Lots of additives

[reefmadness]

I scored a ton of reef additives at a frag swap over the weekend via raffle tickets. I won a Seachem "Reef Pack Enhancer" that contains reef calcium, reef strontium, and reef iodide. I won a two bottle pack of Aquavitro "ions" and "fuel" for reefs. I also won a bottle of "CoralAmino" and "PhytoChrom" by Brightwell Aquatics. Along with everything else, I recieved a bottle of ESV "Strontium Chloride" 20% solution. I know what the phyto is for, but that's about it. Can anyone help me out with advice on what the other additives I won will do for my tank, or if I need them at all?


I have a 40 breeder that is SPS dominant, with a couple clams, my gf's 15 tall that is a mixed reef, and everything is tied together with an eshops 25 gallon sump so they share common water.

 

[revsgirl]

Congrats on your win! Hopefully someone will be around to help you soon!

 

[aherre07]

I know that the reef calcium will help raise or maintain your calcium levels and i know that iodine will help with PE and health of other corals such as zoas other lps. No particular experience with these brands but I would assume they would do the same...

 

[CJO]

Most of them will say on the bottle what they are supposed to do. Don't add chemicals unless you are testing for the levels. If you do decide to use the coralamino and/or phytochrom, be sure to add slowly. They can really raise your nutrient level quickly.

CJ

 

[AZDesertRat]

Leave them in the bottle and throw them in the trash. Most are more than likely snake oil and could do more harm than good.
If you do not have good quality test kits for EVERY ingredient in the supplements, use them on a regular basis and know for sure you have both a demand and a need for whatever it is then don't even think about adding it to your reef tank. It is simple to get a system out of whack and a royal pain to get it back into shape. Perform regular water changes with a name brand reef quality salt mix and you will have a healthy, stable system, period.

 

[reefmadness]

So I talked to my good friend, and owner of my lfs today about the additives. He has used most of them, and says that fuel is good to use as a feeding supplement, and that the ions are basically a mag supplement. The fuel will help both LPS and SPS, but will benefit the LPS more. The aminoacids do help, but only to a small degree. He is also going to order me a set of salifert iodine and and strontium test kits. I am very familiar with salifert's test kits, and use them regularly to test all my water parameters. He also stated that the amino acids aid in the formation of the binding tissues in LPS. What he meant by "binding tissue" was the tissue that actually holds the "body" of the LPS to the skeletal structure. So hearing that, I now feel that my raffle money wasn't a complete waste, considering the cost of all these products if I were to buy them outright. I would like other's input on these products, and to hear if anyone has used them with successful results, or negative impacts. Thanks.

 

[mcarroll]

Iodine
Good luck with that Iodine kit. Testing for iodine is expensive and complicated with generally very inconsistent results in my experience. Zero ppm of iodine (or any other form) indicated on a freshly mixed batch of Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt, for example. (True of all iodine kits, AFAIK....due to the nature of iodine in a saltwater environment I think.) I had a slightly (very slight) better experience using Seachem's iodine kit vs Salifert's. (I prefer Salifert for Ca, Alk and Mg tests though.)

Sr/Mg
Unless you are on a no-water-change routine for some reason and have many large SPS colonies you are unlikely to require strontium dosing. Ditto for magnesium, but it's possible in the scenario just mentioned that you may have to dose "some". Won't be much though. Strontium and Mg test kits are also relatively expensive. Especially Sr, and especially more-so because of how low demand should be for Sr dosing. (Low or even zero.)

Misc
I've used the other supplements mentioned in situations where they were already purchased and around....no apparent harm, but no apparent good either relative to tanks that were similarly maintained but weren't being dosed.

Recommendations
While dumpster-izing all those ingredients seems extreme, if I were you I would be tempted to throw the whole lot of supplements up on the For Sale forum (or eBay or Cragslist).

As others have said or implied, testing for and dosing so-called Recipe 1 or Recipe 2 "two-part" for calcium and alkalinity (and magnesium) combined with water changes using a nicely supplemented salt like Reef Crystals is all the testing and dosing one should need in most circumstances.

-Matt

 

[bige]

Iodine tests are hard to do. I felt like a chemist. Mg is easy to test for I do it every now and then to make sure things are ok. But like everyone said. I would skip them all together. I really messed up my water using the amino acids from bright wells. And I was doing one drop a day. Took 4 water changes to clear up.