Tank Additives: To use or not to use?

[LoveJC03]

Does anyone use any of these, should we ever use any of these? Or, is there anything else not listed that we should be using?
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Coral Nutritionhttp://www.kentmarine.com/products/nutrition/coral-nutrition/
Chromamax - Chromaplex - Coral Accel - Microvert - Pytomax - Pytoplex - Zoomax - Zooplex

Conditioners/Additves
Essential Elements - Liquid Calcium - Iodine - Strontium & Molybdenum - Purple Up - Magnesium

 

[Kelz88]

I wouldnt dose anything unless your testing for it.

The zooplankton i do use once in a while though, i dont think i need it, i just like feeding the corals. Even then its only once a month or so.

 

[LoveJC03]

Our parameters are always good :) *knock on wood* We don't have tests for iodine, strontium or magnesium.

Not all of our corals eat.. but about half will eat brine and mysis shrimp

 

[Kelz88]

Then i would say no. If your not testing it can be wayyyyyy to easy to overdose! Especially if you dont know what your starting at.

 

[Northstar24]

Rule #1 of Reefing: If you aren't testing for it, you shouldn't be dosing it. (Maybe not the first rule of reefing, but its definitely an important one)

The main additives that some tanks need would be Alkalinity and Calcium, which you may also hear referred to as 'Two Part' Dosing. Most tanks do not need this until you have quite a bit of coral, or things like clams - but Rule #1 applies here as well, you need to be testing for it if you're going to dose it

 

[LoveJC03]

Our alkalinity stays at 9 which is good and our calcium stays between 440-480 which is also good. Maybe we'll pick up some of the other tests and see if they are in good range, fish and corals aren't dying, no algae outbreaks and the other readings are good so we're not really worried about the others. Just wanted to know what everyone else was doing :)

 

[Bifferwine]

For the coral foods, unless you have a lot of corals that eat those, it can end up fouling your water. Do you have a lot of filter feeders?

For the other stuff, everyone else has got you covered. It's usually not necessary to dose those -- water changes will take care of it as salt mixes contain them already.

 

[RockStacker]

I target feed Microvert to my gorgonians off and on, a day before a scheduled water change. But usually I see them catching scraps of frozen foods that were meant for the fish anyway.

Photosynthetic corals do not really require any dedicated supplements. They should get the trace elements from the salt mix and fish food/poop scraps.
The only exception to this I would think is that if your tank is stocked with enough corals that the trace elements from the salt mix is quickly exhausted in between water changes.

 

[LoveJC03]

We have:
Kenya Tree
Mushrooms (3 kinds)
Hammer Coral
Frogspawn
Yellow Polyps
Zoanthids
Ricordea
Zoanthids (3 kinds)
GSP
Torch Coral

We have a buttload of scypa sponges in our sump which are filter feeders. Hopefully with the new setup and the new skimmer we won't have a lot of those.

 

[infinite abyss]

I dose vitamin c for improved coloration and growth. It seems to be working pretty well.

 

[sen5241b]

With additives in general we all know that some are useless but some of them have saved my tank in an emergency. I've used calcium, mag supplements, phosphate reducers, ammonia reducers, detoxifiers and red slime remover BUT I use all of these additives on a limited basis.

I do add cal and mag to my change out water till its almost precipitating then do a 50% change out. My cal and mag stay fine for months.

 

[yvr]

If you keep up with water changes generally your trace elements should be replenished in the setup you described as long as you don't keep too many corals that require and utilize higher concentrations of trace elements. Usin a good quality salt like Tropic Marin, will help keep the trace elements in check.

Once you stock your tank with more corals you will want to keep on top of your water chemistry. If you want to encourage strong coraline algae growth, you may want to test your calcium to make sure it is kept around 400-450ppm and check you Mg and dkh too. Don't forget to test for everything that you dose in your tank.