LPS Calcium Consumption

[scunfcu]

Open Brain, Elegance, Scolymia , Frogspawn and Torch, do they consume alot of calcium? Looking to keep them in a 45G cube with just a few monti sps frags.

I know I have to measure to see the Cal/Alk level over time in order to decide if I need to dose.

What is your general thought of their calcium consumption rate since they are large compare to small sps frags?

Its a 45G cube I prefer not having to dose and just perform 20% water change monthly.

[Reef Frog]

Montis and frogspawn can grow fairly quickly and can have a large physical mass of calcium skeleton. My bet would be such a tank would EVENTUALLY need supplementation, depending on their size relative to the water volume.

My bet is that the 20% WC per month will eventually not provide enough new minerals. At that time you'd need to increase the frequency of the WCs, or dose kalk or 2 part.

Kalk is super easy and cheap if you already have an ATO. 2 part is pretty easy too. I don't see any reason to avoid these things if you have your heart set on some hard corals. Maintaining a kalk reservoir is a heck of a lot easier & quicker than doing more water changes than you normally would, IMO.

[organism]

imo kalk through the ATO is a great way to keep alkalinity stable in an LPS system. Aside from dosing some calcium every so often if it tests low there's not much else needed.

[scunfcu]

Ok thanks