Goniopora: Is it time I embrace dosing?

[zerozero]

I am the caretaker of a Fluval 13.5g nano tank. From tomorrow we will have had the tank for a year. Being new to reefing we went with typical beginner corals; zoas, clove polyps, GSP, gorgonian. Later we began adding LPS starting with Duncans, a couple of torches. As we've recently added some Goniopora I thought we might soon get to the point where I have to consider dosing.

Up till now the only way I replenish/manage nutrients in the tank is with a weekly 10%-15% water change. The only thing I “dose” is live Phytoplankton every morning.

Other creatures that require CA are a Red Fire Shrimp and the snails (Orange lipped conch, @x Nasarius snails, 3x Trochus snails, 2x aster snails, spiroid snails and vermetid snails. The Vermetids are not a huge problem and I’ll be adding 3X bubble bee snails and a peppermint shrimp for the occasional aipastasia in the next week. I realise the CUC aren’t usually a factor in bigger tanks but as we only have 13.5g I’ve added them in.

Dosing options (as I understand them)
For my purposes I’m including any “additive” to the tank as dosing.

Reefroids
Pros: Can target feed LPS
Cons: Elevated nutrients, might attract shrimp

AB+
Pros: Broadcast feed
Cons: Elevated nutrients, Feeds everything in tank including algae and pest anemones

Kalkwasser
Pros: Replenishes the CA, only need one dosing head, can use it to target/kill aipastasia
Cons: Elevated nutrients

All for Reef
Pros: Replenishes the CA and other elements, only need one dosing head
Cons: Elevated nutrients

NB: A decent budget brand dosing head would cost £70 (The dosing bottle £12). This is the same cost as ATO. The tank cost £149. This gives you an idea of costs. Given the choice I’d rather spend money on another nano wave maker or another Goni than on a dosing pump.

Aquaforest reef mud
Pros: Improves biome/biodiversity, doesn’t alter reef chemistry, reduces algae
Cons: Reviews on Reef2Reef are mixed. Some users are not sure if it has any effect at all. Others swear by it. It scares the fish so I’d have to dose after lights out at 10pm.


Parameters
As of today, two days before a water change they stand at:

I follow the FMM (Farley Magnesium Method) for Mag and don't measure or worry about it.

You can see the exact point (April 30th) when Nitrates bottomed out and I realised I had to do something about the algae build up on the back of the tank. Luckily it was confined to the black plastic panel around the overflow and return pump.
PO4 is higher than I'd like (highest it's ever been but the corals look really happy. Unless advised otherwise I'm happy to adjust my feeding and reduce the PO4 with water changes. I'm totally against adding chemicals to manage the PO4

My question:
What would you suggest as the way forward to dose the tank. I'm leaning towards to Aquaforest mud as I believe it won't change the water chemistry significantly. All suggestions welcomed

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Since your doing weekly water changes, how much does your alk drop from one week to the other before the water change? To me, dosing is based on alk and maintaining alk. Looking at your parameters just 2 days before a water change, I see nothing that requires dosing, weekly water changes seem sufficient.

 

[zerozero]

Just before water change:
Alk : 8.7
Immediately after:
Alk 11.2

(With Salifert tests)

 

[Boehmtown]

I would personally just stick with the water changes on such a small tank. Your numbers I see are fine. My next step would be all for reef because of the cheap start-up and ease of use. Start with a 2ML a day and after a week, retest , focusing on your ALK and calcium being stable. The best chemistry numbers for your tank are the ones you had the day before

 

[zerozero]

Just before water change:
Alk : 8.7
Ca : 330
Immediately after:
Alk 11.2
Ca : 440

(With Salifert tests)

I would personally just stick with the water changes on such a small tank. Your numbers I see are fine. My next step would be all for reef because of the cheap start-up and ease of use. Start with a 2ML a day and after a week, retest , focusing on your ALK and calcium being stable. The best chemistry numbers for your tank are the ones you had the day before

Forgive me if I've misunderstood, but is the idea of adding 2ml of All4Reef to even out the Ca and Alk swings between water changes?

