What to use for supplements?

[dezso]

Hello
I have all this coral food/supplements what I have experimenting on and off.
In you opinion what would be the best combination to use and what not to use at all or not to use it with other additive.

Fauna Marin

1. Ultra-AMIN
   
2. Ultra-BAK
3. Ultra-Min S
   
4. Ultra-MIN D
   
5. Strontium/Calcium
6. Magnesium
7. Iodine/Boron halogen
8. Iron/Zinc

Kent Marin

1. Pro Buffer dKH
2. Iodide
3. Essential Elements
4. Strontium & Molybdenum
5. Coral Accel
6. Zooplex
7. Phytoplex
8. Chromaplex

Brightwell Aquatics

1. Elemental

Caribsea

1. BioMagnet

Thanks

 

[neilanh]

what makes you think you need to be adding supplements?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Wow... you've been experimenting with all those additives? Your fish store must looooove you!!!

My opinion is don't use any of it. Weekly water changes of at least 10% will do just about everything you need. If your calcium levels need a boost up during the week before the water change, then starting a simple 2-part calcium/alkalinity supplement would be my only recommendation.

 

[dezso]

Your fish store must looooove you!!!

Oh yeah I'm a V.I.P. there

 

[ccCapt]

That's quite the cocktail you got going. Are you testing for all those elements you are dosing?

Personally, I only supplement calcium, alk and magnesium based on the rate of consumption in my tank.

 

[austinsdad]

So, have we convinced you to just rely on water changes and drop all that stuff?????

 

[melosu58]

I agree. Try just PWC`s and see how you come out. Sw mixes have over 89 different salts that add all the supplements you need with maybe the exception of calcium if you have a bunch of calcium sucking corals.

 

[dezso]

I got in to all this supplement when all my coralline alga faded out completely.
Than my anemone died and half of my snails and all my starfish died with it.
Slime and brown algae take over the tank, than started to experiment with all kind of water treatment, phosphate removers, PH and DKh stabilizers. Calcium and magnesium was way to low, every time I went to the store I just come home with more and more additives, over 1 year the tank is finally stabilized, now for the first time my coralline algae are growing again, cacl, mag, PH, DKh, Ionide are where is should be. Don't know for fact, because of the additives or just time !?
Changed salt brand 3x now, I'm back on Instant Ocean after Coralife and Meersaltz. All my local stores owners are criminals, easy 30-40% markup on salt, at least I can buy IO for a fair price.

So.... Water change only! I'll give it a try for a few month.

Thanks

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

No way of knowing what truly stabilized your tank, but there's a reason many folks recommend waiting a year to add an anemone because it takes that long for a tank to "stabilize".

I'm assuming you were testing for all those elements, since you say your levels are now where they should be - and the only way you'd know that is through testing. But I just can't fathom how things could be stable with that amount of supplementation going on. Especially if you've changed salts three times in a year. Seems like you'd be constantly chasing one parameter or the other, but glad to hear things are better now.

After several months of my tank being up, my coralline suddenly started dieing on me. I didn't have any corals yet, so I'd never bothered testing calcium or alkalinity. After testing calcium, I'd found it was really low... around 320 if I remember right. My water changes couldn't keep up with the calcium demand of the coralline algae, and I had ended up "starving" my coralline. My alkalinity levels were also low. Once I got my calcium levels back up, and started a 2-part cal/alk dosing schedule, it all came back with a vengeance! Luckily, I didn't have any coral in there at the time or anything that was picky about water parameters or I could've had more deaths than just my free coralline algae! Only reason I mention all this is because maybe it was just a calcium/alkalinity problem that started you down this road. Pretty normal for a new tank, in my opinion. But then in a rush to fix the problem, the additional supplementation just kept throwing things even more out of whack? Again... not sure if any of this is applicable in your case, but figured it was worth mentioning.

 

[melosu58]

So.... Water change only! I'll give it a try for a few month.

Thanks

I`ve given it a try for 12 yrs now. Never added any supplements.

 

[SeansReef]

I started out the same way, adding supplements and saw no real results.
I just kept up with water changes. If I needed calcium, I would add some B-Ionic. I had way better results doing just the water changes.
I started using Purple Up and see a jump in my coraline growth.