When to start dosing trace elements

[DuvalTilWeDie904]

Quick question...

My tank is roughly 2 months old and I was wondering when should I start dosing for trace elements? I have a good number of "baby" coral in my tank. I have mostly soft and LPS, but I do have a few SPS coral in there as well. Thanks for your input.

 

[Spare time]

Ehh it depends. There isn't really a great answer. If you are doing regular water changes of a decent proportion, it shouldn't be an issue. The problem is that the term "trace elements" lumps a lot of things together that may or may not be used in the tank, and in different amounts.

I'd say if you have something like a refugium or algae scrubber, then go ahead.

 

[PatW]

I run chaeto and I have found that I need to add chaeto gro to keep it happy (adds trace elements that chaeto likes).

If you have growing corals and are dosing ALK and Ca, you are probably depleting some trace elements to an extent. The hobby has good tests for ALK, Ca, Mg, N03 and Phosphate, but good tests for the various trace elements are really not there.

Now, there are systems where you add a mix of trace elements based on how much ALK or Ca you have added. And that does make a certain amount of sense and I do that.

But any of the major salt mixes adds trace elements and good old brute force water changes are a can’t miss method.

 

[blaxsun]

What size is your tank and how often do you perform water changes?

 

[damsels are not mean]

If the corals look good and grow I don't see the reason to start doing anything. Most of the important trace elements are in your salt mix so if you are changing water they won't be depleted completely.