New corals

[Austin J Vatalaro]

My buddy gave me some green bay packer zoas about a month ago and they have been doing great, growing good and good colors. I called him up and was ready for more. Today he gave me Forest fire digi, grafted monti, and red acan. What should I be dosing the tank with or how should I go about keeping them healthy?

 

[Bayareareefer18]

To know what to dose you should test your water params 24 hours apart to try and calculate your daily consumption. May be minimal to start but as the corals grow it will increase so continue to test frequently

Water are your current parameters?

 

[Idoc]

Dosing should be considered after you have determined how much your alkalinity, calcium, and Magnesium is affected by your corals. If you only have a few frags, it's possible to dose those through regular water changes.

Keep them healthy with stable parameters, good water conditions, and best light requirements for each coral.

 

[Austin J Vatalaro]

So I should pick up a diffrent test kit rather than the normal master kit? It has like ph, nitrate, nitrite

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

I would into dosing amino acids. You may consider at looking into Zooplankton and phytoplankton as well.

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

So I should pick up a diffrent test kit rather than the normal master kit? It has like ph, nitrate, nitrite

Yes, you have to test your alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium to know how much and of which to dose.

 

[Austin J Vatalaro]

I have been hand feeding my zoa zoo plankton since I got it, i can definitely start the others aswell. Just not too sure on what else I need to keep them healthy. I have a black box 150w so I am only going to be doing low light/beginner corals for a while until I can figure them out haha. This is all new to me since I had a fish only tank for years

 

[Austin J Vatalaro]

I check my normals weekly before I do my water changes and they check good. I have 4 small frags at the moment. How crucial is it to check calcium, alkaline, and magnesium right off the bat?

 

[BayouReefer]

Good advice given above. With just 4 frags I would say you don’t need to dose anything at this time as long as you are doing small 10% water changes weekly with a quality salt mix. After you get more corals and the ones you have start to grow you will notice when you test your parameters that they are lower than what they were right after your water change that will be the time to start dosing. Remember never dose anything that you are not testing for.

 

[Austin J Vatalaro]

Good advice given above. With just 4 frags I would say you don’t need to dose anything at this time as long as you are doing small 10% water changes weekly with a quality salt mix. After you get more corals and the ones you have start to grow you will notice when you test your parameters that they are lower than what they were right after your water change that will be the time to start dosing. Remember never dose anything that you are not testing for.

Is 20% too much weekly? I have not dosed the tank with anything new. The corals I received today were hiding and showing no color or flowers. When I got home from work they were full of color and the digi even had white tips showing amazingly

 

[Austin J Vatalaro]

The frag sizes

 

[BayouReefer]

When I first started my tank I did 10% water changes every week but every forth week did a 25% water change. It worked well for me. If you don’t mind doing the 20% every week it won’t hurt. With 20% every week and the small amount of frags you have there is no need to worry about dosing at this time.

 

[CavalierReef]

If your buddy gave you healthy frags from his "healthy" tank, what are his perimeters? Perhaps you should try to emulate those. Just a thought.

 

[Austin J Vatalaro]

When I first started my tank I did 10% water changes every week but every forth week did a 25% water change. It worked well for me. If you don’t mind doing the 20% every week it won’t hurt. With 20% every week and the small amount of frags you have there is no need to worry about dosing at this time.

Awesome thank you! I will not be adding anymore coral for awhile so maybe I'll pick up the kits slowly and learn alot more about them. Was just making sure I know what is needed for these corals so they dont die on me haha

 

[Austin J Vatalaro]

If your buddy gave you healthy frags from his "healthy" tank, what are his perimeters? Perhaps you should try to emulate those. Just a thought.

He has a crazy system set up! He has corals that he paid $300-500 for and has no concerns about them dying haha. The light alone he uses is $900. He also has a dosing system and a refegium