weekly maintenance - minerals

[ElitePirate]

Hi friends,

My aquarium people asked me to use 6 minerals + super bacteria (one small spoon each) every week as a nano tank maintenance.

My tank is very small, just 15 gallons/56L.

Can you check my attached images and let me know if it's good enough or should i add anything in addition every week?

Thanks
Sam

 

[Fishnut]

Looks like a recipe for disaster. IMO just do weekly water changes. Your water volume is too small - no room for error.

 

[ElitePirate]

Looks like a recipe for disaster. IMO just do weekly water changes. Your water volume is too small - no room for error.

well i honestly don't think it's a disaster... but thanks for the input though. Doing weekly water change is not something I had n my mind. I was planning to do a 25% water change every 2 weeks.

anyone else?

 

[trido]

Rule of thumb for success. Don't dose anything you aren't testing for.

Are you keeping SPS, LPS or softies? If you're not keeping SPS then weekly WC's should be plenty of replenishment for everything I see in your box of goodies.

 

[trido]

well i honestly don't think it's a disaster... but thanks for the input though. Doing weekly water change is not something I had n my mind. I was planning to do a 25% water change every 2 weeks.

anyone else?

And yes, dosing a random amount weekly is absolutely a recipe for disaster. I woudlnt even dose that bacteria not knowing what its actual job is. I've never seen or heard of that product.

 

[ElitePirate]

hmm yea i have some soft corals.. I do test KH levels etc. When i added more fish/corals the acidity went up and my KH level went down. So they asked me to add a little bit more of that reef carbonate.

anyone else using these kinda minerals?

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I don't think the bacteria will be of much value. The impact of these types of additives on an ongoing basis has not yet been quantified in any rigorous way, nor are enough reefers doing it to make an uneducated guess about the efficacy. I would not dose this product.

The other additives appear to be a complete two-part system, with a separate part for alkalinity, calcium, magnesium and trace elements. Because the trace elements part of your two-part system ostensibly contains all elements besides carbonate, calcium and magnesium, the iodine and strontium additives are likely unnecessary. I wouldn't dose these either.

There may be some value to dosing a quality Balling-type additive system. That said, I haven't heard of the brand pictured, nor would I ever advocate dosing a static amount per week without testing. If you're going to dose the Ca/Alk/Mg/Trace supplements, at the very least dose the Ca, Alk and Mg based off of test results, and dose the trace elements following the instructions given (assuming the instructions specify dosing a certain amount based on calcium/alkalinity consumption).

I personally wouldn't call this a disaster waiting to happen. But in a tank as small as yours, you really need to be proficient at testing and have a good handle on water chemistry to make things work without issue. Absent those two pieces, I wouldn't dose these additives.

 

[trido]

With soft corals your dkh is irrelevant for the most part. What do you mean acidity? Ph?

Most reefers use all those mineral. Dkh, Calcium and Magnesium are essential elements for coral growth. Strontium and Iodide are trace minerals and are not quite as critical but in your tank can easily be overdosed if your not testing for them.... Again. do not dose anything you are not testing for. In a 15 gallon softy tank, you honestly will not need to do anything other than water changes. You should be most worried about nitrates and phosphates. from overfeeding your fish.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

hmm yea i have some soft corals.. I do test KH levels etc. When i added more fish/corals the acidity went up and my KH level went down. So they asked me to add a little bit more of that reef carbonate.

anyone else using these kinda minerals?

In general chemistry, alkalinity refers to how alkaline a solution is. So you could as a general rule say that as a solution gets less alkaline, it gets more acidic.

In the context of reef aquaria, however, alkalinity typically refers to carbonate alkalinity. When we discuss alkalinity in the context of reef aquaria, we don't care (to a certain extent) what the acidity (pH) of the seawater is, as the pH of seawater is relatively difficult to change because of the way seawater is buffered. We use alkalinity as a surrogate measurement for carbonate levels. When the alkalinity drops in a reef tank, that's important because it usually means that carbonate has been consumed. It's not so important in terms of measuring the water's overall acidity.

 

[ElitePirate]

Thank you @trido and @chipmunkofdoom2 really appreciate your valuable comments. I only have a KH tester, I guess I'm going to buy all other testers just to make sure