Liquid reef supplements?

[Ozzlil]

Am new to the saltwater hobby. I am only keeping soft corals or corals with lower light/flow needs in my tank. Do you add reef supplements to you water? Saw there are multi liquid supplements as well as calcium, etc. Are any additives necessary for proper soft coral care?

 

[chrispc66]

A little iodine may help, reef roids, that type of thing. Soft corals absorb nutrients directly from the water. I've observed by sarco polyps catching marine snow though.....

 

[steelwrap]

Have You tested for what You want to add to make sure You need it? Thats one rule I caught on to never add what You can't test for!!

 

[cloak]

Have You tested for what You want to add to make sure You need it? Thats one rule I caught on to never add what You can't test for!!

+1.

Figure out what your parameters are with regular water changes alone and go from there. You might not need to add anything.

 

[jwoyshnar]

Have You tested for what You want to add to make sure You need it? Thats one rule I caught on to never add what You can't test for!!

+1 also. Softy tank just keep up with water changes. I've seen people dose too much iodine and ruin their tank. Just keep it simple.

 

[chrispc66]

I'm a firm believer that testing is a waste of time and money once a tank is established. A reefer with a keen eye can determine the tank condition by observation only. I don't routinely test for anything, observations are a clear indicator of issues.

If you do have a soft coral dominated tank, dosing iodine as per the instructions could be beneficial, and certainly won't have adverse effects if the instructions are followed and routine water changes are performed. Again, coral observation / extension are visual indicators whether dosing iodine is actually doing anything of value, if no real changes are noted, then dosing iodine is probably unecessary, it depends on your water change routine and frequency really.

 

[wireefman]

I'm a firm believer that testing is a waste of time and money once a tank is established. A reefer with a keen eye can determine the tank condition by observation only. I don't routinely test for anything, observations are a clear indicator of issues.

If you do have a soft coral dominated tank, dosing iodine as per the instructions could be beneficial, and certainly won't have adverse effects if the instructions are followed and routine water changes are performed. Again, coral observation / extension are visual indicators whether dosing iodine is actually doing anything of value, if no real changes are noted, then dosing iodine is probably unecessary, it depends on your water change routine and frequency really.

i want to premise this by saying i respect this advice and i practice it myself, however someone who is a beginer as the op states in their opening line of the post, it is some bad advice.. he/she has no idea what to look for and their keen eye has not been developed so in essence what do they look for? softies have a tendancy to confuse people, but opening for months at a time and then closing up for a few days... this could easily confuse them and cause them to make a rash decision only to further complicate things.

so to the origional poster, i wouldnt worry about dosing anything yet. i would invest in a good test kit and record you results for long while. reef journals are the perfect way to not only understand your tank but also its inhabitants... every time you test, write don the results and also write down what it is you are observing in your tank... are your corals looking good, full polyp extension ect. also write down how your fish and other inverts are reacting... by doing this over the course of a year or more it will show you the results of good husbandry and also what nutirents are being used up and you can properly dose to maintain these levels.. it will also teach you just how these corals react, and if a situation were to arise you can go back through your notes and properly react to the situation.

i personally have been reefing since feb of 2000 and to this day i still utilise a journal.

i hope this helps and i wish you much sucsess on your road to addiction

 

[Nanook]

In my experience, you do not need to add anything to your reef tank to grow soft corals. If you have fish, simply feeding them, along with good water quality and adequate light/flow should suffice. Being that you are new, I would recommend getting the basics down with the cycling process (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate). After that, keeping a specific gravity of near NSW levels of 1.025 by refractometer, keeping a stable temperature and the Big 3 (calcium, alkalinity, magnesium), will be a great start. How you keep the calcium and alkalinity up is personal preference, some people dose 2-part solution, but there is a learning curve there. Some folks will use a calcium reactor instead of dosing, but these are a decent sized initial investment and may not be necessary if just running a small soft coral tank. Simple water changes of 25% every couple of weeks will most likely keep your levels just fine.

 

[Cptn Spaulding]

For feeding softies, turkey baste your rocks a couple times a week. They love it, and it cleans your rock off! I once had the chance to try dosing freeze dried phytoplankton to my tank (before I knew most corals don't actually eat it) a couple times a week. There were no changes in growth of my corals, except a green nepthea and a toadstool. Those exploded in growth. The toadstool got so big it was folding up between the front and back glass. I was adding nutrients to my tank so I had a slight algal issue after, so I stopped. However, the cheap (free) method to feeding your softies is to turkey baste your rocks a couple times a week.

Careful with Iodine/Iodide solutions. Green star polyps do not enjoy dosing this. Sometimes toadstools react poorly the day after you dose too, IME.