to dose or not to dose

[Clarkie]

I hear alot of people talk about geting everything you need from water changes. I can see this working for nanos, but I have a 55gal. I just cant see myself doing a 10-20% every week, just to replace trace elements. I know this is a little more of a RC.com ?, but honestly I dont like that website and would rather ask hear.

 

So hear is my setup please tell me what you think. Its been up and running for about 1.5yrs, and everything is healthy (except for a minor cyano outbreak).

 

-55gal

-lights PC about 162watts ( 96watts over half, 65 over the other half,.....leathers and cady under 96 half)

-Seaclone skimmer(Iknow ive heard they suck, but mine keeps my NITRATES at 0 without a sump)

-water change about10-20% every month

-preaty good flow for a softy tank

-ph 8.0-8.3 ( im still trying to get this down)

-NI 0

-ammonia 0

-NA 0-5

 

-livestock....lots of zoos, toadstoll leather, finger leather, candy cane, GSP, shrooms, Xenia, Nephthea green leather, and a hitch hicker anemone that i think is aheteractis magnifica.

 

So other that the cady its all softies. Everything is healthy, but I dont get as much grouth as i think I should. I know more light would be best, but what else could I do to promote grouth. I was thinking I should add trace elements, or coral-vite, because I only do monthly water changes.

 

any info would be great!!!!!!!

 

P.S. Ive had my leathers for over a year, and they havent grown at all. thanks

[Steve973]

You could add b-ionic if you want to. But how do your parameters hold up between changes? Is your calcium stable, and is your alkalinity stable? If so, I'd say that you should keep it simple and avoid additives. Additives are an investment that won't necessarily pay off. It hasn't been proven that the trace elements actually help with anything. People suspect that they are beneficial, but there isn't any hard evidence. The only thing proven to be useful is maintaining calcum and alkalinity. If those are still at good levels by the time you perform a water change, then my vote is to avoid additives. Otherwise, you could maintain these levels with a kalk drip or with daily aditions of b-ionic. Be careful, though, since a softy tank doesn't use ca/alk like a stony coral tank.

[Caesar777]

"I just cant see myself doing a 10-20% every week, just to replace trace elements."

 

That may be your problem: the main reason for water changes is too keep the water quality up.

 

On dosing: most things you don't actually need, especially since you only keep soft corals. Many will actually worsen water quality, for example "Coral-Vite", which is just diluted vitamins and amino acids, which will only fuel algae growth.

 

Remember, there's no magic bullet, and nothing that can replace good old-fashioned water changes.

[Clarkie]

First let me say thanks for the feed back.

 

Caesar

I had a 18gal for a year and a half, and did water changes religiously. A 55gal tank puts me at 5-10gals a week. Now I know this would be the ideal way to go, but ill go broke on salt(like most I cant $$$ this hobby). Ive read about guys going 6 months without a water change, and use additives. Now I will NEVER go mor than a month without a change. I just to make sure my corals are getting what they need without turning my tank into a fulltime job instead of a part time:). (dont think im lazy, or dont have what it takes to be in this hobby. I love love love saltwater, but I live in a small apartment with my wife and kid. I have no place to leave water premade, so a 5-10 gallon change is a little more work than I can handel on a weekly basses. sorry if I rambled.....please tell me your opinion on what I should do given what I told you....thanks

 

steve

my prameters arent bad, but arent great. ammonia, ni, always 0 na never above 10...... calcium is a slow but steady drop, so is alk, and ph ( to be honest Ive been a bad boy with ph I let it get to low sometimes, i feel like such a newbe.....you know what....after 1.5 yrs at this, I know ill always be a newbe:)

[Caesar777]

Don't go by what other people say. Either they're BSing or exaggerating, or they're a big exception.

 

You don't need to change 5-10 gallons a week..That's huge. It should be 10-20%--that's 1.8-3.6 (to be exact ) gallons per week. Two gallons should be more than sufficient.

[ReeferMo]

Originally posted by Caesar777

You don't need to change 5-10 gallons a week..That's huge. It should be 10-20%--that's 1.8-3.6 (to be exact ) gallons per week. Two gallons should be more than sufficient.

 

 

Not tryin' to be an a$$ or anything, but just to avoid any confusion - his water changes would be 5 to 10 gal (55g tank).

 

As long as you are happy with your tank, and the inhabitants aren't suffering or dying off - I say go with what you can. Is it optimum? Probably not. But we all know that most of us didn't start out with all the bestest and mostest equipment (or practices). If your livestock starts showing signs of distress then you need to be responsible and address the situation immediately and make the necessary changes, but in the meantime do what you can and enjoy the hobby - upgrade your gear and technique when you are able. 'Course, that's just me.

[Steve973]

In my 18 gallon tank, I change 4 gallons per week. I used to change five gallons per week. I've just made a commitment to stick with a rigorous maintenance schedule.

 

Water changes are the single best thing that you can do to increase water quality and decrease the concentration of any type of pollutant. It's silly but true: "The solution to pollution is dilution".

 

You could ease the financial burden by buying a reverse osmosis/deionization filter to make your water, which will pay for itself in a short amount of time. I'm not sure how to offset the cost of marine salt, though. Let me know if you find some way around that!

[Caesar777]

Doh. My math was on the 18 gallon. (3 hours' sleep over 3 days does that...)

 

Still, there's no way around water changes for good water quality.

[Steve973]

I tend to lean towards 20%. At 10% it takes 15 water changes to get 100ppm of some "pollutant" down to 20.5ppm, and at 20% it takes 8 water changes to get it down to 16.7ppm. In my opinion, from a water quality standpoint, it's cheaper and easier to change 20%.

[Clarkie]

Well I have a skimmer that keeps pollutants at 0. My water changes are mainly to replace trace elements...so.........???.....do I need to do 10% a week on a 55 gal(softy tank) tank just for trace elements.

 

P.S. thanks for the feedback guys. I know this has been tackled in other forums, and I have read most of them.

[ACBlinky]

It sounds to me like adding trace elements wouldn't hurt - my FW experience with aquatic plants has taught me that if one required element is missing, growth will stall (there's a 'limiting agent' to growth - if that missing piece is provided, growth will resume/speed up). I have no idea if this might be the case with your leather - maybe there's some element missing that it's not getting, causing it to survive but not thrive.

If your skimmer's doing a terrific job, how about trying a 10% water change once every two weeks? I think weekly is probably ideal (I follow the school of thought that in any tank, more water changes are better) but if your levels are all good maybe twice a month is fine.

I sympathize with the lack of space issue - my husband and I live in an apartment downtown with a dog, three cats and three tanks. It's not easy to find a place to store buckets or 5g water bottles, but maybe you could do what I did - use it as an excuse to clean out a closet or get rid of something you don't need that's taking up room

[Killagoby]

Trace elements sometimes do "hurt". Coral-Vite by Kent made my tank break out in a massive algae bloom. I use B-Ionic now to keep my alk and calcium up. Also, try to keep your Ph at 8.3. Try not to go lower like you are trying to do Clarkie.

[mattie]

as for all softies in the tank i wouldn't stress to hard on the doseing

if you use a mixture of quality foods they can suppliment all you need minus the calcium and DKH which you should test for 1 to 4x a month

and the water changes will add enough trace elements. just do 10-20% once a month in a 55g

hth

[Reef_Mad_Man]

Your tank broke outin an algae bloom because you overdosed the coral-vite.