Excessive corals?

[stevedpepper]

Hey gang, I'm looking to make a major purchase of corals. I'm talking huge. I have a 125g. My question:
Is adding a lot of corals at one time dangerous like adding a lot of fish at one time? Or are the rules different?

Please advise.

 

[mr_X]

no. you can add many corals at one time. your tanks needs may change though...it may use more calcium and alk than it did before the corals were introduced. what kind of corals are we talking about? do you have sufficient lighting to sustain photosynthetic creatures?

 

[mstrblstr33]

I agree with x...just make sure you are testing frequently for calc, mag and alk. I am sure you will need to make adjustments once you add all that coral.

 

[stevedpepper]

Thanks for the input. My LFS has a 180g tank with a ton of corals and the owner told me he doses the tank with iodide and other elements as if the tank were a 3,000g tank. I was thinking, "holy cow, that is a ton of iodide and supplements!" Does that seem legit? There are a ton of corals in it....

 

[mstrblstr33]

I wouldn't go that far. Just take your time adding the recommended amount, make sure everything is doing well. Then you can adjust when needed. I do not know of any benefit to "overdosing" chemicals or for that matter, any negative affects from it.

 

[BallinCrew10]

Overdosing can have very bad effects on your tank. Your PWC's should give all the elements your corals need. Dosing a 180 as if it were a 3000 sounds like either bs or a quick way to crash a tank.

 

[CleverBs]

hes probably bsing you...because I know alot about dosing fw planted tanks and if I dosed like that even with an aquarium with JUST plants filled it would crash and destroy the tank. I have a guy at my lfs that tells me things like that often and I call him out on it and he changes it to a different story.

 

[mr_X]

i agree with cleverBs. you would need very little if no iodide. i have never dosed iodide in any tank, other than what's already in my salt mix.
as for calcium, corals won't die if it's depleted, they will just grow slower/not at all.

 

[CleverBs]

I would say just dose for your tank and adjust if you feel that they arnt looking their best or growing at the rate they are capable of. When I started doesing my planted tank I started with the amount required for my tank even though my tank has more plants in it then proabably 90% of the planted tanks out there. I found that some of the things I was doseing wasnt enough and some things like Iron and K2SO4 were fine left at that amount however the others needed to be increased and I have noticed a drimatic growth rate difference in my stem plants they went from needing to be trimmed every 2-3 weeks to being trimmed weekly.

So start normal and increase as needed, they will tell you what they need as all living creatures will.

Check out my tank in my sig if you are interested.

Anyone feel free to correct me if I am wrong like I said I dont have much experince doseing corals becuase I have just started researching it for my tank Im setting up. I am basing it off what I know from doseing high tech planted tanks.

 

[mr_X]

now i have to disagree. do not add anything to the tank you aren't sure you need via test kits.

 

[CleverBs]

now i have to disagree. do not add anything to the tank you aren't sure you need via test kits.

In sw tanks I'd probably say this is true. I know that the ferts I add to planted tanks won't hurt fish till they are in extreme doses so I would stay on the safe side and go with what he said. My main point of that was to tell you the reason why you shouldn't start doseing huge amounts right off the bat.

 

[rdnelson99]

Thanks for the input. My LFS has a 180g tank with a ton of corals and the owner told me he doses the tank with iodide and other elements as if the tank were a 3,000g tank. I was thinking, "holy cow, that is a ton of iodide and supplements!" Does that seem legit? There are a ton of corals in it....

Could be wrong here but sure sounds to me like the lfs wants to sell you a bunch of expensive dosing equipment and supplies.

 

[melosu58]

I agree about dosing only after you have tested and see the need for it. I have huge corals and never have dosed iodine. You can click on the link in my sig to see how big they are.

 

[Mudzie]

Ive heard that iodine would help with xenia colonies and with shrimp molting,but i stopped the lugols dosing after melosu mentioned not to dose if not testing and from what ive read iodide testing is not that reliable..?

 

[BallinCrew10]

Keeping up with PWC's will give your shrimp and xenia all the iodine they need. The best dosing I've found is dosing new saltwater in PWC's.

 

[carey]

Keeping up with PWC's will give your shrimp and xenia all the iodine they need. The best dosing I've found is dosing new saltwater in PWC's.

I totally agree.

 

[Mudzie]

I wish pwcs would work for balancing ph and calcium to but unfortunately thats not the case i do have to buffer for them..

 

[melosu58]

Keeping up with PWC's will give your shrimp and xenia all the iodine they need. The best dosing I've found is dosing new saltwater in PWC's.

IME very sound advice.

 

[mr_X]

I wish pwcs would work for balancing ph and calcium to but unfortunately thats not the case i do have to buffer for them..

it depends on the frequency, the salt mix, and the bio load, but it sure can be the case with all elements.
i've never needed to purchase a ph buffer.