Should I be dosing trace elements?

[ndz98]

Hey guys! So I have a 29g DT with a 10g sump. I have a few different types of zoas, gsp, montipora, an Acan, and a torch coral (pretty much dead but has a little life in it if I can manage to save it). My alk, calcium, and mag levels are all stable and always right where they need to be. Salinity is also stable. I'm not seeing the growth I want from my corals. Is it possible that I need to add some trace elements in order to get better growth? I should probably add in too that I have a SB reef light extreme over my tank. I don't have a par meter but I do know that I get between 35-45k lux for about 4-5 hours in the middle of the day.

 

[Squamosa]

alk, calcium, and mag levels are all stable and always right where they need to be

Is this done through dosing or calcium reactor.
What does 'right where they need to be" mean, some values wouldn't hurt

Do you do any water changes?
Are you adding in any other trace elements at this time or feeding with reef roids (or similar) or AA's?

What growth were you expecting? Seeing other tanks on here IMO. does not give you a good indication of what actually goes into creating these 'show tanks', if indeed that's what you're after!

 

[ndz98]

Is this done through dosing or calcium reactor.
What does 'right where they need to be" mean, some values wouldn't hurt

Do you do any water changes?
Are you adding in any other trace elements at this time or feeding with reef roids (or similar) or AA's?

I do it through dosing but since I don't have very much coral and I do water changes about every 3-4 weeks, I hardly ever have to dose. I usually keep alk at 9 dkh. Calcium is around 440 ppm. Magnesium is 1600 ppm but If I remember correctly I don't think it should be a problem if you have too much magnesium. I don't add any other trace elements. I do feed with reef Roids about 2-3 times a week.

 

[Squamosa]

Magnesium is 1600 ppm

Some say it is, some say it isn't a problem, it has been touted as a method to get rid of Bryopsis, but it also has negatives, one being that magnesium interferes with precipitation of CaCO3! http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/10/chemistry

Personally I keep my levels between 1300-1350ppm.

In my system I found that softies do well with a low quantity of NO3 (1-3 ppm) and the addition of a good AA/trace element mix, such as aquavitro fuel. A feed of reef pearls, 1-2 times/week is also done.
Medium flow and lower, full spectrum light at around 150-250 PAR, even for Monti's, is used by me

Here is my little garden

 

[Surfandturf]

I do it through dosing but since I don't have very much coral and I do water changes about every 3-4 weeks, I hardly ever have to dose. I usually keep alk at 9 dkh. Calcium is around 440 ppm. Magnesium is 1600 ppm but If I remember correctly I don't think it should be a problem if you have too much magnesium. I don't add any other trace elements. I do feed with reef Roids about 2-3 times a week.

29g is pretty small. Do a 10% water change every week and that should replace what you feel is missing. I have quite a few corals and 3 small fish in a 10 gallon. I stick to my water change schedule and my corals are exploding with growth.

 

[ndz98]

Some say it is, some say it isn't a problem, it has been touted as a method to get rid of Bryopsis, but it also has negatives, one being that magnesium interferes with precipitation of CaCO3! http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/10/chemistry

Personally I keep my levels between 1300-1350ppm.

In my system I found that softies do well with a low quantity of NO3 (1-3 ppm) and the addition of a good AA/trace element mix, such as aquavitro fuel. A feed of reef pearls, 1-2 times/week is also done.
Medium flow and lower, full spectrum light at around 150-250 PAR, even for Monti's, is used by me

Here is my little garden

How do you lower magnesium though because I thought you really couldn't unless it was just depleted over time? And I'm just curious but what kind of light schedule do you run? And do you test for the trace elements to see when they are getting too low?

 

[Surfandturf]

How do you lower magnesium though because I thought you really couldn't unless it was just depleted over time? And I'm just curious but what kind of light schedule do you run? And do you test for the trace elements to see when they are getting too low?

Dude, it's a 29g that's a nano! You do not need to add chemicals to it aka dosing. Weekly / biweekly water changes of 10% will do all you need.

 

[ndz98]

Dude, it's a 29g that's a nano! You do not need to add chemicals to it aka dosing. Weekly / biweekly water changes of 10% will do all you need.

I hardly dose. I have the stuff more or less for when I get more corals so that when the levels drop more rapidly I can adjust it.

