additives for mushrooms, polyps, live rock

Test Kits Salifert
Calcium
Alk
pH
Nitrite
Nitrate

Those are your basic's. MOST of the time once your amonina cycles, you shouldn't have a NEED, but you might want to add to the list just in case.

Some people test for Strontium, but I bet we only sold 3 of these a year at the shop. Same with Iodine. Very exensive test for as many times as you will use it.

As for the additivies, I would hold off until I ran the test and see what the quality is like. Accurate testing will help with alot.

Once you know what you're dealing with, things become much easier.

105man said:

Also, what do you think of MicroVert and Phytoplex...I understand those are, essentially, foods for corals. My corals are mushrooms and polyps...

Click to expand...

In a system such as yours, all you need to put into the tank is top off water, Calcium and alk (your B-ionic 2 part) occasional food for the critters, light, 10% water changes and TLC on your part. The specimens that are in your system will not need anything more than what will be resupplied in a biweekly 10% water change. All that other stuff is just potential food and nutrient amplifiers for nuisance algal blooms. Yes, stony corals will need these items, but the majority of aquarists keep huge tanks of stony corals and never supplement more than the weekly to bi-weekly water change and the additives for Ca and Alkalinity to meet these needs. They are not rate limiting nutrients in our home aquaria unless you have a system that doesn't have a regular WC regimen.

Not only do I not own test kits for the supplements listed, but I do not own any of the supplements either. As listed by Squid above , Ca and Alkalinity once a week, salinity, a pH meter to run continuously, and the nitrogen test kits (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) to test if you suspect problems or during startup of systems will be all you need. If I were to add any others, it would be Magnesium if you can't keep your Calcium levels up and copper if you have a used tank or are suspicious of mains water. Especially with the creatures you have, it is unnecessary, even detrimental, to use supplements, especially in view of the fact that you are not testing your systems to see if you need these items.

These "trace element" supplements are a carryover from the time when you had to talk to a pharmacists to get the things you needed to make your ASW from scratch. With the quality of ASW mixes available today, there is no need for all this other ... ...stuff.

JMO, HTH

I make my mush from the following;

Silversides
Talapia
Cocktail Shrimp
Krill
Squid Strips
Concentrated Garlic Extract
Seaweed Selects
Spinach
Clams
Mussles
and anything else I can find...

Remember, this was made in large amounts...so you will have to scale it down. IF YOU CAN LOL

Recipe for Gumbo:

1. Angel Formula
2. Baby Brine Shrimp
3. Beef Heart
4. Bloodworms
5. Brine Shrimp
6. Brine Shrimp Plus
7. Clams
8. Cuddle Fish
9. Daphnia Cube
10. Formula 1
11. Formula 2
12. Glass Worms
13. Golden Pearls (Brine Shrimp Direct)
14. Green Seaweed (dried)
15. Garlic Xtreme
16. Krill
17. Mosquito Larve
18. Mysis Shrimp
19. Nori Sheets
20. Plankton (Tahitian Blend from Brine Shrimp Direct)
21. Prawns
22. Prime Reef
23. Purple Seawead (dried)
24. SF Marine Cuisine
25. SF Emerald Entrée
26. Mussels (finely chopped)
27. Selco (Brine Shrimp Direct)
28. Sea Urchin
29. Silversides (San Francisco Bay Co)
30. Spirulina Flakes
31. Squid
32. Octopus
33. Vitamins (liquid)


Chop all seafood except clams and blood worms to a VERY course texture. Add formula 1, formula 2, Angel formula, Nori Sheets, Plankton. Chop to a course texture.

Chop the clams until very very small minced pieces. Add to above mixture


Add to this mixture the Selco and liquid vitamins and bloodworms.
Slowly add Spirulina flakes mixing after each addition. Continue to add Spirulina until you have a thick mixture almost clay type thickness. To this add garlic extreme. If not adding garlic xtreme, then stop adding the Spirulina flakes when mixture is the consistency of lumpy thick gravy. Place 1 cup of mixture in sandwich size zip lock bags and freeze.

It’s hard for me to tell you how much of each for small batches. When I make the food, I make enough for about 100-150 bags. We sold the bags for $11.00 per bag and couldn't keep it in stock. All fish, inverts, corals were fed.

"What would be a good cocktail and routine fo a fish and reef tank with live rock, live sand, mushrooms and polyps, various algae critters, cleaner shrimp?"
The stuff you have listed really don't need anything they cant extract from a good salt water mix, the exception being calcium, which is essential for coralline algae growth as well as some minor use by the corals you have in mind.
So to reiterate what the others have said, a regular water change routine is simple and cheap maint. The B-ionic is a good additive to keep calcium and alkalinity levels in line, but you need a decent (Salifert) test kit for both and a pH meter is really a better choice than test kits for pH, I tried several and I never fould one that showed a discernable difference in readings taken late nite before lights out, and first thing in the morning before lights on. Also its worth investing $50 on a refractometer to monitor specific gravity. The cheap swing arms ar notoriously innacurate and a good floating type hydrometer is almost that much, esp if you get a glass cylinder in which to float it for a reading.
I gather from your user name you have a 105g tank? If so buying a meter and refractometer is cheap ins,
Water problems in that volume of water can get expensive and frustrating to deal with after the fact.
HTH, Enjoy

Big tank can = big problems. Like the man said the bigger the tank the bigger the problems can be. But the good news is a bigger tank can also leave ya room for error

I got roped into all those additives also, and had beautiful red algae all over. Stopped using it and poof gone. Red algae loves Iodine BTW. From what I have read certain species of fish ( not sure about coral ) need the added Iodine. You'd have to do your homework on that.

I had no luck with the B-ionic products but people here seem to love them. But to B-Ionics credit I was probably using the product wrong. I admitted those mistakes in another thread.

I can't begin to tell you the wealth of knowledge I have gotten from the folks around here. So I feel compelled to pass some along to you. Newb to newb

Food.. Any of those mixtures will work. But what I do is break off a few pieces and put it in a paper cup and let it thaw out. Then I kill the power heads and with a syringe I take the fluid that has become part of the thaw out and I pump that directly on to the poylops. It kinda stands like a smoke cloud in the water. My polyops are to small to eat like the other corals but this seems to work.I also do this with my striped mushrooms and spotted mushrooms. All my other corals get fed directly.

I have a gren open brain that eats pieces of shrimp, fish clams muscles and black worms. I feed the same way to my Candycanes, hairy mushroms, fungia,and anemones but most of the time the clown will feed him, sometimes to excess.

Someone said here that all our tanks are experiments. I find this to be very true. Silly as this may sound I had no idea that my larger corals could eat worms and such. I figured thy were all flter feeders. I found out by saying WTH and feeding them. I sat amazed watching them eat. Now it's a family thing when I feed we all watch Long and the short of it is dont be afraid to experiment.

Enjoy the tank and welcome to TRT.

Mike