Trace elements with CaRx

[illumnae]

If I'm using a calcium reactor and not Balling Lite, what should I be dosing for trace? Balling Trace still? What quantities to dose?

 

[M3ace9]

Interesting thought to ponder. Many variables play a role including what type of salt you use, what your bioload is like, and how often you go without water changes

 

[illumnae]

But with Balling Lite, such variables aren't taken into account and a fixed amount is recommended to be dosed into your 3 part solutions

 

[M3ace9]

This is correct but with a calcium reactor these things are already being dosed. So you are kind of in the dark to how much is actually being replenished by the reactor compared to your tanks needs

 

[Fauna Marin]

If you wish to add trace elements you can use our Color Elements set.

 

[illumnae]

Thanks for the response. But it still doesn't really make sense - for Balling Lite users, they use Balling Trace and Color Elements both. Calcium reactor users only use Color Elements. I remember reading that calcium reactor media may contain some traces, but not all traces necessary for coral growth.

 

[Fauna Marin]

Correct, some CaRx media will contain trace elements. The elements that are lacking in this type of media will be provided by the 3 Color Elements bottles.

 

[illumnae]

OK thank you!

 

[illumnae]

Hi I'm back and after pondering over this issue I'm still not convinced.

Folks using the dosers dose Balling salts and Balling trace to get a complete major plus trace elements addition into the tank. They then dose colour elements to colour up their corals.

Folks using calcium reactors with no trace additives get complete major elements and incomplete trace elements. They then dose colour elements to colour up their corals and you say to complete the missing traces.

Based on the above, either the Balling folks end up with excess trace elements since they dose both Balling trace and Colour elements, or the calcium reactor folks end up with incomplete trace elements since they only dose Colour elements and nothing else. Either one or the other is not balanced. Unless you're saying calcium reactor media contains exactly the same trace elements as Balling trace, which goes against common knowledge.

So how exactly should calcium reactor users balance their trace elements with Balling users? I know an alternative system (Aquaforest) uses identical trace elements to Balling trace (strontium/barium + heavy metals + iodine/fluorine) for calcium reactor users, and their Balling users use these same trace elements for their Balling major elements mix too. Should Balling trace also be used for calcium reactor users in the same way?