Nano Tank - Water Changes vs Dosing

[Scott23]

Hi. Everybody has been great on the forum.

Many years ago, I had a 115G. Now, I am doing a nano reef (20G long) for the first time.

I want to have a full tank of mainly LPS corals, with just 3 small fish (clown, white spotted pygmy file fish, royal gramma). There is no protein skimming. I am doing approx 30% change per week and haven't seen any appreciable build up of nitrates. All corals seem to be happy so far, and I want to add more LPS.

Can weekly water changes alone (no dosing) be sufficient to keep corals happy and thriving?

Thanks!

 

[Scott23]

I just realized that there is a nano reef tank section. Should I have posted there?

 

[hzheng33]

it depends on your salt mix parameter and what your coral uptake is. so it's difficult to gauge without knowing these parameters.

for my sps tank, i lose about 1dKH without dosing per day. so water change in my situation makes no difference other than possibly removing elements that i don't want to build-up overtime.

 

[BlackLitez]

Testing Alkalinity and Calcium will let you know if you need to start dosing.

Water changes alone can certainly be enough, until it isn't, as the corals grow, as you add more coral. The more coral you add, the more alkalinity and calcium will be used up.

As long as you can keep your parameters stable with water changes alone, then you don't need to dose.

Some people do automatic water changes constantly throughout the day, they don't need to dose.

Most people do water changes and dose enough to keep their parameters stable.

Then there are people like me, who never do water changes and only dose.

 

[Scott23]

Thanks for the responses. I am hoping that 30% water changes per week are more than enough to not have to get into testing alkalinity and calcium and dosing. I am also hoping that not having SPS corals means that I don't need to be as careful about dKH. It makes sense that the only way I am going to know objectively is to test as the tank gets more loaded.

 

[BlackLitez]

imo, if you are keeping coral, you should already be testing alkalinity and calcium. There might be a couple coral out there that will grow no matter what your parameters are.

 

[Scott23]

Thanks. I would agree. I have a wide variety of LPS corals (torch, acans, goni, favia, elegance, etc) and all are doing very well from how they look in the tank. Considering this, and that have been doing substantial water changes, I have been more laid back about testing. I will start doing some testing to at least have an idea of my baselines.

 

[Doberman13]

I have a 22 gallon tank with a 30 gallon sump(with ~20g of water volume). After adding quite a few lps and zoas with some montis and a single acro frag I was losing 1 dkh a day so I decided to run a doser. I bought a jebao 4 head doser and only dosed fritz alk for 2 months before I started dosing fusion calcium as well. Then after about 6 months and a few more sps, acros later I started dosing Acropower and Brightwells koralcolor. With the doser, a small refugium and a big skimmer I didn't do a water change for the first 6 months of dosing. Now I do a 5 gal WC on that tank once every 2-3 months just to keep up with trace nutrients.

 

[56cbr600rr]

I'm in a 25 gallon tank. LOTS of corals, although mostly LPS, and very few SPS. I change 20% water once every two weeks, sometimes all the way out 30 days.. no Protein skimmer either. The only things that go down quite a bit is alk and Ca. If youdose or hand dose you can pace out your WC's a little longer IMO.

Also for reference I have 7 fish. I feed at least once daily and keep Nitrates around 10 and Phosphates around .08.

 

[BlackLitez]

I'm in a 25 gallon tank. LOTS of corals, although mostly LPS, and very few SPS. I change 20% water once every two weeks, sometimes all the way out 30 days.. no Protein skimmer either. The only things that go down quite a bit is alk and Ca. If youdose or hand dose you can pace out your WC's a little longer IMO.

Also for reference I have 7 fish. I feed at least once daily and keep Nitrates around 10 and Phosphates around .08.

7 fish, no skimmer and low nitrates? That sounds awesome! I'm assuming no refugium either? I was worried about my bioload and nutrient export, but it seems I will have plenty of export for any amount of fish i decide to get

 

[56cbr600rr]

7 fish, no skimmer and low nitrates? That sounds awesome! I'm assuming no refugium either? I was worried about my bioload and nutrient export, but it seems I will have plenty of export for any amount of fish i decide to get

nope, no refugium. Should be fine as long as you don't overfeed. And be careful with ReefRoids. Crazy phosphate spikes.

current pic:

 

[Cook]

I agree with what others have said. If you are relying on water changes to make up the alkalinity drops then using a higher alkalinity salt mix helps so long as the swings between changes don't become too large. At that point using a lower alkalinity salt and dosing is necessary. I had two small torches in a 20 Gallon cube and they lowered the alkalinity almost 1 dkH a day.

 

[90gDreams]

My personal opinion, having had about 7 years combined experience with the hobby and not having any real issues aside from a power outage crash and a poor choice of which silicone to use for a DIY sump many years ago, is for a "easy" LPS based tank you can have very good success by just winging it. Religiously do waterchanges every two weeks, once a month bare minimum. If you see algae flaring up run GFO for a few weeks, or add clean up crew. Have decent lights, decent flow, and when things look good keep your booger pickers out of the tank (and now-a-days off the LED remote).

I didn't maintain anything I'd consider world class but it was stable decent growth with decent color. I did not even own a phosphate or alkalinity check during my first 6ish years in the hobby as whatever I didn't spend on beer went to salt and fishfood. God bless student loans and lack of responsibilities lol

Obviously the more stable everything is the better everything will be in all aspects. Even xenia will do better with stability. But if the question is "can just water changes work", the answer is absolutely.

75g, circa 2012

 

[Scott23]

Awesome advice from everyone. I appreciate it. I think I will drop back from weekly substantial water changes to doing it every two weeks and keeping an eye on the alkalinity. My tank is still at the stage where I haven't been able to build up any nitrates.

 

[56cbr600rr]

Sounds like a plan. I use Reef Fusion 2 to keep alkalinity up... You might want to measure alk drop every 24-48 hours (for a few days) so you know how much to add every couple of days. I'd say keep it somewhere between 8-9.5. Pick a level and try to maintain it.

 

[Scott23]

I appreciate all the advice...Along the same topic, what do people think is the easiest dosing supplement for a small tank? I ended up picking up some All for Reef and ReefFusion 2. I used the ReefFusion 2 to get my alkalinity slowly up to the 8-9 range and alternate with All for Reef to take care of calcium. Currently, it looks like my tank is drawing down alkalinity faster than calcium.

 

[56cbr600rr]

I appreciate all the advice...Along the same topic, what do people think is the easiest dosing supplement for a small tank? I ended up picking up some All for Reef and ReefFusion 2. I used the ReefFusion 2 to get my alkalinity slowly up to the 8-9 range and alternate with All for Reef to take care of calcium. Currently, it looks like my tank is drawing down alkalinity faster than calcium.

Sounds about right..

Not familiar with AllReef however.

 

[BlackLitez]

I recommend using formula with lower concentrations with a smaller tank.

I've been using red sea a & b. The concentration is pretty high, so I can only dose about 20mL of alk a day. I believe it's preferable for me to switch to brs two-part since it's a lower concentration and I can dose 60mL a day.

By dosing larger amounts, I'm able to dial in more precise amounts per hour.