Calcium and trace elements

DevonMeep · Apr 24, 2016

Hello everyone. I'm upgrading to a 29 gallon tank and had some things on my mind. Once its established I want to try corals for the first time. I use reef crystals salt mix and it says it has trace elements in it so would this be enough? I suppose what I'm asking is at what point is replacing elements with regular water changes not enough and you need to dose? I find the concept slightly overwhelming and was wondering could I get away with not adding anything or is that just not possible?

BoneXriffic · Apr 24, 2016

Trace elements can be dosed either way. Adding the fuel twice a week as recomended probally wouldnt hurtAs far as calc. Thats just testing

Joeganja · Apr 24, 2016

DevonMeep said:
Hello everyone. I'm upgrading to a 29 gallon tank and had some things on my mind. Once its established I want to try corals for the first time. I use reef crystals salt mix and it says it has trace elements in it so would this be enough? I suppose what I'm asking is at what point is replacing elements with regular water changes not enough and you need to dose? I find the concept slightly overwhelming and was wondering could I get away with not adding anything or is that just not possible?

Certain corals deplete calcium more than others such as montiporas and acroporas and everything in the sps family. There are a large number of people who have a lot of corals like to dose calcium because the higher it on the range, the faster the corals can produce their skeletons. Trace elements are something very minimal and I've noticed since I test for the most common trace like iodine, potassium, and iron that they don't get depleted as much as calcium. No where close even with a lot of corals. Once a week or once every two weeks with 10-20% water changes with reef salt will help restore any depleted trace element levels. I don't dose trace elements because I won't dose anything I don't test for. It's good however when into getting corals and corals like lps and sps to test and dose alkalinity, magnesium, and calcium. Those are the foundation/building blocks for most coral structures and are the main components for corals. Most trace elements will just help bring out certain colorations in certain types of corals.