What levels are most important to corals? Also how should I be feeding reef roids?

jwilkey2468 · Apr 5, 2022

Currently I have a green star polyp, a small group of zoas, polys, and a green bubble tip anemone. I am looking into getting other corals but after getting a purple stylo and it dying, I am afraid to branch out and get other types of corals ( other than soft corals). I am using RODI water, not dosing and doing biweekly water changes. The stylo lost its polyps and revealed its skeleton, I have also fed reef roids once.

what levels should I be testing to ensure healthy corals? Also should I be slowly introducing reef roids to my corals and anemone?

Spare time · Apr 5, 2022

Alk 7-13KH (the middle is the easiest to maintain)

Calcium 380-500ppm

Magnesium 1280-1500ppm

Phosphate 0.03-0.1ppm (this is taking into account that test might not distinguish values below 0.03 and thus it is a safer minemum

Nitrate 5-15ppm is easy to control

Salinity 1.024-1.027

pH 7.8-8.4 (the higher the better)

There are other numbers I could list but these are the big ones in many cases.

Spare time · Apr 5, 2022

Some values are more important to stick within those guidlines than others (alk being a good example). There are also ways to keep a tank healthy with slightly different numbers.

jwilkey2468 · Apr 7, 2022

Spare time said:
Some values are more important to stick within those guidlines than others (alk being a good example). There are also ways to keep a tank healthy with slightly different numbers.

Thanks for the advice I only have a few soft corals that are small, should I be concerned about these values now? Or should I buy a test kit and dose the required amounts to maintain a stable system? Or should I wait till I have more corals to worry about dosing?

Lavey29 · Apr 8, 2022

You don't need to dose until your weekly water changes are unable to keep up with coral nutrients demand.

How old is your tank?

Sebastiancrab · Apr 8, 2022

I suggest you purchase Salifert or Hanna test items. Regular checking needs to be done. I have had my tank with corals for a year and am now considering dosing pumps. But each tank is different. Once you start monitoring, you will get a feel for the need or not.

Lavey29 · Apr 8, 2022

Sebastiancrab said:
I suggest you purchase Salifert or Hanna test items. Regular checking needs to be done. I have had my tank with corals for a year and am now considering dosing pumps. But each tank is different. Once you start monitoring, you will get a feel for the need or not.

My tank is a year this month and I just started using a dosing pump by Red Sea. The 2 head doser for alk and cal. I highly recommend this unit. Very user friendly and great app to control everything. Very easy set up.

Sebastiancrab · Apr 8, 2022

I am considering a Kamoer and going with All for Reef. That way I can add on if I need to and switch to another additive. I like that Kamoer makes medical pump equipment.

jwilkey2468 · Apr 8, 2022

Lavey29 said:
You don't need to dose until your weekly water changes are unable to keep up with coral nutrients demand.

How old is your tank?

My tank is 4 months old

Lavey29 · Apr 8, 2022

jwilkey2468 said:
My tank is 4 months old

I would get good test kits like Hanna and work on tank stability for your parameters before adding more corals or you may end up throwing money away.

Spare time · Apr 8, 2022

jwilkey2468 said:
Thanks for the advice I only have a few soft corals that are small, should I be concerned about these values now? Or should I buy a test kit and dose the required amounts to maintain a stable system? Or should I wait till I have more corals to worry about dosing?

Some of those no, others yes. Alk is very easy to test for and is used heavily by things like coralline algae. You can use something like all for reef or a 2 part. I always like to know pH but quality pH tests can be pricey. Magnesium will almost certainly be be ok with your water changes at this point. Nitrate and phoshate are always important and same with salinity. For phosphate, I HIGHLY recommend the hanna ulr phosphate/phoshorus (the 2nd is slightly more accurate).