hey everyone.... my Red Sea 750XXL is doing great!! corals look fantastic and colors are pleasing. i am dosing MEcorals 2 part and i have been locked in to: Alk 9 and Cal 425. i dont plan on doing water changes that often but want my trace elements to stay put. what does everyone dose in their system? i haven't had any issues so i am very nervous about adding something new. i have a mixed reef and all the acros are doing great as well.
Trace elements are not a "solved problem" in reefing. There is still a lot of uncertainty.
The choices would seem to be:
1. Detailed, frequent, and expensive ICP testing of the water to see what you need, coupled with dosing of what you think you need based on the levels you see. One remaining problem is some must still be dosed by trial and error since ICP cannot detect natural levels (e.g., iron). Aside from cost, two additional issues are what to do about things that are already too high, and not knowing what forms of the chemicals are present when testing by ICP (e.g., different forms of trace metals have different bioavailability and/or toxicity).
2. Dosing a commercial or DIY cocktail of trace elements. Effect would need to be determined by trial and error observation of the tank. Of course, no supplement can know what your specific tank needs, so aside from observing the tank, you are dosing blind. You may be adding some chemicals that are already in excess, possibly making an undesirable situation even worse (although that is not likely a big problem if the supplement is reasonably designed).
3. Doing little to nothing, possibly coupled with water changes. Water changes cannot maintain everything when there is substantial demand, but in conjunction with foods, iot may be "enough" of many things.
4. Some combination of all three.
