Reef Crystals & SPS Corals

JuanFish2Fish · Jul 6, 2016

Hey guys,

I'm currently curing the dry rock (in freshwater) I will be using in my 40 gallon reef setup and have been thinking about some of the corals I am interested in stocking. I know I'd like to do a mixed reef with mostly soft corals, but definitely a couple of SPS's. I've already heard that stability is crucial with an SPS tank and I was wondering whether a product like Instant Ocean's Reef Crystals would help lessen the degree to which I would have to dose for calcium and, perhaps, alkalinity.

For those of you unfamiliar with Reef Crystals, the box makes the claim that if the water is mixed to a specific gravity of 1.026, then the calcium levels in the water will be 455 ppm and potassium will also be at a specific concentration (I forgot the exact ppm).
How fast would a few (2-3 and starting off as frags, probably) SPS corals absorb the calcium in the water before the levels are no longer what Instant Ocean claims they'll be at a given specific gravity? Is this any sort of replacement for dosing the calcium part of a 2 part system or am I better off with normal Sea Salt and dosing normally?

TL;DR . . . Can I be cheap/lazy with some SPS corals by using Instant Ocean's Reef Crystals to maintain calcium levels in water?
Thanks!

BeanMachine · Jul 6, 2016

Whatever salt you choose, at some point you will need to dose the big 3 depending on the coral load.

Personally, I like to use a salt that is close to my desired water parameters. So I use regular Instant Ocean.

ndrwater · Jul 6, 2016

I agree with Bean. On all counts.
Tried em all.... Back to the tried and true Instant Ocean. For what it's worth I used RC for a long time, but IO is cheaper. Need to dose anyway, so saving a few bucks every water change adds up.....

JuanFish2Fish · Jul 6, 2016

Thanks for the help, guys. I'm a little leery about dosing any sort of chemicals that have a chance of messing things up in the tank. . . which is just about everything except the Prime water conditioner I use, haha. I'll have to do some research on 2 part dosing it seems.

ndrwater · Jul 6, 2016

JuanFish2Fish said:

I'll save you some research. Use ESV BIonic. Their 2 part or 3 part system gets it done.

ndrwater · Jul 6, 2016

JuanFish2Fish said:

I'll save you some research. Use ESV BIonic. Their 2 part or 3 part system gets it done.

ndrwater · Jul 6, 2016

Double post.....

JuanFish2Fish · Jul 7, 2016

ndrwater said:

Thanks for the recommendation; I'll look it up on BRS.

*Update* I thought this stuff was going to be expensive, but I did the math and at their recommended dosage the 64oz size will last me 189 days. Not too shabby.

gcarroll · Jul 7, 2016

JuanFish2Fish said:

If you are using prime water conditioner, you have bigger problems that choosing a proper salt and fear of dosing.

JuanFish2Fish · Jul 7, 2016

gcarroll said:

What's wrong with Prime? I've been using it for my freshwater systems since I got back into fish keeping 2 years ago.

BeanMachine · Jul 7, 2016

JuanFish2Fish said:

You shouldn't be using tap water for your aquarium. You shouldn't have any need for prime. You should be using RODI.

JuanFish2Fish · Jul 7, 2016

BeanMachine said:

Oh, right. I already read up on why RO/DI is the way to go for saltwater tanks: that's why I specified that I use it in my freshwater tanks. Using pure RO/DI wouldn't go over well in my planted discus tank and since I don't want to bother with buffers and stuff like that I just mix it with tap water, which warrants the use of a water conditioner.

|FATHOM| · Jul 7, 2016

JuanFish2Fish said:

you didn't specify that you used it in freshwater at all which is what caused the confusion. This is a saltwater forum so when you make a general statement without being specific it is assumed that you are talking about saltwater

JuanFish2Fish · Jul 7, 2016

|FATHOM| said:

JuanFish2Fish said:

Oops, now I see why there was confusion. I said I used it in an earlier post and then clarified it afterward. I'll make sure and be more precise guys, thanks!

|FATHOM| · Jul 7, 2016

To answer your question yes you eventually will have to dose with sps. The best post that helped me understand the way dosing works and why it is necessary came from member blackraven1425 on 3reef

"What you have to realize is that you're doing an 8 gallon water change. I don't know how big your tank is, so I'm going to assume 36 gallons for the sake of my explanation. You salt mix, again, for the sake of this argument (you provided no numbers whatsoever), has numbers of 10dkh, 450ppm calcium, and 1400 magnesium - not shabby numbers.

