Additives

What are the bare bones necessary additives I need for my tank to keep my corals health and happy? Corals are from softies to hard corals. calcium? Iodine? Magnesium? I am not completely sure on all things necessary for the reef. Also what are the most important test/ best brand of tests to have? I have just the basic tests now ph, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Thanks everybody with all the help on my post and my other posts. It very rewarding seeing your tank come to life. Love 3reef and it's members. Great people.

 

fishyfinder

IMO
Magnesium, Calcium and Alkalinity are the bare bones you need
Phosphate is also a good additional kit to have

Salifert kits are my current choices for testing these parameters

other than the above - food supplements are not a bad idea IMO

but other additives such as Iodine, Strontium, Molybedum etc , in general these are not required

Steve

 

Thanks Steve!
I guess I was pretty close then. haha I was actually looking at Salifert kits.

 

+1 to steve... you also need good test kits when you are using additives, and dont dose anything that you cannot test for

 

I have nothing to dose, so I will take your advice and buy the test kit first. Thanks a lot Jd

 

RO/DI water and a good salt mix. Regular water changes will keep up with most systems until such time as regular testing with a name brand test kit indicates you have a demand for something. That something is usually calcium, alkalinity or magnesium, the rest are somewhat related to snake oil and not necessary.

 

Bare bones, as others have already posted, Ca, buffer and magnesium. Iodine is not needed. I tried iodine for a number of years, Lugols and such I have to say it really did nothing and was more of a risk IMO. Some dose iodine routinely but it seems more appropriate for tanks with large colonies of softies and mushrooms, of course I have no scientific proof of that. I do know that iodine can become toxic to corals.