According to the back of the B-Ionic 2 part bottle it states that it has all trace elements needed butt it does not tell you what it actually has. I was gonna begin the Red Sea ABCD trace elements when I switched over to 2 part. Would yall still recommend me dosing the Red Sea?
Dosing B-Ionic & Red Sea 4 part?
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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Whether you need trace element supplements and how to provide them is a very difficult issue and there is no perfect answer that is not very tedious and expensive.
B-ionic is designed to supply calcium and alkalinity. Two parts have an inherent issue that they must provide many elements that are present in seawater or the method itself (not just tank consumption) will lower all of these elements (we can discuss the technical reason, but it relates to rising salinity due to adding a lot of sodium and chloride).
What such methods won't do is offset the demand for elements from organics that are not calcifying. Macroalgae, soft corals, microalgae, etc. All of these take up elements such as iron.
So I would not assume that B-ionic adds all the elements that you may need, but I also know that following the Red Sea program will add some of them whether you need them or not (possibly raising ones that are already too high).
So in the end, it is likely to be trial and error on what benefits and what detriments your tank, unless you go for a full blown testing method with lots of different supplements (such as Triton).
Thank you ^_^ I'm attempting to move from the hobby side of things and learn more about the science side of things. I feel like I'm a freshie walking into a senior biology class haha
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Here's a modification of a post I made a couple of days ago on this topic:
There are issues and limitations with all approaches to trace elements and I don't have any perfect solution:
1. Not measuring trace elements and using something that was (at best) designed to be appropriate for an average aquarium with a average mix of organisms. It could be just dosing per gallon of tank size per week, or it could be based on calcium (Red Sea approach) or alkalinity demand (which obviously can be way off since the demand for trace elements in some tanks comes primarily from organisms that use no calcium, such as soft corals or macroalgae, while in others it may come primarily from calcifying corals).
or
2. Try to measure everything frequently (expensive) and likely find that the mixtures available in a program like Colors ABCD do not allow you to adjust levels independently (say, if you want fluoride and iodide and not bromide). So then you may need a different supplement for each element. That's basically the Triton method, with lots of expensive testing and possibly many expensive supplements.
or
3. Do water changes and hope for the best.
or
4. Some mixture of the above methods.
Pick your poison.
There are issues and limitations with all approaches to trace elements and I don't have any perfect solution:
1. Not measuring trace elements and using something that was (at best) designed to be appropriate for an average aquarium with a average mix of organisms. It could be just dosing per gallon of tank size per week, or it could be based on calcium (Red Sea approach) or alkalinity demand (which obviously can be way off since the demand for trace elements in some tanks comes primarily from organisms that use no calcium, such as soft corals or macroalgae, while in others it may come primarily from calcifying corals).
or
2. Try to measure everything frequently (expensive) and likely find that the mixtures available in a program like Colors ABCD do not allow you to adjust levels independently (say, if you want fluoride and iodide and not bromide). So then you may need a different supplement for each element. That's basically the Triton method, with lots of expensive testing and possibly many expensive supplements.
or
3. Do water changes and hope for the best.
or
4. Some mixture of the above methods.
Pick your poison.
