Supplements

[dakinejb]

I am using Reef Solution additive. On the bottle it says no other additives are needed excluding calcium. Is it realy that good? I have been using it for about a month and every thing looks nice, until I went to a friends house and saw his coalline growth. It blew me away.I guess my question is what does every one else use supplement wise, and is it any diffrent that a big tank? Also is coarlline growth a sing of a health tank?

[Reefer76]

Sounds like your friend really knows what he is doing.

[dakinejb]

I think he just got lucky.

[Awestralian]

I dont supplement a thing in my tank.
There is no need.
Regular water changes will give your tank all it needs.

Are you testing for the things you are adding? If you cant test for it then dont add it!

Corraline growth will happen in reef tanks, but it does not mean everything is healthy, and i am not one to promote its growth in the slightest.. It does grow, but i dont like to see it. My snails eat it before it becomes too visible...

[jeepjon]

Moderation is the key...try different supplements, just don't go overboard with them. I've always used Kent Iodine and Trace elements with pretty good luck, and calcium hydroxide water for top off....

[ckreef]

Originally posted by Awestralian
I dont supplement a thing in my tank.
There is no need.
Regular water changes will give your tank all it needs.

In a Nano tank I basically agree with that except for calcium. MOst people like coraline algae and with a fair amount of corals and a good amount of coraline regular water changes usually can NOT keep up with calcium usage.

ALso out of 8 popular salt mixes only 4 of them test for calcium concentrations over 400 ppm. The other 4 averaged around 360 ppm.

[Awestralian]

ALso out of 8 popular salt mixes only 4 of them test for calcium concentrations over 400 ppm. The other 4 averaged around 360 ppm.

Three things,

1) there has been arguments/debates that 400ppm or greater concentrations of calcium is overkill...

2) I should point out i use natural sea water - i guess you cant get better than perfect

3) My corals do well without suppliments, but i am not trying to gorw them at any kind of rate. I like most of them the size they are, and dont want to overcrowd my tank with rapidly growing corals. They get what they need to survive and do well, but not to grow like weeds

[ckreef]

I agree about the size of corals and mine are like yours. They grow good but not at a rate that will make them rapidly outgrow the tank.

In the study I was referencing there was a 9th test which was natural seawater (although I could not redily find the exact location information). That Natural seawater tested had a calcium level of 413 ppm.

Either way if you are using Natural seawater you really can NOT compare what you do to anybody using a synthetic saltmix. Sort of like apple to oranges. Both are fruit but hardly the same.

[Awestralian]

That was going to be my next question, as the debate i was reading did not compare salt mixes to natural sea water, or the calcium level present.

I hate oranges...

[Whitten]

So what salt mix has a high level of Calcium?

[MiddletonMark]

Problem gets to ... whose salt study is believable?
[in my opinion]

I know that my Instant Ocean only tests around 340-360 in Calcium ... so I use a 2-part additive to maintain it in my tank [don't pre-adjust it when mixing, doesn't appear to me to be that big of a deal].

Personally, I only use Calcium/Alkalinity supplements [and water changes] to make my corals/corraline/etc boom. Every suppliment I used to add just seemed to encourage more algae or other nuisance things. Most experienced reefers tend to say the same [from what I've read].

As for which 2-part ... I wasn't really that impressed with Kent, though nothing wrong with it. C-Balance is sort of `best' in my opinion ... or I liked what I saw while using it. Now using B-ionic, nothing wrong with it ... seems good, but it seems harder to raise my Calcium/Alk really high [which I like with a lot of sps and a clam in there]. Also have used Ocean's Blend ... just as good as the others.

Biggest advice is the adage `if you don't test for it, don't add it' and `if they don't tell you what's in it on the label, don't add it'.

Seems all the tanks I'm blown away with [TOTM's, etc] all just suppliment Ca/Alk [and test for them] ... and that's it.

Just my 2 cents [or 6 cents, being so wordy ]

[dakinejb]

Thanks for all the input. I now just use B-ionic with sea water. It makes for a easy and healthy tank. I will post some photos when I can.

[ckreef]

Originally posted by Whitten
So what salt mix has a high level of Calcium?

The artical I was reading is a Aquarium Frontiers Feature and from what I can read the data was first published in the Journal of Aquariculture and Aquatic Science 8(2):39-43

With that said the approx calcium level after converting from millimolar to ppm using the atomic mass would be (approx using 5/4 rounding)

Regular IO = 361
Tropic Marin = 357
HW Marine Mix = 361
Reef Crystals = 373
Red Sea Salt = 361
Kent = 417
Coralife = 405
SeaChem = 405

Natural Seawater = 413

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So take that with as many grains of salt as you feel is needed. All I did was do the conversion as explained in the artical and post the ppm data.

I personally use regular IO,
Kent CB at maximum dosage per day except weekends and holidays
And have started using the average daily dosage of SeaChem Reef Complete every few days regardless if it's a weekend or holiday.

OK so my weekends or holidays stuff is a little wacky but hey thats what I do. That is all I dose --- period. No food either but then again I only have corals and a few inverts (no fish)