can a reef be maintained without the use of chemicals?

[filefish949]

BTW I have an electric blue crocea in a softy 38gL tank I have never dosed calcium in since the tank was set up 1.5 years ago Before that it was in my 20 long. Never dosed calcium in it either.

 

how much has it grown in 18 months?

[The Propagator]

About 1.5-2" inches. ( est)

It was 1.5 - 2 inches when I got it. Its now 3.5 - 4 inches. ( est )

The calm was introduced to that tank about 6 months ago.

It was in the 20 long for about 7-8 months before that.

 

 

Now before you reply to that read my original post again please.

Where I said you could keep a reef with out dosing anything but you want things to thrive.... not survive.

[Hypertek99]

I never dose just weekly water changes. Never had a problem

[emarti20]

10g here, have never doesed anything in 4 years with it. No LPS or SPS in it though, just weekly water changes.

[shift_9k]

You know i've been meaning to start dosing CA/AlK but I dont test for either. I have a 24G AP with 150HQi MH. The stock list is as follows:

 

Orange Monti Cap

Purp Monti Digi

 

Torch

Acan

Micro

 

4 Frags of Zoas

3 Ricordea

 

Ultra Crocea Clam (2.5inches)

 

Cleaner Shrimp

Pair of Onyx Clowns (6months old)

Firefish

 

5 Astrea Snails

5 Nassarius

2 Cerith

5 Blue Leg Hermits

1 Scarlet Red Hermit

 

 

Now I dont dose anything. I dont touch anything, I dont skim, and I dont have a sump or a refuge. I have some chaeto stuffed into a corner where it gets light and good flow. I run the back chambers open with nothing in them other than a bag of chemipure.

 

The tank has been up for 6.5 months now. I went thru a couple of crashes very early because i was a noob and very impatient. I learned my lesson(s). Since then i've stocked lightly and slowly. Other than a big order from Mvite in which I got a little coral crazy.

 

I feed the tank with with Mysis, Rods Food, F1 flakes. I feed mysis once a week, Rods food once a week, and flakes for a snack every now and then. I feed the acans, micros, torch, rics once a week when i feed mysis.

 

Now that seems hard to believe but the tank is doing really well. What I do, do is a 25% water change every week on time and on schedule. I dont temp match the water change, I do the water change as soon as the lights come on for the day. I top off manually with RO water probably two to three times a day (probably half gallon a day) which just sits next to the tank. What I strongly believe is stability, I think that by far is the most important part in keeping a nice reef. In doing so the water is crystal clear, and coral are showing strong color and growth. My orange cap has probably doubled in size, and my rics are splitting (slow growers). You can see new white ridges on my clam whenever he closes up all the way.

 

From all my reading and from all of the awesome tanks on here what i'm doing should not work, nor should you try to do it. I do plan on dosing CA/AlK but only when I buy the proper test kits. The way I see it if it aint broke dont fix it.

 

The only issues I have is that my torch hasn't shown any growth and my zoas are not really growing much same with the acan's and micros. They sprouted one baby head in the 4 months that i've had them. My guess is that the other coral are sucking up the good stuff at a higher rate. So therefore I will begin dosing soon.

 

There are many things you can do and countless dollars you can spend trying to get your reef to be great according to what has worked for others. People suggest chemicals, food, this and that. But I think if you put more of an effort to design your reef in a way it functions in the wild you can get away with some things. I know i'm walking a fine line with mine and i plan to take a more conservative approach. But from my experience i've been able to get away with what i've been doing and there have been no casualties to report. So my answer to your question is....

 

 

 

Yes.

[shiveley]

I have a 20G that's been running for over a year. Only filtration is a protein skimmer. Only chemicals provided are through regular water changes. This tank has SPS, LPS, mushrooms, zoas, palys, and other softies. The back wall is covered in purple coralline, and animal life appears to be flourishing. The mushrooms and zoas are spreading like crazy, and the LPS and SPS have both sprouted multiple branches since their introduction. So, from my experience, it seems highly possible to do, as long as you are diligent about your water changes...

