it back up a little but I would say over all the salinity in the tank is typically around 1.022.

The last time I tested I think my CA was around 350 and I want to say the AK was about 8 or so? That was quite a while ago so I cant tell you what it is now. Either way any parameter changes that happen take place very slowly over time so I guess the livestock adapts? I also havent added any new livestock including snails or fish for at least a year which may be helping to keep things stable as well. I am sure the corals arent growing nearly as fast or are as colorful as they could be. I would like to get back to paying closer attenion to the tank but my time is really limited so I have to stick with the program for now. The reason I posted the pics in the other string is that I finally cleaned the glass really well a couple weekends ago and decided to take some photos. I like to lurk out here when I can because there are so many incredible SPS tanks (without a bunch of GSP and mushrooms) that I can only dream about.
 
I have to agree with most of the above posts that it just isn't possible to keep a full blown SPS tank without a dosing regiment of some sort. Its just chemistry...skeletal corals take up Ca and Alk and once those get consumed from the water column they need to be replaced or else the coral simply cannot grow. A lot of coral also don't tolerate inconsistency and without dosing your levels will be jumping all over the place on a day to day basis.

The only way to get around having a Ca reactor or a 2 part dosing setup is to do water changes often...at least once per week and even then its not ideal.
 
If You have a properly set up reactor you wouldn't have to test And tweak very often ..but yea it kills me When I see tanks with awesome color and growth and all they do is water changes. I've tried doing just That but found That I cannot keep my params stable.
 
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