Just started the moonshiners method recently and I dosed the rubidium, so this thread caught my eye.
No idea if it will help or not, but 12 years ago people acted like trace minerals weren't a big deal. Most of what people said 12 years ago has turned out to be false.
I understand that it could be just that the element is inadvertently bound up in the skeleton, but it's something that depletes for some reason. And the way I see it, there is more to our tanks biology than just the coral. And the fact that it can be used to replace something that has known biological effects to me also suggest that it has a biological effect, even if that other element is present which may or may not have it trigger. Other organisms could be using it, who knows.
I'm fine for now dosing it along with the other trace elements I know are useful. I don't know which elements helped, but I have noticed that my zoa's are looking better than ever in just the past week. And a favia that I've had for over a year that has only been surviving and not growing has started showing signs of improvement. Sadly, it may be too little too late for that coral, as an encrusting LPS has been growing well this entire time and has started growing over it. And lately, it has been extra hungry as it's feeders are out almost all the time, rather than just when I feed.
Dosing trace elements is not new to me, I am switching over from the tropic marine a/k element with the BRS tri-balling method. I did however take a month off and did a series of water changes before starting the method.
Main things I dosed:
Boron 153.31 ml 1 day
Fluoride/Flourine 53.00 ml for 3 days
Rubidium 75.71 ml for 2 days, then 0.83 ml daily
Barium 48.60 ml for 4 days
Molybdenum 22.71 ml for 5 days
Zinc 1.26 ml for 3 days
Daily:
Manganese 0.76 ml
Chromium/Chrome 0.15 ml
Cobalt 0.15 ml
Iron 0.07 ml
Iodide: 6 drops seachem
I was dosing Iodide already, but at the bottles recommended dose weekly. I expect more minerals will get dosed in the future, some of my elements were already high from previous dosing. But these were the elements I dosed and again, the zoa's for sure look better than the old method. I don't know which one.
Edit: Also, I think I should clarify about the zoas. Most of the zoas/palys have been doing decently well, the palys too well to the point where I dislike them. Learned a lesson about buying zoas online, they may come small and look small, but some of them are just palys that grow long stalks and kill the smaller stuff. But anyway, my smaller polyp zoas have seemed to struggle. I've had 2 for about 6 months now and each of them has only produced 1 additional head. 2 polyps now is 3. Meanwhile other palys have taken out and are overgrowing other small zoas.
Those are the ones I've noticed the biggest difference in. They are extended out like never before. No new heads yet, but I expect them to start a growth spurt soon if they keep opening up this large.
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