Adding Supplements

Discussion in 'Water Chemistry' started by Bruce, Jun 24, 2009.

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  1. Bruce

    Bruce Giant Squid

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    Hey everyone,

    Just wanted to see what people were adding out in reef land.

    Besides water changes I add liquid calcium, iodine (lugal's), strontium and molybdenum as well as the kent "trace elements" which consists of a bunch of goodies hah.

    I really don't do water changes very often... if ever (don't ask me how my tank is doing great :)) So i just wanted to see what people were adding.

    PS: I haven't done more than 5 gal water change once in a blue moon (when my salt is low) for probably... well 3-4 years.
     
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  3. divott

    divott Giant Squid

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    when adding these , do you test also? addin too much of one, can throw somethin else way out of wack.
     
  4. Bruce

    Bruce Giant Squid

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    To be honest, I just tested my water for the first time in probably 2 years (everything was perfect :)) but I had gotten to the point where I knew how much to add without over or under dosing (I know I'm going to get flamed for that...) I usually use my xenia as early detection device to recognize problems. <-- but I really haven't ever had any problems with the tank at all, besides losing the coralline on the walls after the switch from PC to T-5HO
     
  5. adam

    adam Montipora Digitata

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    If the tank is looking good then you must be doing something right
     
  6. RemickJ

    RemickJ Teardrop Maxima Clam

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    I add calcium when needed and Kent Marine C.. That's about it...
     
  7. Bruce

    Bruce Giant Squid

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    Yup thanks, love showing off the lazy slacker reef

    [​IMG]

    This was a day after some cleaning, I will take one tomorrow when the corals are all open and happy!
     
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  9. adam

    adam Montipora Digitata

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    Tank looks great!
     
  10. Bruce

    Bruce Giant Squid

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    I forgot to mention that I DO want to start testing my waters so...

    What do you all test for. Right now I have the ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, pH, and calcium. I was thinking of getting a test for alk, oxygen, and maybe iodine (SO EXPENSIVE!!!)

    PS: if anyone has short fine red hair algae, get a blue tuxedo urchin. These things are machines! Its amazing how clean my rocks are after a few months of this little guy chugging around.
     
  11. schackmel

    schackmel Giant Squid

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    Anything that you are dosing needs to be tested for IMO! The frequency of testing will depend on a number of things

    I dose kalk daily, magnesium twice a week and Fuel by aquavitro a couple times a week

    Once the tank is established and you learn to "observe" your tank the amount of testing needed will go down dramatically. However until you learn that I feel testing is important.

    For example my tanks needs dramatically changed recently. I switched to mainly SPS wiht clams and some LPS from a predominately softy tank. This meant that I needed to dose more to keep the required elements up. I started to dose 2 part daily. I was testing daily and then switched to testing a couple times a week for kH, pH and calcium. I was unable to maintain the levels at a steady rate, so I had to start to add kalk a couple times a week. Again increased my testing amount back to 3 or 4x a week. I THOUGHT I had the routine down so I dropped from a couple times a week testing to weekly testing.

    I noticed that I was having cyano popping back up..so I tested my tank. My Kh dropped from 12 to 6 in 1 week, my pH dropped to 7.8 and calcium was fine.

    So....back to daily testing. I dosed daily borate until the kH was back to 11. I then stopped the 2 part and switched to the current routine.

    I am currently only testing kH, pH and calc about 2 to 3 times a month.

    But I would not recommend dosing any supplement without having some schedule to test the levels.
     
  12. Bruce

    Bruce Giant Squid

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    Hah yeah, I suppose 5 years of no problems with the tank have spoiled me. That Fuel stuff looks awesome but I really think that switching my supp regiment might throw stuff off... (never want to mess with a good thing).