Anyone supplement strontium?

[Moe_K]

Strontium (Sr) is in the same family as calcium (Ca). Yes, it's been shown to be taken up in coral skeletons - but not a huge percent of the elemental structure.
The old discussion has been are corals taking up the Sr because it "looks like" Ca, or do they actually use it, or "want" Sr?

Among those folks supplementing carbonate and calcium via a 2 part solution, is anyone also supplementing Sr?

Those of you using calcium reactors, I reckon you don't worry about Sr or other trace elements. If it's in the ancient coral media, it eventually goes into solution and into your tank. Yes?

 

[RiverRat]

Good stuff here.
I would like to add to this...
I am far more familiar with the human body than corals so.......
Strontium is indeed very similar to Calcium, so much so that the human body uses it in some of the same metabolic processes.
Strontium and calcium can both be used in our bones. However, amounts of calcium ingested into the body will effect the absorption of strontium (due to similarities). The presence of calcium in higher amounts will actually prevent the absorption of Strontium. This is why many treatments for Osteoporosis (which utilize strontium) need to be taken on an empty stomach (and not with milk or something else high in calcium). It should also be noted strontium has been shown to make our bones stronger and thicker (our teeth as well).
Perhaps strontium could have this same effect in corals and an abundance of calcium prevents its absorption, which in turn shows as a lower percentage of its elemental structure.
I certainly don't know enough about the subject, but I am eagerly following along (I seriously need to learn more about supplementing).

 

[dannyp02908]

wow, good answer RiverRat.

I have a friend with a softie tank. He never doses alk or CA. But he adds strontium randomly and everything seems to be happy for a little while. Now I wonder if he was dosing ca regularly, would the strontium dose even register a change in his corals.

 

[wdebenedettojr]

I dose strontium 1-2 times a week. Zoas in my tank grow much faster when I dose it. My coraline algae grows much faster to when I dose strontium. People say strontium helps the purple and blues in sps corals so I wanted to try it, not really sure it's helping in that aspect though.

 

[stingythingy45]

When I first got into the hobby somebody at a LFS said that Strontium was a must.
So I did like any newbie, dosed like crazy. Biggest thing I noticed was extreme growth of coralline algae.
The whole tank went purple in a matter of a couple weeks.

 

[jt628]

I dose strontium 1-2 times a week. Zoas in my tank grow much faster when I dose it. My coraline algae grows much faster to when I dose strontium. People say strontium helps the purple and blues in sps corals so I wanted to try it, not really sure it's helping in that aspect though.

I use KORAL KOLOR, which is Fancy for Stronium, I do 3 ML once a week in a 350 total volume setup, And It brings outh the blues in everythign, turns purples blue... greens blue... I am very happy with the results...

 

[JohnK]

Is anyone dosing and testing to maintain a particular level, or are we talking about just dosing without any testing?

 

[Moe_K]

Bump. Maybe Dr. Hiller can respond. Does Randy still visit the forum?

 

[higorc]

I find this subject interesting... I just picked up a bottle and started dosing twice a week per the instructions on the label.

I don't have a Strontium test kit, so I won't be testing it. If I get good results, then maybe I will get one and keep it in a certain level...

Higor

Sent from my Galaxy S4

 

[Turbosnail]

I use to use it I haven't dosed it in about 6 months. I notice when I stopped using it my zoas stopped growing as fast and the coraline turned white.

 

[saltcrazy]

I am dosing it in my new 180 and I am already growing coralline, its only been 2 months!