Sps Corals And Calsium Dosing...

[rabbut]

OK, so today I bought an Organ Pipe SPS coral to start moving towards getting a nice Bubble LPS coral... Calsium test kits and a Calsium suppliment were also on the list to buy, but were left behind, due to my sieve-like memory... My supervisor at work recons that these corals need Calsium suppliments to do well, but he has given me iffy marine advise before now (miss-ID's on coral and starfish, along with various pieces of equipment)... So, though it is deffinately recomended, is calsium testing and suplimenting required with SPS corals?

If dosing is required, would Reptile Calsium diet supliment be OK to use? The ingrediants are 99% Calsium Carbonate and vitamin B3 for the rest?

Thanks all
Rabbut

EDIT to add one more quick question... If I do Calsium dose, what level should I be aiming for?

 

[jennybugs]

Good reference guide

I can't properly answer your question being soewhat new, but I do know magnesium levels are important with sps and lps corals.

 

[rabbut]

Thank's Jennybugs, that article answered at least one of my questions in the first table. That Reptile feed suppliment won't work for what I want, though it could be used for fideling Alkalinity by the look of it... (seems obvious now that I think about it, and refur back to KH in FW tanks)

Very useful article, thanks.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[SkiFletch]

Actually rabbut, in my experience alkalinity is more closely related to growth and coral health than calcium is. Calcium is important for sure but much easier to control than alkalinity IMO. When keeping hard corals, calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium must all be mointored and periodically corrected. Either that or lots of waterchanges

 

[andywg]

While it can be heavy going a times, the best recommendation I can give when you are considering the stoney corals with higher requirements on chemistry is to go to the Realm of Knowledge pin and look for Ski's links to artilces by Randy Holmes-Farley. He details what you want and how to do it quite cheaply.

I have never had to dose for magnesium and it is very cheap to make your own supplement for Alk and Calc by buying from ebay.

 

[rabbut]

20% fortnightly enough Ski? I'm currently using AquaOne salt, that is a royal PITA to disolve, apparently due to Calsium and/or Carbonate content. It takes a few hours, sometimes upto a day, under the same mixing conditions as Instant Ocean takes 1/2 an hour to disolve under... It stays a milky-browny colour for the entire time and has the salinity reading bounce arround all over the place before it finally settles. Very difficult to mix in a hurry if customers are waiting...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[SkiFletch]

Tough to say cause coral load/growth will make each tank's requirements different.

FWIW I just mixed up a batch of IO to 1.026 and it's magnesium was a mere 1000ppm. IO is notorious for having low magnesium. It's not a problem for me since I have a bag of mag flake bigger than I am, but without that resource IO isn't the best salt for keeping stony corals. Reef Crystals (made by the same company) tends to be a much higher quality. Other good brands are Coralife and Seachem

 

[rabbut]

Thats a fair point. Why do I always miss the obvious stuff like bio-loads on water parameters?

So besically, if I'm usuing a good quality salt and have only a few hard corals that don't grow too fast, I would be OK, but I need to get kits to monitor the situation and ensure nothing is lacking from my salt mix, and that my waterchanges are keeping up with the corals demands? If so, do you know if Aquarium System's test kits are OK, as they are the only ones work stock? If not, I'll probibly go digging for some Salifert kits, but that's likely to put the DIY LED's on hold considering the price tag associated with Salifert... Also, what supliments do you recomend for Magnesium, Calsium and Alkalinity?

All the best and thanks again
Rabbut

 

[jennybugs]

I've just bought Salifert test kits and they are so straightforward to use. I was using the nutrafin liquid master test kit but that's just not precise enough

 

[rabbut]

Sorry Andy, missed your post about addatives...

So, Ebay for Alk and Cals suppliments if I need them, presumably mag as well should it be needed.

Unfortunately, I cannot change salt brands, as I have to use what the boss at work gives me to use in their vats... I do plan on an RO unit eventually, but that is down a list of things ATM and probibly isn't going to happen soon...

I think I'll try works kits first if nobody has had any bad experiences with them, and if they are naff, oh well, I'll have to get Saliferts...

All the best and thank's again
Rabbut

 

[andywg]

I would get kits to measure pH, KH, Calc and magnesium (though I have never had an issue with magnesium it could well be down to the salt I used). I wouldn't be overly worried at the start by brand, but if you don't trust the readings you can change later. I used to use an API FW KH test for alkalinity as I already had it floating around.

Getting the cheaper version of a magnesium supplement over here in the UK is not quite as easy as it is for Ski across the pond but as I mentioned, I never had an issue with magnesium so never had to really look.

I think for about £20 I managed to buy enough materials for something like 6-12 months worth of dosing a 140 gallon system. The Baking Soda I ordered from an online shop and there is a chemical company on ebay which supplies calcium chloride hydrate (all explained and set out in this link).

 

[Crazy fishes]

Epsom salts are magnesium based so any chemist or supermarket should stock this. It is incredibly cheap and to make to solution. Check out reefvideos.com and the video with the dowflakes image is the one to watch.

Hope this helps

Regards

 

[rabbut]

Ah, excellent they are easy enough to get hold of... Chears Crazyfishes

I will try to read through and digest that article you posted Andy over the next day or two.

Thanks again
Rabbut

 

[SkiFletch]

Salifert and Seachem are definitely the most precise and accurate hobby-level kits out there. IME API test kits are not as precise but are equally accurate to Salifert test kits (I've recently been comparing the two myself). The API tests can't quite get the resolution of the Salifert, but tbh who cares if you're off by 10ppm of calcim/magnesium or 0.5dKH? In practice that kind of inaccuracy is acceptable to me so tbh, when my Saliferts run out, I'll replace with the more affordable API kits. I'm all about practical fishkeeping...

Regardless of the kit you use, familiarizing yourself with reef chemistry and the processes involved will go a long way to health for your hard corals

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Lots of good info in this thread, thanks My mag is around 1200 (using IO) and Calc around 400 so have been looking at dosing as well recently for when it is more fully stocked. This thread has helped a lot