Tank Supplements?

[BeanniesDaDa]

What type of supplements should I be putting into my reef tank? I have ESV B-IONIC for alkalinity and calcium. I also got Salifert test kits for alkalinity and calcium. Can someone shed some light on how to dose my tank with what I have, also should I be adding trace elements ect...

 

[Greg Hiller]

IMO, you should only be adding supplements for calcium and alkalinity maintainence. And you should be testing often for alk, and less often for calcium. And if you don't do frequent water changes and have a lot of fast growing corals you should test for magnesium once in a while and dose to keep it at NSW levels.

 

[Yaktop]

great advise. chemical manufacturers will disagree. forget the hype.

 

[Kim]

Greg what do you aim to keep your alk at?

 

[BeanniesDaDa]

So test often of alk and less for calcium, my lfs told my to test bolth every other day. I sould dose per directions how often, every day or every other?

 

[denvig]

What Greg said. You should dose every day to maintain Ca at 400-450 ppm and to keep Alk at 7 to 10 dKH. You can test often at first to see what the right dose is to maintain levels. Then after a while you can test less often. Your dose may change as you get more life in the tank using it.

 

[Greg Hiller]

I like to keep alk above 3 meq/l for a safety factor. Dennis gave you good advice on dosing/testing. You only need to dose enough to keep up with the calcium/alk. demand from your corals. Unless you have a lot of corals that are growing fast, demand may not be all that high.

 

[NateHanson]

My Alk is running around (edit) 3.9, Ca 450. Is there a problem with too high Alk?

 

[Greg Hiller]

I've not seen a problem with high alk, but you might be more likely to have a precipitation event start should some perturbation of your system occur.