Will a lack of trace elements kill corals?

[Nikita1981]

Hi all,

Lately my gonioporas and some acros show stn from the bottom. I changed nothing in lighting, flow, etcetera and had good stable growth for over 2 years. I already did an icp test and no big stuff came out. Iodine I already dose for over a year every day since it kept bottoming out and my montis could not take this. Since then I had no problems whatsoever.

One interesting thing my icp shows was an almost complete lack of certain trace elements. I added my test in this message.

Anyone want to take a look and tell me their experience in lacking trace elements?

Thanks!

 

[Auquanut]

I can only give anecdotal experience. I've never had an ICP test done yet. As my Alc and Cal consumption rose significantly, and I started auto dosing, I noticed that some of my corals started failing dramatically. It was weird. My slimer was dying, but my red planet wasn't. My monti cap nearly died, but my monti digi was okay. Stylophora and posilopora were okay, but birdsnest was reduced to almost nothing. And my "bulletproof" zoas and Hollywood stunner were receding rapidly.
I had been considering dosing trace anyway, so I started dosing Red Sea Trace A, B, C, and D at about 2/3 the BRS recommended amount.
The result was immediate and amazing. All of the affected corals began to improve basically from day 1. Growth of all of my corals exploded, and I got coloration that I had never seen before. I didn't lose a single colony.
I'm sure that up to a point, water changes can supply the trace elements our tanks need (depending largely on the salt mix used and WC schedule), but at some point demand just overwhelms supply.
A lot of folks will tell you not to dose anything that you're not testing for. That's probably good advice, but I'm certain that it has saved many of my prized corals.
Again, this is strictly anecdotal. I'm sure others will disagree.
Just something to consider. Sorry for the long winded reply.

 

[Nikita1981]

No, thank you for sharing your experience. I hope some others will chime in.

Technically speaking, I would not be dosing anything that was not tested for, the lack of trace elements is shown in the ICP test, and indeed a see a small improvement after every water change but the effect only lasts like a day, max 2.

I think I will start dosing Aquaforest micro E , this contains around 90 percent of the trace elements that read zero on the icp.

Any other experiences more than welcome and Auquanut, thanks for taking the time to answer to my thread.

 

[Bryknicks]

I can only give anecdotal experience. I've never had an ICP test done yet. As my Alc and Cal consumption rose significantly, and I started auto dosing, I noticed that some of my corals started failing dramatically. It was weird. My slimer was dying, but my red planet wasn't. My monti cap nearly died, but my monti digi was okay. Stylophora and posilopora were okay, but birdsnest was reduced to almost nothing. And my "bulletproof" zoas and Hollywood stunner were receding rapidly.
I had been considering dosing trace anyway, so I started dosing Red Sea Trace A, B, C, and D at about 2/3 the BRS recommended amount.
The result was immediate and amazing. All of the affected corals began to improve basically from day 1. Growth of all of my corals exploded, and I got coloration that I had never seen before. I didn't lose a single colony.
I'm sure that up to a point, water changes can supply the trace elements our tanks need (depending largely on the salt mix used and WC schedule), but at some point demand just overwhelms supply.
A lot of folks will tell you not to dose anything that you're not testing for. That's probably good advice, but I'm certain that it has saved many of my prized corals.
Again, this is strictly anecdotal. I'm sure others will disagree.
Just something to consider. Sorry for the long winded reply.

Funny, I've had the exact same experience. I have a few nice acros, common acros/sps, digi's, monti cap, a bunch of LPS, and have never had an ICP test. I dose the big 3 plus aminos and have never had any issues until recently. My green slimmer and two common acros polyps retracted for a couple weeks and overall did not look great. I wanted to try the red sea trace so I pulled the trigger, initially not due to the bad looking coral. I have now dosed approx. 5 ml's per week for the last month and they have all rebounded and look much better. I will admit that I have almost stopped my water changes leading up to this event due to my tank being rock solid stable. So I can only assume that my trace elements were severely diminished and needed to be replaced. On another note, I had also been having issues with my macro algae receding and on the brink of death and that has rebounded great as well. Long story short for the OP, it may be necessary to start implementing some trace elements.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi all,

Lately my gonioporas and some acros show stn from the bottom. I changed nothing in lighting, flow, etcetera and had good stable growth for over 2 years. I already did an icp test and no big stuff came out. Iodine I already dose for over a year every day since it kept bottoming out and my montis could not take this. Since then I had no problems whatsoever.

One interesting thing my icp shows was an almost complete lack of certain trace elements. I added my test in this message.

Anyone want to take a look and tell me their experience in lacking trace elements?

Thanks!

A total lack of many individual trace elements will kill most photosynthetic organisms, but one cannot tell from an ICP test whether many elements have such low bioavailability.

That said, it is a fine experiment to dose some of those that are stated to be deficient. If you see an improvement after each water change, that could be a sign, but might be for other reasons as well (reduced toxins, stirred up debris, etc.).