Reef Supplements

[ryshark]

Im about to turn my fowlr into a reef tank. The first thing im doing is buying my lights from marinedopot.com. Everything on there seems to much cheaper than my LFS. Since I should be spending enough to get free shipping I may as well stock up on other stuff too. Are there any kinds of supplements I need to purchase in order to keep LPS corals? Do I need to buy calcium, magnesium etc etc?? Thanks.

 

[ccCapt]

Stock up on test kits. Do not dose anything you don't test for. If your only keeping softies and LPS, you probably won't need to buy any supplements. Regular pwc's will keep everything in line...depending on which salt you use.

 

[cmor1701d]

You should also check the prices at Drs. Foster and Smith and ThatPetPlace as well as some other online stores before you make your final decision. They all run sales at different times and sometimes one is significantly cheaper than another retailer. I buy most of dry goods from one of those 3 places.

 

[ryshark]

I don't use a salt mix. All of the LFS in Southern California sell filtered ocean water from Catalina Island which is about 30miles off the coast of California. Most places sell the Catalinia saltwater for .89cents a gallon but I found one place that sells it for .49cents a gallon. But what you brought to my attention is, I dont know if it has all of the trace elements needed. All I know is that hydrometer always reads 1.023. I guess the only way to find out is to buy a calcium and phosphate kit. Anything else?

I was hoping somebody would suggest a couple other websites to look at to buy my lights from. I will check those out, thank you.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Check out hellolights.com for lights. That's where I got my fixture, and was very impressed with the price and the packaging also.

Along with Ca and PO4 test kits, you're also going to want an alkalinity kit for sure. If you're in a spending mood, a Magnesium kit would also be good. (I'm assuming you already have ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH kits. Those are essential.)

 

[cmor1701d]

Hellolights and chanpionlighting are both good places to check for light fixtures.

Salinity varies slightly from place to place around the world, and also varies somewhat with the seasons (affected by temperature and precipitation). The average ocean salinity is 35 pt. This number varies between about 32 and 37 pt. Rainfall, evaporation, river runoff, and ice formation cause the variations.

Warm temperatures and high evaporation rates (particularly in shallow seas), raise the salinity. Warmer waters will tend to have higher salinity than cooler waters. Therefore you would expect Catalina water to have a lower SG than a tropical reef. Commercial salt mixes are formulated to be mixed to NSW levels of the average tropical reef.

 

[chase33]

that's championlighting.com

 

[ryshark]

The Catalina water is typically 1.023, is that too low for LPS corals? Thanks for all of the light fixture websites, I have a piece of paper in front of me now where I am comparing and pricing out all of them.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I wouldn't say it's too low, but I wouldn't want to go any lower than that. Think most folks recommend 1.025 or so. You can always add a bit of salt mix to adjust the salinity up higher. How about the alkalinity of the stuff? Seems like a some of the people I've heard that use natural sea water have to add buffer also to get their alk levels up - another thing the mixes have in them.

 

[chase33]

I wouldn't say it's too low, but I wouldn't want to go any lower than that. Think most folks recommend 1.025 or so. You can always add a bit of salt mix to adjust the salinity up higher.

I agree.

 

[melosu58]

Stock up on test kits. Do not dose anything you don't test for. If your only keeping softies and LPS, you probably won't need to buy any supplements. Regular pwc's will keep everything in line...depending on which salt you use.

Try not to supplement till you see if PWC`s will take care of it first.

Also 1.023 is OK. The key is to keep it stable. I keep mine around 1.024.