[barrman]

i absolutely have to dose my 12g. i have 1 crocea, 1 deresa, and numerous SPS, as well as LPS & zoas. I drip kalk, and dose ca and alk daily, as well as mag weekly.

[Woobie]

Andreas

 

Did you have to mod the PURA to fit into the chamber?

I have a 29BC all stock

[The Propagator]

On small set ups with few calcium demanding corals you don't need to dose anything really.

All you need to focus on is a good quality salt mix, flow, light, regular maintenance and feedings.

[Blaze]

yeah you can i was just doing water changes for a while and i was fine. then i started adding trace elements i think the polyps in my tank look healthyer now though.

[Rcpilot]

My ALK and pH are constantly running low. I've been dosing SeaChem Reef Buffer. It takes care of both.

 

I've been using Oceanic. Not real happy with the results. I'm thinking about buying another brand and mix it with my Oceanic. I HATE dosing my tank. I have a 30g tank and I change 5-6g every week. I use RO/DI water from a 6-stage unit.

 

I have a great skimmer. Great refugium. Running DSB in the tank and the refugium. Cheato in the refugium. Never any signs of nitrates or phosphates. My only problem is low ALK and low pH. My ALK was down to like 2.3 and my pH will drop and hold at 7.8 if I don't dose it.

 

I now have my pH at 8.2 and my ALK at 3.9

 

What salt mix are y'all using?

[SPS20]

My ALK and pH are constantly running low. I've been dosing SeaChem Reef Buffer. It takes care of both.

 

I've been using Oceanic. Not real happy with the results. I'm thinking about buying another brand and mix it with my Oceanic. I HATE dosing my tank. I have a 30g tank and I change 5-6g every week. I use RO/DI water from a 6-stage unit.

 

I have a great skimmer. Great refugium. Running DSB in the tank and the refugium. Cheato in the refugium. Never any signs of nitrates or phosphates. My only problem is low ALK and low pH. My ALK was down to like 2.3 and my pH will drop and hold at 7.8 if I don't dose it.

 

I now have my pH at 8.2 and my ALK at 3.9

 

What salt mix are y'all using?

 

If you find your Ca+/Alk are drifting downwards no matter how much water you change, then the simplest solution is to supplement them. Sure, you can keep some tanks without supplementation, but not every tank will work if you do that. It all comes down to haw much calcification is taking place in your tank.

 

You, you can keep a tank without using a single supplement, but you can't do that with just any tank. If you tried that in my tank, you would have to change almost all the water daily to keep up. If you took the stony corals out of my tank and replaced them with softies, I suspect that water changes alone would do the trick.

 

Know the needs of your tank, meet them, and you will be fine. Chemicals are often the shortest and easiest path to success.

 

Parenthetically, if your Alk is falling fast, there is a good chance your Ca+ is too. I would test that if I were you, if you aren't doing so already.

[Rcpilot]

I test all the important ones once a week. I quit testing ammonia, nitrites, phosphates and nitrates after like 20 times and it kept coming up ZERO on all those. I still test nitrates and phosphates about once a month for giggles--ZERO. I am testing my pH, ALK, calcium, strontium, magnesium and iodine about once a week now. I use Salifert test kits.

 

My calcium is off the chart. Over 500. I know that when ALK falls, it brings pH down with it, and that also causes the calcium to rise. Can't figure it out.

 

I even went on a rampage because I thought my whole system had an ion imbalance. I changed 5 gallons every day for 21 days straight. Trying to flush the system and get it stable. Waste of salt mix and RO water. 2 days after I stopped doing that--pH and ALK were low again and calcium was off the chart again.

 

I just gave up. I dose 1 teaspoon of Seachem Reef Buffer every other day now. Keeps it all in balance. I just don't like screwing with it. Wish I knew what was causing it.

