Additives?????

[bunzaroo]

There are som many additives adverstied online, that all sem do to very specific things, raise calcium, raise ph, additive for this additive for that !!!!!!, phytoplankton, so on and so forth. it is confusing. I have a 72 bowfront 4 months old 1 yellow tang, small oscellaris 2 clown fish, 1 blue damsel, some softies, and 1 sun coral, +cuc. My parameters are ok. DO I have to be supplwnting my tank? If so what does everyone recommend. I know if I ever add sps, I need to watch my calcium levels etc... Help?? I am so confused

 

[doubleduece]

As far as suppliments go, you should dose some sort of vitamin supplement like reef complete, so that there are essential vitamins and lesser trace elements at a sustainable level to keep everyone happy. Second to dose would be mag., stronium, iodine. Third would be a buffer to keep you ph and alk. in check..Dosing Phyto would be for your softy or hard coral , and micro, and macro organisms like pods.. Most of your hard and softies get there food from zooxanthellae, some from zooxanthellae and target feeding. Basically the more you supplement and feed the faster your creatures will grow, and they will thank you bt presenting themselves to you...
Just my two cents....

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Someone told me don't dose anything that you're not testing the levels for. Too much of a good thing can be bad.

 

[seapug]

You don't need to add any of that junk. Just do regular water changes and test for Alkalinity and Calcium. Since you don't have any stony corals or clams, the only thing you'll probably need to keep up with is Alkalinity. Plain baking soda mixed with topoff water works great for that. You can figure out how to dose it here:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Apart from that, Magnesium is something that you can keep elevated to provide some benefits to alkalinity and calcification, but get a good test kit and monitor the level before adding it.

 

[Denbf58]

dito if you cant test for it dont add it

 

[crvz]

as long as you're keeping with that stocking list, softies and a few fish, there's no reason to dose. a good water change habit will keep everything in check.

 

[greenbean36191]

Even in the future, if you do decide to keep more corals, there's no need to dose anything more than calcium, alkalinity, and maybe magnesium if testing shows it's low. Strontium, iodine, "trace elements," etc. have few if any important functions in a reef tank and all can be bad if overdosed- which is hard to judge since they're hard or impossible to test for. Some people choose to dose phytoplankton, and others don't. It is no coral food. It's food for "pods" and other inverts.

 

[bunzaroo]

Thanks for all the replies, Besides spot feeding the duncans and sun coral pieces of shrimp, do I have to feed the other softies anything, zoo's , green star polyps. I have seen reef bugs, and other coral food advertised. I've had them for 1 month now and they are doing well. Just wondering if In needed to supplement them.

 

[ryancaudill]

You dont need to feed them a thing. If you want to go with something small particle like coral frenzy. It may brighten the color up. But again you dont need to feed any of these corals except obviously your sun corals.

 

[crvz]

I've never fed my softies anything, especially green star polyps. it may help in their growth, but I'd be surprised if it's noticeable.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

do I have to feed the other softies anything

I do not specifically feed any corals in my tank, but they may get bits of left over fish foods and other natural foods in the tank.

My parameters are ok. DO I have to be supplwnting my tank? If so what does everyone recommend. I know if I ever add sps, I need to watch my calcium levels etc... Help?? I am so confused

To expand on the good advice you've been given above, you may find this useful:

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners, Part 2: What Chemicals Must be Supplemented
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php

 

[otrlynn]

RH-F, if I am successfully maintaining Ca at 420-430 via dosing a 2-part additive, can I assume that my magnesium level is sufficient or do I need to measure it? Yes, I did read the article above, which is what generated my question.

Sorry for the mild thread hi-jack, but perhaps the OP would also benefit from your answer.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Coralline is a big user of magnesium, so if you have a lot of coralline growth, or find that it is actually growing more poorly than you'd llike, you may want to measure magnesium.