Lets talk Supplements!!!

[DeepSeaBeauti]

With all the confusion out there for what should be, must be, and could be without supplements.
Now, my tank is mostly soft corals, with a few frag pieces, dunkin, war coral, fava, and blue tip acro. And truth be told, the soft corals are doing great, the others are doing ok, not great.
With that said, my water params are not bad,
PH 8.3
Salinity 1.026
ammonia 0
NO2 0
No3 0
PO4 0
Ca 420
Alkalinity 8 dKH
Mg 1200

About the tank:
I dose B-ionic 2 part, 1ml of vodka, And perform small water changes with salinity twice a week. I have a total tank Volume of 160g, A skimmer that is way over sized for my tank, lots of live rock. I run two 175w MH with 14K bulbs. I run both Carbon, and GFO in a reactor all the time.

Since everything i test for seams to be ok, i'm wondering if my corals are not doing so great could be caused from lack of other supplements. So, What does everyone else dose? What could i be lacking? Should i test for anything else? I have all the time in the world for another 2 weeks then its back to school, so If possible it could be relatively easy to dose and monitor since most of my week will be tied up. Any help would be great. Thank you.

 

[am3gross]

what kind of salt are u using? in past experiances for me different salts have different levels of trace elements... just like your calcium etc is different from each brand of salt..

currently i am using instant ocean... i have had MY best experiance with oceanic.... now i know there is no way to test the different trace elements that are in each salt brand but this is what i contribute my good past coral growth to..

lets see what others say!

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

About the tank:
I dose B-ionic 2 part, 1ml of vodka, And perform small water changes with salinity twice a week. I have a total tank Volume of 160g, A skimmer that is way over sized for my tank, lots of live rock. I run two 175w MH with 14K bulbs. I run both Carbon, and GFO in a reactor all the time.

what kind of salt are u using? in past experiances for me different salts have different levels of trace elements... just like your calcium etc is different from each brand of salt..

currently i am using instant ocean... i have had MY best experiance with oceanic.... now i know there is no way to test the different trace elements that are in each salt brand but this is what i contribute my good past coral growth to..

lets see what others say!

As highlighted above, i use Aquavitros Salinity. I have seen huge improvements with it since switching from tropic marin.

 

[svejil]

Maybe your system is too sterile? No3 / PO4 = 0. Maybe the softies would appreciate more nutrients.

SV

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

Maybe your system is too sterile? No3 / PO4 = 0. Maybe the softies would appreciate more nutrients.

SV

Well Id like to believe that, but I believe that my PO4 readings are false. Meaning that i do have some algae growth that i think are giving me false PO4 readings.

 

[110galreef]

get a hanna checker next for Phosphate readings. That will be spot on. Softies maybe doing great because great water quality & plenty of light. SPS & LPS frags maynot be doing as great due to lack of flow? What amount of flow? Or also not enuf light. Are they placed up high & near the MH's? Light fish load? maybe the corals need some more fish poo?!

 

[110galreef]

also why the WC 2x's a week. If everything is spot on, maybe only do a small 5g WC every week or even 10g every 2 weeks. More than suffice. With your WC schedule u really should have no need to dose anything. Very light coral load & plenty of fresh minerals & calcium from you frequent WC's.

Save u $$ & may make corals happier too!

 

[bertoni]

Those numbers all are fine. The stony corals often are pickier than soft corals, and might need more light or flow, or could be suffering from chemical warfare. Can you post a picture of the tank?

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

get a hanna checker next for Phosphate readings. That will be spot on. Softies maybe doing great because great water quality & plenty of light. SPS & LPS frags maynot be doing as great due to lack of flow? What amount of flow? Or also not enuf light. Are they placed up high & near the MH's? Light fish load? maybe the corals need some more fish poo?!

Ive got two MP40's for flow, plus the return from my sump. So i would belive i have plenty of flow. I have about 10 fish in the tank, as well as a bunch of hermit crabs, snails, star fish.... The Frags are about 10" From the 175w MH, and im using 14k bulbs. Ive been looking into the hanna checker, just have not purchased one yet.

Those numbers all are fine. The stony corals often are pickier than soft corals, and might need more light or flow, or could be suffering from chemical warfare. Can you post a picture of the tank?

Ill try to get a few shots of the tank tonight, Just have to find the camera battery. :wildone:

 

[110galreef]

all sounds good then. Not sure if too low of nutrients as I would imagine the softies would suffer a tad if really low nutrients? Maybe just give the SPS some more time. As your params & flow & all seems ideal.

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

Thats why im so boggled. I figure i should be able to keep them. This is why i figured there was something missing.

Also i forgot to mention, I do two very small water changes a week, In the range of ony 5 gal at a time, and that is spread over several hours. I do this to lesson the impact of water fluctuations within the water column.

 

[allsps40]

I saw a good color increase in my sps when I started to feed them zooplankton and the fish more mixed food. This in turn made my no3 go from 0 ppm to 5-3 ppm. Your water may be to clean. I would stop the vodka dosing and feed a little more to see if that makes a difference. I also want to address you lighting. 175w MH is great for softies and lps but sps will do much better in with 250w instead. Stability in water quality and chemistry is also important for sps color and growth. Keep things rock stable, SG, ph, alk, ca, mag and temp. I agree that 2 water changes is a bit much unless they are very small, like 3-5 gallons. I do a 5 gallon weekly water change on my 50 gallon total system. As for supplements, KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. Your 2 part and water changes will cover all the trace elements. You are using a good salt so are go there. All I do is water changes, kalk in ATO and some AAs in my frozed mixed food. I used to dose 2 part, iodine, potassium, strontium ect. But I found threw daily observation that it only stressed out my sps and made them go brown. Simple and stable.

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

Thats good to know. I think im going to take some water in to my LFS an have them test everything. That way i can rule out any possable test kit problems. I have to restock on carbon, and 2 part anyway. Maybe also find out why my annenome is on the move again?