iodine and protein skimmer in softies only tank

i just bought the instant ocean reef crystals salt mix-- contains more Ca then the other stuff i was looking at.

+1 DBOSHIBBY - I hate dosing blindly but I don't know how else to do it - before I started my parts A and B my rocks were bleaching and the coralline algae started showing white edges and white bumps, which alarmed me and caused me to spend all this money on supplements. So I'm not sure even with constant WC's do the mineral and element levels stay at a proper level.

 

With or without water changes the elements/compounds will NOT stay the same, and adding trace or major elements blindly is not going to be any better and indeed can make it worse many times.
Everything gets out of whack because you feed the tank. When you add the food you are adding all kinds of things, some being partially used and others possibly not at all.
Water changes help to mitigate conditions keeping those conditions CLOSER to what the original levels would have been.
I prefer every so often, maybe about 6 months but not rigid on this, to do 6 20% water changes within a week to get conditions back to original.
Some people have experienced problems adding fish to a tank that has been up and running for a long time with new fish additions dying but existing fishes having no problems.
The existing fish have grown used to changing conditions over a period of time but when adding new fish, they can't adjust to the severe changes that their bodies are not used to so they perish.
When this happens, all you can do is make much more frequent water changes to allow the existing fish to acclimate back to original water conditions but not to do it all at once or you lose the existing fish too.

 

well i jus read somewhere that there are foods for marine which are not as bad as other food and prevents too much of nitrate phosphates spike dont know the brands. well i know people who change water 1ce in 6 months but just keep all parameters in check. ther tanks are more than 3 years old.nitrates flutuate between 3-10 and have never had any fish or coral death. anyways im jus gona keep a few 2 -3 skunks, snails, 6-8 chromis and 2-3 perc. clowns and will feed every alternate days that too 1ce. i only want corals all softies. i know a marine biologist in singapore who changes water every month with natural sea water 20%. never had any probs too. he says water changes are only for replacing certain trace elements, u only need to change water if ur nitrates are high.

 

well that means 25% water change per week(removing lots of good bacteria from water)? mine is 60 gallon total water volume.id ratehr change 5% every week so 20% monthly.

 

There is very little good bacteria in the water... 99.9% is on your rocks and sand.

 

what about nitrates? its in water only or rocks too?

 

First of all, it is true that foods vary in content.
You are centred too much on nitrates and phosphates. What about all the other elements/compounds that make up foods?
You know people who change once in 6 months and parameters are in check? What about all the people that tried this and failed? How do the successes check "all parameters", you need lab facilities to check everything and not all labs can do an accurate analysis on tank water. Certainly you can't check "all parameters" with hobby test kits and know as not all hobby test kits are dependable, especially for some things and iodine and its forms come to mind first. Hobby test kits are not dependable for dependable iodine testing.
Ask your biologist what he does to LOWER compounds/elements that build up from food added to the tanks.
I'd like to know why you only have to do water changes if nitrates are high.
As a matter of fact, I've not even tested for nitrates in any of my tanks since I first started 18 years ago. I don't KNOW what my levels are and haven't since I started.
Just remember that there are all kinds of methods of operating a reef tank but some are only managed successfully by a few, while others are successful for a large number of hobbyists.
Frequent water changes of sufficient quantity based on tank size and biological loading I would hazard a guess would be in the greater number of successes.

 

rayjay - this is a good point. ill ask him when i go back to singapore. well uv never tested for nitrates, thats amazing. what u test for then? and how u start ur tank? im going for a 5" aragonite sand bed, with a few live and dead rocks, sump with cheato and miracle mud, skimmer and wetdry filter. thats it. will that do? what brand food u give?

 

Well when I set up a tank, I add ammonium chloride to cycle with and test ammonium and nitrite. After it's set up I periodically check s.g. but that doesn't happen often. I check s.g. of new water.
Over the years, I've gone deep, shallow, plenum, prefiltered reverse flow undergravel, bare bottom, and while they all work, my personal favourite is to go bare bottom with lots of live rock and skimming.
I don't use any other biological filter other than the live rock.
Food wise, I feed the reef tanks and fish only tanks spirulina and kelp flake food from Brine Shrimp Direct.
For seahorse tanks I feed frozen brine and mysis and enriched live brine shrimp.

 

well what corals u got? i guess with stony, ull have to check ca and alk. and how much and when do u change your water?