How Do I Dose Calc/Alk???

[viking]

My tank has been up for four months and I have enough coral where I think I may have to start raising my Calcium levels. I don't have a test kit for Calcuim, but I'm buying one on the way home tonight. Here's my quick list of coral, how long I've had it and why I think I need the added boost.

1. Zoa/Paly colony (3 Months) -- This is growing like crazy but I have noticed the color has started to fade in the last couple weeks.
2. Torch Coral (2 Months) -- 6 heads that has been doing awesome, but lost a head two days ago.
3. Acan (2 weeks) -- 5 head; too soon to tell if anything is wrong.
4. RBTA (2 weeks) -- Other than moving from where I placed it seems to be doing well.

I'm running Chemi-Pure Elite in a HOB filter as well as a dual BRS reactor with GFO and Carbon. Water is prestine, which is why I'm assuming the torch is doing so well. The loss of color and the torch head death is what has me thinking about supplementing with calcium. I'm going to start testing for that, but does it make sense to just pick some Kents up while I get the test? Does everyone dose calcium? Also, I don't have an ATO just yet so is there I way I can add it to the tank directly? Should I do when with a water change or a couple times a week? Sorry for all the questions but I really want to see my coral flourish. I'm actually less interested in the fish and more into the coral!!! HA!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[FinsUp!]

As long as your levels are around 460 and you do regular water changes with good salt (this should maintain an acceptable calcium level), I wouldn't bother with dosing for that amount of coral. Zoas/palys and rbta's consume little if any calcium. LPS consume some, but nowhere near the amount that SPS does. You definitely need to test before you consider dosing though.

So test first, see if you're low and then think about dosing. In my 90, where I had a ton of coral of all sorts, I used to use Kent B-ionic 2 part and followed the instructions on the jugs. There was a syringe that came with it that you squirted into your sump. In my 58, I've never seen below 460ppm on my calcium and I've got about 4x the coral you have. I don't dose anything, just water changes every other week. I have all LPS except for one SPS, and a bunch of zoas and palys.

I get the feeling there might be something else besides calcium thats causing the issues... Any changes in lighting intensity? There is such a thing as water that's too clean, as well. From what I've read, LPS and zoas actually like water that's a bit "dirty". They benefit from having some nutrients in the water. In my understanding it's SPS that prefers pristine water. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[viking]

Now that you mention it I did up the intensity of the lighting. I have a 4xT5 in which I was running only 2xT5 to battle a diatom bloom. (Stirred up some of the sand bed during an aquascape change causing the bloom) Diatoms have been receding so I increased the light again for the past two weeks, but today I actually went back down to 2XT5 due to the Torch issue. Do you think I should get rid of the HOB filter running chemi-pure since it seems redundant to the carbon being run in the dual reactor? I want to see the color return in my softies and get some growth out of my LPS. I will report my paramters later tonight and include the calcium test. Thanks for the help!!!

 

[FinsUp!]

The lighting could have affected the coral, especially if you were only running half the bulbs for quite a while. How long were you running at half power? Is the torch near the top of the tank? If so, try moving it lower and see if it fares any better.

I'll let someone else respond in regards to the chemi-pure as I've never used it or carbon.

 

[MikeG]

Calcium really isn't the most critical parameter you need to be measuring. Low levels of calcium may have an effect of slowed growth on corals if magnesium levels are also low but low alkalinity levels or swings can kill. I just try to keep my calcium above 400ppm. Corals can also incorporate magnesium and their skeletal growth in place of calcium so try to maintain acceptable levels here as well, I stay around 1250ppm. As I mentioned most important is alkalinity. Stability here is more important that any general number. Anywhere between about 7-11dkh is a good range, I run at about 8dkh.

For your coral load, I would not expect that you need to do any dosing and water changes should be enough to keep things going but I would take some measurements over time and see if levels are maintained.

 

[viking]

Awesome! Great input Mike. I just bought the Calc test and will post all my parameters later tonight.
As a side note, the Petco in Woburn had a pretty good selection of coral.
See below.


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