reef supliments

[revenant_06]

There are so many things on the market I'm going crazy deciding. What supliments does everyone on here use for control of ph and everything else you need in a reef.

[ccCapt]

Nothing is better than weekly water changes.

[Convict2161]

Agreed. I use to dose all kinds of things and I fell into marketing ploys. Then I did research and decided I didn't need anything.

I do my weekly water changes BUT I do dose B-ionic 2 part because my cal and alk levels started to decline due to explosive coral growth.

I only do 8mL's every other night. Use to do every night.

I short... You don't "need" any of that stuff if your water changes as stated above.

[revenant_06]

Thanks for the feed back much appreciated. I do have another question, what I understand is if you keep your alkalinity at the right level your ph will maintain a correct legel as well. Is it necessary to test for both? And if its not which one should you be testing ph or alkalinity? The fish world seems to be a complicated one in the beginning

[Ingy]

I dose for Alk every couple days, calc every few days and mag weekly. I test for each and ph, but the ph test isn't really necessary. But I do all the other tests too. Mind you I only test every 2 weeks and tweak my aqua planner reminders based on the results.

[ccCapt]

Originally Posted by revenant_06

Thanks for the feed back much appreciated. I do have another question, what I understand is if you keep your alkalinity at the right level your ph will maintain a correct legel as well. Is it necessary to test for both? And if its not which one should you be testing ph or alkalinity? The fish world seems to be a complicated one in the beginning

Alkalinity does help keep your pH stable, but it's not a linear relationship between alk and pH, as in if your alk drops, so will your pH. Keeping alk between about 7-11 dKH will keep your pH stable, but the amount of co2 in the air in your house can push your pH down, regardless of what your alk levels are. It's quite common the pH will drop in a tank during the winter in colder climate areas where the house is closed up and has less outside fresh air.
Depending on the type of corals are in a tank, alk and calcium will be used up by hard corals and that may have to be dosed. It's probably best to check alk and calcium more often than pH.