Good afternoon guys need some opinions on trace elements.

[Danroo]

Regarding trace elements ( minor ) I did some research and found out loads of problems with replenishing it for a 20 gallon mixed reef. BRS tv claims that water changes aren’t sufficient for keeping up with trace elements. Does this apply for nano tanks as well?

would be a lot easier for me to never had this problem but my tanks consumption of the major trace elements is slow but the minor ones get depleted fast.

I avoided water changes to check this theory out and I was right consumption on other trace elements barely took a hit I tested out my tank every week the major elements showed as:

Nitrates: 0ppm

Phosphates: 0.02 ppm

Alkalinity: 8.1

Calcium: 430 ppm

Magnesium: 1410 ppm

salinity: 1.026 ppm

these were my readings for a month without any water changes and I still almost lost my montepora.

for a second I thought it was lighting or flow but it was the trace elements being depleted. Montipora jumped back after I did the water changes and started to grow.

my question originally is should water changes will be enough for a small tank like this cause I don’t want to dose something that I can’t test.

 

[Danroo]

Two suggestions:

How old is the tank? You don't need to dose anything if under12-18 months.

Never dose anything for which you cannot test. It's tantamount to trying to guess PAR. You seem to snub an ICP test, but that (IMO) should be your starting point for a base line. I'd suggest Triton.

18 months I was worried about the par too, that’s why I did the no water change for a month cause nothing was being consumed or barely being consumed in terms All, calc and mag. All it proved was that I needed better lights cause I started to lose my montipora but instead of an upgrade on lights I started doing weekly water changes. Montipora bounced back with those water changes and even started encrusting the rock now.

 

[Danroo]

I got the icp instead, going to take a sample at Friday and send it out.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Possibly a question with no simple answer but give it a try. When did the hobby become dissatisfied with the idea that water changes replaced trace elements?

Did marine science drive the dissatisfaction? One of the hobbies experts? Vendors jumped on board quickly with the “we need to dose trace elements”, but maybe that came after the need rather than them generating the need for a product.

It is an interesting transformation from worrying about reef tanks using commercial salt mixes having way too many metals (ala Ron Shimek) to “we think we need to add a lot of metals and other trace elements” and aren’t so worried about excess levels.

I remember him calling me out with “Randy loves metals” when I said I thought iron dosing was useful. He assumed that was a self evident criticism.

We do now have icp saying that levels often aren’t maintained, but without any added info on whether the lower levels attained are adequate or not. Many users of icp take it for granted that we know what levels of, say, iron or manganese, are needed. We don’t, and really never will if we don’t know the chemical forms present.

we also have folks using sophisticated methods that dose many trace elements independently based on icp, and many claim their tank never looked so good, but is that really evidence that all dozen they dose are helping, or only 1 or 2 or 6 of them?

 

[SPS2020]

I got the icp instead, going to take a sample at Friday and send it out.

Depending upon where you are located, you may want to wait until the first of the week so that the sample doesn't sit around on Sunday. Maybe that doesn't matter, but I like for it to arrive asap. I usually try to send on Tuesday. Monday is a crazy day for shippers. Tuesday will allow them to receive it before the weekend (hopefully) and run the test. Now, that has been MY experience with Triton.

 

[Danroo]

Anyone knows how long does triton icp test takes? It has been two weeks now since I got the confirmation.

 

[Nano sapiens]

A lot of this hobby is 'What works best for the majority of reef aquaria'.

I would say that a good majority of small nano tank owners rely on water changes since it is simple, effective and easy due to the relatively small volumes involved.

My 12g system is 14 years old and for most of it's life its had 10%/wk (5%, 2x/wk) WCs. For the 8 months or so I've dropped that down to 6%/week and the system/corals are doing very well.

My take is that most (all?) salt water mixes already have higher than natural trace elements to begin with, so even smaller water changes add a significant portion of what might be needed. On top of that, daily feeding provides another substantial input, so for the average reef system that has regular WCs there are more pressing things to be concerned with than whether there are enough minor trace elements present.

 

[PatW]

With trace elements, we are kind of flying in the dark. We really do not know how much we have or how much we need. It is far different with Ca, ALK and Mg. We have decent tests and we have good guidelines on maintenance levels and we even have a number of additive strategy’s.

I rely on water changes and trace elements added based on my two part additions (tropic Marin’s balling component, the balling method has been around for awhile) that and hope. It seems to work.

 

[knockout]

OP,
hopefully, you got your ICP test back and you can create a baseline with the test, btw ICP tests are not 100% accurate

You have already proven that WC is advantageous to your aquarium, you saved the montipora with it, so in a small tank WC are by far the easiest and probably most reliable method of keeping a healthy aquarium, it removes the nasties while it replenishes the goods all with a few gallons of water.

You should also find a PAR meter, you commented you need new lights (why) you don't know until you know and only accurate testing will tell you that.
you also mentioned Flow. that one is easier to answer, look for dead spots, accumulation of detritus, and add flow if needed.

 

[Danroo]

OP,
hopefully, you got your ICP test back and you can create a baseline with the test, btw ICP tests are not 100% accurate

You have already proven that WC is advantageous to your aquarium, you saved the montipora with it, so in a small tank WC are by far the easiest and probably most reliable method of keeping a healthy aquarium, it removes the nasties while it replenishes the goods all with a few gallons of water.

You should also find a PAR meter, you commented you need new lights (why) you don't know until you know and only accurate testing will tell you that.
you also mentioned Flow. that one is easier to answer, look for dead spots, accumulation of detritus, and add flow if needed.

I think I’m getting used to the lights. I thought my lights were weak but it was the water chemistry and I guess the age of the tank. I’m having a hard time with half style in my Fluval but my softies are fine I guess once coralline spreads the Fluval will be ready for sps. I’m not sure how people keep sps in new tanks.

back to the topic of trace elements. I guess I just wanted to water changes when the major elements depleted, but the depletion was insanely slow. I might be wrong but either it’s lack of trace elements or coral warfare happing in my tank. I did add carbon with weekly water changes. Things seems to take off.

I rented a par meter not too long ago the top of my tank was receiving 300 par the bottom was 120.

while my ai is running on my Fluval with good amounts of light for my anemone. The anemone growth is slow regardless. Now it’s doing much better.

 

[Danroo]

This triton experience is just horrible for me right now.