 

[Surfandturf]

I promise man, if you bump up your water changes to 10% weekly, you will see a big difference in your corals. If you use a synthetic salt mix, they add extra stuff to it as far as elements from what I am told. So if you dose even once you may be over doing it unless you have like 20 or more corals. I have about 15.
1 Monte
1 rainbow a can with 7 heads
1 lobo
1 ORA birdsnest
1 frag of twizzler zoas
1 frag of fruitloop zoas
1 drag of Rasta zoas
1 frag of pink flamingo zoas
1 frag green star polyps
1 raptors peace favia
1 setosa
1 lapeastria
1 hydrophora
1 acanada
1 faviada

2 clowns and a clown goby. I support all of this in a 10g with 10% weekly water changes. I promise.

 

[Surfandturf]

Here's what it looks like.

 

[ndz98]

I promise man, if you bump up your water changes to 10% weekly, you will see a big difference in your corals. If you use a synthetic salt mix, they add extra stuff to it as far as elements from what I am told. So if you dose even once you may be over doing it unless you have like 20 or more corals. I have about 15.
1 Monte
1 rainbow a can with 7 heads
1 lobo
1 ORA birdsnest
1 frag of twizzler zoas
1 frag of fruitloop zoas
1 drag of Rasta zoas
1 frag of pink flamingo zoas
1 frag green star polyps
1 raptors peace favia
1 setosa
1 lapeastria
1 hydrophora
1 acanada
1 faviada

2 clowns and a clown goby. I support all of this in a 10g with 10% weekly water changes. I promise.

Yea I used to use reef crystals but I decided to stop and go back to just regular salt that didn't have any extra additives because it was causing my levels to be too high.

 

[Surfandturf]

My les makes it from reef crystals and sells for a buck a gallon so it makes it easier for small water changes of a gallon per week. I always test it before I put it in though lol.

 

[Oceansize]

A general rule of thumb is you shouldn't add anything you can't test for.

Additionally, there is no consensus on what trace minerals are necessary, and merely duplicating the trace elements found in natural seawater isn't good enough because there's no way of knowing at which rate each of them is taken up in your tank, therefore no way of knowing which ones are depleting and which ones are stacking up.

Bottom line is trace elements shouldn't be necessary if you're doing water changes frequently enough. I dosed Kent's Essential Elements for awhile with no discernible benefit. The coral I had that were struggling showed no difference either way.

 

[mibwb]

I have four tanks going....I do 10% weekly. As far as adding other (stuff) I don't. I'm no chemist...I plan to keep it that way

 

[John Macari]

I dose daily with calcium and buffer. I dose a,b,c,d, Red Sea trace bi weekly and I dose mag, strontium, and iodide as needed and aminos weekly. I do a 10% water change once every 4- 5 months. But I do have a huge skimmer and a huge refugium with 3 compartments of different hybrid algae. My tank is a 100 gallon rimless cube with a 40 gallon sump. I run 2 AI HD primes. I found if you replace what’s used, have adequate skimming and gas exchange with conjunction to a large refugium frequent water changes are not needed. I have crazy growth in my mixed SPS and LPS tank.

 

[125gSW]

Do I need to dose if all I have are frags?

 

[kdino]

I dose daily with calcium and buffer. I dose a,b,c,d, Red Sea trace bi weekly and I dose mag, strontium, and iodide as needed and aminos weekly. I do a 10% water change once every 4- 5 months. But I do have a huge skimmer and a huge refugium with 3 compartments of different hybrid algae. My tank is a 100 gallon rimless cube with a 40 gallon sump. I run 2 AI HD primes. I found if you replace what’s used, have adequate skimming and gas exchange with conjunction to a large refugium frequent water changes are not needed. I have crazy growth in my mixed SPS and LPS tank.

lets see some pics!!

 

[bigjgmac]

A general rule of thumb is you shouldn't add anything you can't test for.

Additionally, there is no consensus on what trace minerals are necessary, and merely duplicating the trace elements found in natural seawater isn't good enough because there's no way of knowing at which rate each of them is taken up in your tank, therefore no way of knowing which ones are depleting and which ones are stacking up.

Bottom line is trace elements shouldn't be necessary if you're doing water changes frequently enough. I dosed Kent's Essential Elements for awhile with no discernible benefit. The coral I had that were struggling showed no difference either way.

I think that is sound advice. I'm often tempted to dose trace elements because it seems like it could be a good idea. Not knowing what's in your tank and how much there is (to the best of your reasonable ability to do so) is unwise at best.