Do All Types of Coral Need Same Dosing?

[Slayvoff]

LPS, SPS, etc...do they all have the same dosing requirements? Do SPS, being the most fragile/difficult as I understand, require dosing/balance of additional elements that LPS and other's don't need, like Calcium or Magnesium? Or does it not matter the type of coral, they all require monitoring the balance of the same elements?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don't think there are many clearly established chemical requirement differences, except:

1. faster growing corals with skeletons take up more calcium and alkalinity and magnesium than slower growing corals (regardless of whether they are SPS, LPS, etc.).

2. Many trace elements are taken up by tissues, not skeletons, so soft corals, macroalgae, etc, which can grow faster than many hard corals, may dominate the needs for elements such as iron.

3. The amount of magnesium taken up by hard corals in relation to alk and calcium uptake, varies strongly by species. Coralline algae is among the highest relative magnesium demand. Overall, magnesium demand is usually about 1/10th of the calcium demand in a typical reef tank.

 

[Slayvoff]

I don't think there are many clearly established chemical requirement differences, except:

1. faster growing corals with skeletons take up more calcium and alkalinity and magnesium than slower growing corals (regardless of whether they are SPS, LPS, etc.).

2. Many trace elements are taken up by tissues, not skeletons, so soft corals, macroalgae, etc, which can grow faster than many hard corals, may dominate the needs for elements such as iron.

3. The amount of magnesium taken up by hard corals in relation to alk and calcium uptake, varies strongly by species. Coralline algae is among the highest relative magnesium demand. Overall, magnesium demand is usually about 1/10th of the calcium demand in a typical reef tank.

So what makes SPS so much harder to keep than other types of corals if there aren't additional elements to track?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm not certain they are "harder" overall than many LPS, but the difficulty doesn't relate to fundamentally different chemical needs.

Since they often grow faster, certain things may get depleted faster, but overall I don't think the issue is necessarily one of chemistry in most cases.

Difficulty in keeping corals involves many things: appropriate nutrition, flow, lighting, higher sensitivity to chemistry changes (e.g., alkalinity) or higher sensitivity to certain chemicals (organic toxins, possibly inorganic nutrients), pests, etc.