switching over

[GranTurismo Racer]

I have desided to switch over my tank to an all softy/ zoa tank and say F*** YOU to Calcium. the person who brought this whole idea to my mind is my mom (she has too take care of it when i go to be a diver) she thought that it would be the easiest for her. so i am moving allmost all of the lps im my tank to hers. i will only have about 2 or 3 lps and i dont know if i will even keep them. but a question came a across my mind, would i have to add iodine to the tank. feedback needed from all of you that have a softy............meaning your tank! lol

[ReefinDick]

No, and unless your actually testing for iodine and finding low levels I would not dose any at all. It can be fatal and you won't know how much to dose if you aren't really watching it. Regular water changes should be enough to keep up with iodine in your tank.

And as far as not having to wory about your calclium with softies. I don't think it's nearly as important as it would be for an sps tank, but it's still an important aspect. Just because they don't grow a hard skelotan like an sps or lps coral, they still use calcium for their sclerites.

Here is one of many articles you could find that touches on calcium in soft corals.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/eb/index.php

[GranTurismo Racer]

thanks that artical does help. but do i have to keep it at 400?

[ReefinDick]

I would have to think that if it's a challenge to "keep it at 400" then that would mean something is using up your calcium? If something is using up your calclium, it must be good and I would try to keep it up there. I don't really know what I'm talking about though, pretty new at all this and am between tanks at the moment. I just remember when I first learned that softies used up calcium i was prett surprised so I tried to read some stuff on it. Just did a google search for "calcium soft corals"

I also made the mistake with my first tank of thinking I needed to dose iodine... IMO you should dose anything to a tank unless you have specifically tested for it and finding the levels low. But I always see people dosing stuff that they don't even test for. Doesn't make sense to me. But I do know that in the case of iodine it is important because it can be fatal to your livestock if overdosed.

[smeese]

you will never keep it right on the money without a reactor, and even then i am not sure how steady that would be. You need calcium either way. I think yo momma suckered you into all of your nice corals...but since you still live at home maybe she was just collecting rent.

[GranTurismo Racer]

hahaha funny

[ReefinDick]

OMG I probably am going to be the newb of the day. But what exactly is a reactor? Sounds nuclear? (or wait, is it Nukeler now?)

[smeese]

calcium reactor...give your corals a nuclear growth!