 

[D E N I N O]

I've never heard of kalk raising nutrients, if anything it will drop your PO4 as it binds with it on contact.

For me Kalk is just perfect for needs like this, it is what we used for decades with no issues. It boosts PH, Ca and Alkalinity. Yes it boosts calcium out of ratio with alk but with a fluval evo your water changes will take care of that.

Just before water change:
Alk : 8.7
Immediately after:
Alk 11.2

(With Salifert tests)

What salt are you using to boost up Alk that much?

A quick look at a reef calculator shows you need 1.3 litres of kalk a week to keep that tank at 11dkh. A 500g bag of kalk will last you a long butt time.

 

[zerozero]

Tropic Marin salt bought from LFS

 

[D E N I N O]

Have you tested the alkalinity of a freshly mixed batch? That salt should mix up at 7.5dkh

 

[zerozero]

Have you tested the alkalinity of a freshly mixed batch? That salt should mix up at 7.5dkh

Just tested it now and it's reading 9.3.

I've only just started testing Ca, so perhaps the 11.7 was a testing error... or the LFS water is inconsistent. Probably the former but I'll keep an eye out going forward.

 

[Reeferbadness]

Not sure how your Alk is spiking so much with a simple water change - Tropic Marin Classic Alk is between 9-10 and Pro is around 7.5. Is your salinity level staying the same (say 35.0 ) ? Regarding dosing, i have 2 mature 200g mixed reef tanks and don't dose / feed corals anything but fish poop with a slight dose of NeoNitrite to keep the nitrate's up. I use 2 part (Seachem Fusion 1 and 2) at aroun 150ml per day of Alk and 135 ml per day of Calc - which is quite expensive. I could switch to Kalk but reading about this it just seems pretty complicated so i stick with what's working for me. I also do about 10-12% water change every week using Tropic Marin Pro - but this actually brings down my Alk is i like to sit close to 9.0

Photo for reference :)

 

[Jmp998]

I have many goniopora-some of the more delicate ones don't seem to like rapid ALK changes (especially drops).

However I agree it seems unlikely that a 10-15% water change could raise ALK that much, probably a testing issue.

FWIW I dose Red Sea AB+, Tropic Marin A+/K-, and a human Manganese supplement daily. However I have not formally tested whether this is required or even of any benefit. At this point I don't want to risk any unnecessary changes that might disturb whatever equilibrium I have achieved. I mostly use Kalkwasser for calcium, with two part as needed.

 

[zerozero]

Not sure how your Alk is spiking so much with a simple water change - Tropic Marin Classic Alk is between 9-10 and Pro is around 7.5. Is your salinity level staying the same (say 35.0 ) ?

I'll put that Alk spike down to inexperience. Just from reading the helpful replies in the thread I can see that I should have tested again, rather than accepting the reading at face value. Salinity has been pretty stable for the last year.

Your tank looks lovely, btw.

 

[zerozero]

I have many goniopora-some of the more delicate ones don't seem to like rapid ALK changes (especially drops).

However I agree it seems unlikely that a 10-15% water change could raise ALK that much, probably a testing issue.

That's what I'm going with for now.

FWIW I dose Red Sea AB+, Tropic Marin A+/K-, and a human Manganese supplement daily. However I have not formally tested whether this is required or even of any benefit. At this point I don't want to risk any unnecessary changes that might disturb whatever equilibrium I have achieved. I mostly use Kalkwasser for calcium, with two part as needed.

I'd read about the Manganese which made me think that as we've started adding harder to keep corals it was time to look beyond water changes. Our largest Goni is about the size of your smallest one, the other two are thumb-sized.

I hear you on not disturbing that equilibrium of the tank. At the moment my PO4 is trending upwards but as the test kit goes up to 3.0, I'm not concerned. This is why I'm unsure about pulling the trigger on any of the options.

Looking at your amazing Gonis I'm thinking that another wave maker might be my immediate next step.