are there minerals that are removed we cant test for?

are ther things removed by a skimmer that cant be tested?

I thought about the question when I was trying to figure out why I'm having trouble keeping certain LPS such as acans and brain.

I have used several test kits and I cant find anything out of ordinary of my paramiters. calcium 460. dkh 10. nitrate,ammonia and phosphate undectitbly. salinity around 1.024. temp 78. magnesium, idide, and other trace elements seem fine( dont remember numbers right now). and I just got brand new ATI t5 bulbs. all my other corals and fish and inverts are doing really good but my LPS grow slow and a ouple have died and my brain coral I got a few weeks ago looks bad. I have a phosban reactor a mechanical filter and I run charcoal through another HOB filter. I dont not have a skimmer. I was curious if even though all my numbers seem good, if there is still somthing in the waste skimmers remove that will not show on those tests I have.

 

anyone?

 

Yes a skimmer will remove a very small amount of trace elements. But water changes will more than make up for their removal.

Strontium is a trace element that people rarely test for but plays a part in the growth and health of corals. Again though any routine water changes should replace that.

Are you feeding your LPS?

Have you considered cutting back on the amount of charcoal and phosban?

Can you post an image of the LPS that is having issues?

Did you acclimate the corals to the newer bulbs?

 

check your dissolved organics level hard to find a test kit but i know someone makes them

 

Maybe knock that 1.024 to 1.026 & see what happens.

 

I disagree that skimmers remove any trace elements. The only thing they do remove is what ever is bound to the waste and particulate. Meaning if a pod uses iodine in it's shell and dies and the skimmer removes the shell it removes the iodine from the system instead of it being broke down and recycled... but a skimmer itself does not filter out trace elements on their own.

The point of having clean water and good filtration is so you can feed more. People seem to get tunnel vision on cleaning their water and all corals should do fine.... no corals do fine when they are fed well. Excessive feeding can lead to excessive nutrients in the water column that can drive algae and chock out corals.

So the point it to feed as much as you can and still maintain low nutrients. If your testing shows you have good water and you do not have algae problems.... feed more.

Seems a HOB skimmer might not do great for you, but your mechanical filter could be removing too much food. Every animals waste is another animals dinner.

 

I feed through water column twice a week and occasional target feed. I will try target feeding my lps more often.

 

So how much do you feed and what is it twice a week? How many fish do you have?

 

I feed rods food 2 times a week. I feed my fish flake food twice daily. I have 2 clowns. coral beauty and a orange spotted goby. very large clean up crew.

 

I target feed all my LPS corals......I start target feeding with something small like cyclopeeze or small mysis. I turn off all lights and gently use a turkey baster and squirt a little bit onto each polyp (esp acans) I do that a couple times a week.......once they get a little more fleshy I start placing a small piece of krill into each polyp mouth. They gooble it up! But I found most LPS that I have do better with some meaty food target fed to them!