What suplements for a reef aquarium?

[Patroklos]

Alright,

I am about ready to go for my first coral, but I am pretty sure that I will require suplements but I am not sure which ones and from who. From reading it looks like I will need:

Strontium
Calcium
Magnesium

Any others? Also, what specific manufacturers do you guys use. I would like to try a proven product if possibe. I have read the contents of some of the all in one types and they say they include copper! That can't be good. Thanks!

 

[austinsdad]

What kinda corals you targeting? Unless you're doing a large amount of hard corals, I'd stay completely away from supplments.

Partial water changes regularly will likely proovide all the replinishements of of those things you think you might need.

 

[neilanh]

Your salt mix should provide you pretty much everything you need if you're doing regular water changes to replenish this. Supplementing these things is really only for more advanced users with a hefty coral load that needs it.

As a general rule, don't add anything to your tank that you're not testing for, so if you're looking to get something, I'd get test kits right now and monitor things. I think you'll see that you'll be fine until you really get that tank loaded down.

 

[melosu58]

I would first try PWC`s. Do a few weekly PWC`s and then test to see if you even need to supplement. You may have to supplement Calcium depending on what salt mix you use. I use oceanic and dont have to supplement anything. PWC`s as stated from the others will be your best bet.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

As Neilanh mentioned, one of the cardinal rules is don't dose if you don't test. I can see perhaps you having to dose for calcium depending on your salt mix, but the first question is "what is your current calcium level?"

There are hundreds of beautiful reef tanks out there that rely solely on water changes to replenish their trace elements. Adding "stuff", or worse yet... the combination "all-in-one" type stuff, just because the bottle says you need it is an accident waiting to happen.

Oh... regarding copper - it IS actually a required trace element for any living thing. It's just that the levels folks use for medicinal purposes is waaaaayyyy over that level. There's copper in your salt mix, guaranteed.

 

[melosu58]

As far as trace elements there are roughly about 89 different salts in NSW and Synthetic salts are pretty close to that. These different salts make up the trace elements that are needed in your tank. That`s why PWC`s are your best bet.

 

[Patroklos]

I use Red Sea Coral Pro for salt mix. It was suggested by my LFS to dose before adding corals since my coraline growth is not much. I do 25% water changes a week at least, usually more.

 

[Innovator]

The usual supplementations are Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium. If you find your tests are below what you would like then you can use this handy-dandy calculator to figure out the dosing: Reef Chemistry Calculator I don't find anything wrong with dosing as long as you know what you are doing and can be a learning tool in their action/reaction relationships.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

... I don't find anything wrong with dosing as long as you know what you are doing....

Agree totally. Doing it just because your LFS tells you that you should is putting the fox in charge of the hen house.

 

[melosu58]

I also agree with James. If you need to after testing then so be it. I also agree with Kurt that you dont do it just because the LFS said so. Do some water test and post your results.

 

[ccCapt]

I use Red Sea Coral Pro for salt mix.

I use the same salt and you do not need to supplement anything to it. A fresh mix with RO/DI water should give you about 450 calcium, 7 dKH alkalinity and 1300 magnesium.
The only thing I do is bump up the alk slightly (I add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to my 20g water change) to get it more balanced, but it is absolutely fine as is.

If your having trouble getting coralline to grow, check your phosphate.

 

[Patroklos]

I have phosphate of .5 as of yesterday. I have a mesh bag of Phosguard filtering my regugium return pump intake to hopefully bring that down to 0, it was 1 when I started that two weeks ago.

 

[Tommy Gun]

You should be able to control the phosphate with partial water changes as well! Unless you are using tap water that contains a lot of phosphate - which you can avoid by using RO water - performing a few water changes over the course of a few days should be more effective than phosguard or products similar to that. Water changes are like killing a lot of birds with one stone!

 

[Patroklos]

Yeah, I average about two 25% water changes a week, with RO/DI water. I came home to find a comch and large turbo snail dead today, cause unknown

 

[melosu58]

Let`s see if we can get some water test results right now if we can.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Wow... 1.0, let alone 0.5ppm for phosphates are huge. Even if you were overfeeding flake food, and using tap water, that would still be tough to attain from my experience.

Have you tested your source water, as well as your freshly made up salt water for phosphates? And are you the source for the RO/DI water, or are you getting it somewhere else?

 

[Patroklos]

Current readings of main tank:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 10
PH: 8.0
Salinity: 1.023
Phosphates: .15

I actually misread the scale yesterday, it was only .25 as opposed to .5. I did a 25% PWC today so I assume that is why it dropped to .15. That is an estimation, but the color was not strong enough to warrant calling it .25 but there was color so it is not 0.

The RO/DI water I just made (no salt mix) is 0 for phosphates.