So, you start out with water at those numbers. Your water lowers by 10ppm calcium, 10ppm magnesium, and .5 dkh, over the course of a week (MUCH lower usage than there is in my 55g display area; I get this amount of change every other day). You do a 25% water change - do you know what your new levels are?

They'd be 442.5ppm calcium, 9.625dkh, and 1392.5 magnesium.

Another week goes by, with the same utilization rate (which, BTW, will never happen. If no coral dies in your tank, your utilization will definitely grow slowly over time). You do another 25% water change, and end up with levels of ~437ppm calcium, 9.343 dkh, and 1386.875 magnesium.

Do you see where your problem lies?

You can literally NEVER get back to the concentrations of these ions that the salt mix contains by doing a 25% water change every week, let alone if you have even a medium-low usage tank. If you end up with a decently loaded tank, expect to be at low levels forever, possibly to the point of coral bleaching and death once your corals grow out. Like I said, usage will ALWAYS increase if you keep the same corals. They grow, and subsequently need more calcium, alk and magnesium, so they pull more out of the water."

JuanFish2Fish · Jul 7, 2016

|FATHOM| said:

To answer your question yes you eventually will have to dose with sps. The best post that helped me understand the way dosing works and why it is necessary came from member blackraven1425 on 3reef

"What you have to realize is that you're doing an 8 gallon water change. I don't know how big your tank is, so I'm going to assume 36 gallons for the sake of my explanation. You salt mix, again, for the sake of this argument (you provided no numbers whatsoever), has numbers of 10dkh, 450ppm calcium, and 1400 magnesium - not shabby numbers.

So, you start out with water at those numbers. Your water lowers by 10ppm calcium, 10ppm magnesium, and .5 dkh, over the course of a week (MUCH lower usage than there is in my 55g display area; I get this amount of change every other day). You do a 25% water change - do you know what your new levels are?

They'd be 442.5ppm calcium, 9.625dkh, and 1392.5 magnesium.

Another week goes by, with the same utilization rate (which, BTW, will never happen. If no coral dies in your tank, your utilization will definitely grow slowly over time). You do another 25% water change, and end up with levels of ~437ppm calcium, 9.343 dkh, and 1386.875 magnesium.

Do you see where your problem lies?

You can literally NEVER get back to the concentrations of these ions that the salt mix contains by doing a 25% water change every week, let alone if you have even a medium-low usage tank. If you end up with a decently loaded tank, expect to be at low levels forever, possibly to the point of coral bleaching and death once your corals grow out. Like I said, usage will ALWAYS increase if you keep the same corals. They grow, and subsequently need more calcium, alk and magnesium, so they pull more out of the water."

That was the perfect answer. Thanks for the reference, Fathom.

|FATHOM| · Jul 7, 2016

JuanFish2Fish said:

No problem we are all here to help each other out

Rakie · Jul 8, 2016

ndrwater said:

Not a fan of the BRS 2 part?

I really like it since it has the BRS Calculator at their website, makes it very simple to new reefers.

BeanMachine · Jul 8, 2016

Rakie said:

I dont like brs 2 part as its not nearly as concentrated.

Rakie · Jul 8, 2016

Ah, that makes sense -- Now that you mention it a lot of their products or whoopsie safe to some degree. I suppose it's so if a newer reefer confuses a ML with a TBS or something it wont be an instant tank nuke.

Reef Crystals & SPS Corals

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