 

I'm using Oceanic salt and have been told by some people that it's considered "budget" salt. I wanted to try Reef Crystals and mix it with my Oceanic. I got too much Oceanic mix to just dump the whole bucket in the trash. Have to use it up. I wonder if mixing it with a better salt would help stabilize my reef?

[SPS20]

I test all the important ones once a week. I quit testing ammonia, nitrites, phosphates and nitrates after like 20 times and it kept coming up ZERO on all those. I still test nitrates and phosphates about once a month for giggles--ZERO. I am testing my pH, ALK, calcium, strontium, magnesium and iodine about once a week now. I use Salifert test kits.

 

My calcium is off the chart. Over 500. I know that when ALK falls, it brings pH down with it, and that also causes the calcium to rise. Can't figure it out.

 

I even went on a rampage because I thought my whole system had an ion imbalance. I changed 5 gallons every day for 21 days straight. Trying to flush the system and get it stable. Waste of salt mix and RO water. 2 days after I stopped doing that--pH and ALK were low again and calcium was off the chart again.

 

I just gave up. I dose 1 teaspoon of Seachem Reef Buffer every other day now. Keeps it all in balance. I just don't like screwing with it. Wish I knew what was causing it.

 

I'm using Oceanic salt and have been told by some people that it's considered "budget" salt. I wanted to try Reef Crystals and mix it with my Oceanic. I got too much Oceanic mix to just dump the whole bucket in the trash. Have to use it up. I wonder if mixing it with a better salt would help stabilize my reef?

 

For what its worth, I would avoid reef crystals. That mix, ironically, is really not very good for reef tanks. If you Ca+ runs high, just supplement your Alk and hope for the best. Maybe your source water is high in Ca+? The low pH may be constributing to increased dissolution of aragonite in your system? Maybe your test kit is borked? Maybe your salt mix is wacky? Just some ideas.

 

Regardless, if your corals are happy, keep doing what you are doing. If they aren't, keep trying.

[Weetabix7]

Oceanic salt is known for having high Ca and low Alk.

[Scott Riemer]

Oceanic salt is known for having high Ca and low Alk.

My corals like it.

[Weetabix7]

Admit it, you've been feeding your corals cookies, that's why they're so happy!

[Scott Riemer]

Admit it, you've been feeding your corals cookies, that's why they're so happy!

Somebody has cookies on the brain.^^^^

[Weetabix7]

Somebody has cookies on the brain.^^^^

 

Who, me???

You gotsta be careful about getting too many cookies on the brain, it can make you feel crummy!

[Scott Riemer]

Who, me???

You gotsta be careful about getting too many cookies on the brain, it can make you feel crummy!

[Weetabix7]

[yardboy]

Weeta,

I made this huge batch of cocoanut/pecan/oatmeal cookies for Christmas, I'm talking over a hundred and fifty three inch cookies (size does matter when it comes to cookies) and my family (of which I am a cookie munching member) polished the last one off today. Then they started on the pies.

 

As much as I avoid the forum, the magazine is good. Read this to decide how you want to maintain the elements in your tank

[elaak]

I am sure that you can get away with not dosing anything like Ca, Alk and Mg but for me I always see much less growth when I slack off on the dosing due to trips. So it basicly depends on how much work I want to put into my tank to get a little more growth and IMO having extra frags to trade is well worth the time spent dosing.

[Dustmop336]

I also have to dose for alk and I use Oceanic. I use Kent super buffer or baking soda and have to dose regularly. Its a bummer but i guess Id rather dose just a buffer than a bunch of other stuff. Why is it impossible to manufacture a perfectly balanced salt mix?

[yardboy]

Why does the salt mix have to be bad if you have to dose? Corals, fish and inverts take up minerals from the water, supplied by the salt mix. Depending on the demand, for minerals such as calcium and alkalinity the water becomes depleted within a day of doing a water change. Nothing wrong with the salt mix, just corals doing what they do best, grow.