what additives do we need? FRUSTRATED
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BurntOutReefer
New member
what SunFish said...but I also dose Iodine...my softies all did better after I started dosing .....just water changes and iodine....thats all i do....
BurntOutReefer
New member
just a little more info to add to the confusion....
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/chem.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/chem.htm
Burn out reefer,
After reading that article, it makes me a little skeptical about dosing with iodine. I am not saying it is a bad thing, by whats in your gallery your tank looks great. I just do not want to put something in my tank that is not proved to be effective/neccessary. Plus, it does not seem that it has to be added if yo have corals. When I get more into coral keeping and the chemistry involved with it, I will conider dosing and using iodine. But for now, I think i will hold off on that...
After reading that article, it makes me a little skeptical about dosing with iodine. I am not saying it is a bad thing, by whats in your gallery your tank looks great. I just do not want to put something in my tank that is not proved to be effective/neccessary. Plus, it does not seem that it has to be added if yo have corals. When I get more into coral keeping and the chemistry involved with it, I will conider dosing and using iodine. But for now, I think i will hold off on that...
Frick-n-Frags
New member
holy smokes, this one is all over the map.
good advice there. it bears repeating
all this talk about whatever picked up when dosing iodine or whatever is anectdotal at best. that is absolutely no control for an experiment and many other things will affect the coral more than overdosing iodine, which will eventually get toxic BTW
1) alkalinity must be good period! you must have a good test kit and a means of adding carbonate. this is thee most important parameter in the tank. it is your whole buffering system.
2) you must have a decent pH test
3) calcium and magnesium are major traces and should also be tested and maintained.
4) calibrate your hydrometer/refractometer
5) have a decent thermometer
all the rest of that crap, forget about. just do waterchanges.
learn about the relation between alkalinity-pH-calcium-(magnesium) in the chemistry forums here.
edit: sorry sunfish, I missed your post before I started typing, so:
"yeah, what sunfish said too!"
good advice there. it bears repeating
all this talk about whatever picked up when dosing iodine or whatever is anectdotal at best. that is absolutely no control for an experiment and many other things will affect the coral more than overdosing iodine, which will eventually get toxic BTW
1) alkalinity must be good period! you must have a good test kit and a means of adding carbonate. this is thee most important parameter in the tank. it is your whole buffering system.
2) you must have a decent pH test
3) calcium and magnesium are major traces and should also be tested and maintained.
4) calibrate your hydrometer/refractometer
5) have a decent thermometer
all the rest of that crap, forget about. just do waterchanges.
learn about the relation between alkalinity-pH-calcium-(magnesium) in the chemistry forums here.
edit: sorry sunfish, I missed your post before I started typing, so:
"yeah, what sunfish said too!"
Mariner
New member
Frick-n-Frags, I think that you, me, Sunfish & Icefire are saying about the same thing.
As far as anectdotal accounts about iodide -- I agree, they prove ZERO. But, here's one for your entertainment
I started with Xenia and dosed Iodide for about a year. After reading the research, I decided to quit. Three years later, here's what I've got.
Mariner
As far as anectdotal accounts about iodide -- I agree, they prove ZERO. But, here's one for your entertainment
I started with Xenia and dosed Iodide for about a year. After reading the research, I decided to quit. Three years later, here's what I've got.
Mariner
drummereef
Team RC
Wow, Mariner! Great pic. I personally really like xenia, but you must LOVE it.
Ok, thanks everybody. I have been reading some of Randy Holmes-Farleys' articles and those have helped. But i still have a few questions. Thse articles said that calcium and your alkalinity are closely tied together. And to have these both in the right area, you have to dose them based upon how much you put in of the other. So my question is, is there a product that is proportioned correctly. OR, am i understanding this wrong and do you have to add different amounts of calcium/alkalinity based on their individual properties.
Second is magnesium. I am still a little bit confused about this. However it seems that i would need to test and possibly supplement this, right? What would I use to supplement this if needed?
Also, PH. Is this as important as randy says it is? I have a little vile called "PH down" that I used in my freshwater tank. Would something like this also work in a saltwater tank?
Thank you eveyone for the help I really appreciate it
Second is magnesium. I am still a little bit confused about this. However it seems that i would need to test and possibly supplement this, right? What would I use to supplement this if needed?
Also, PH. Is this as important as randy says it is? I have a little vile called "PH down" that I used in my freshwater tank. Would something like this also work in a saltwater tank?
Thank you eveyone for the help I really appreciate it
sunfish11
Premium Member
Nice. I have to say though that I have a similar, shall we say problem, with both zenia and anthelia and I have never dosed iodine. I am traveling on business right now so I can't post a picture, but when I get home I plan on updating my gallery with one year growth pictures. I started putting in the reference photos. I started with one anthelia polyp and now I have so much I have been throwing it out. I also started with one zenia and now have untold numbers. My LPS have shown excellent growth and my SPS have grown from 1 inch frags. Although I only have 4 SPS currently. I plan on expanding to a few more SPS this year.
Lisa
Mariner
New member
Once you have them balanced, you dose calc and alk pretty much in the same proportions, using a balanced additive -- many companies such as Kent make them or you can make your own like I do using Randy's recipe -- that recipe also tells you how to make your own magnesium supplement, or you can also buy a ready-made additive. Kalkwasser is also a balanced additive, but may not supply enough additive for a tank with heavy demand.
pH is EXTREMELY important in any aquarium, but especially in a marine tank with inverts. USUALLY, pH will be fine if you just maintain Alkalinity.
Again, you may not even need to dose anything if all you ever keep is softies; your tests will tell you. Soooooo, all of this is probably info-overload for you at this point, but there's no harm in learning.
Mariner
pH is EXTREMELY important in any aquarium, but especially in a marine tank with inverts. USUALLY, pH will be fine if you just maintain Alkalinity.
Again, you may not even need to dose anything if all you ever keep is softies; your tests will tell you. Soooooo, all of this is probably info-overload for you at this point, but there's no harm in learning.
Mariner
Haha, ok. Thanks mariner, i feel better now that someone knows how i feel. So what test kits will I need? I have just been using cheap test kits from the freshwater world, so will sowly be upgrading my test kits. Anyways, I think I will need Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, and a good PH. Does that sound about right?THANKS everyone for the help
BTW, nice tank mariner. I hope mine looks like that someday!!!
. So what test kits will I need? I have just been using cheap test kits from the freshwater world, so will sowly be upgrading my test kits. Anyways, I think I will need Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, and a good PH. Does that sound about right?THANKS everyone for the helpBTW, nice tank mariner. I hope mine looks like that someday!!!
I have a good ammonia. However, for the other stuff, i just have that easy dip strip crap. I can get a general reading of what things are like, but I will be upgrading that all in the near future.
As for the test kit brand...I know that here salifert is the favorite, but they are so expensive and you get very few tests out of a kit. Are Aquarium Pharmecuticals any good? I am sure they are not as good as salifert, but they are much less and more efficient. LMK, THANKS
As for the test kit brand...I know that here salifert is the favorite, but they are so expensive and you get very few tests out of a kit. Are Aquarium Pharmecuticals any good? I am sure they are not as good as salifert, but they are much less and more efficient. LMK, THANKS
Mariner
New member
I still use the Aquarium Pharm. tests for Ammonia, Nitrite & Nitrate, as well as Alkalinity (KH-carbonate hardness) -- they are good enough for a ball park reading. But you'll need higher quality tests for Calcium and Magnesium, as well as Phosphate if you test for it. I use Salifert for these; I've used Seachem's Calcium test kit in the past, and I think it's pretty good too.
HTH,
Mariner
HTH,
Mariner
