Trace Elements

B

BoardRoomJimmy

Reefing newb
I want to start adding corals/inverts. and such to my 29 gallon tank. I have 30lbs of live rock and plenty of clean up crew. What should be my first step towards adding corals. if anyone can help with PH levels, CA levels and Idone as well. I don't want to drop a lot of money on some cool stuff and then have it die becuase I could have bought something for ten bucks to promote success.
Thanks for the help.
 
Your pH can vary from about 7.8 to 8.4
Invert don't need anything special as far calcium. Soft corals don't need anything special either. Corals with a stoney skeleton (LPS & SPS) need calcium, alk and mag to grow.

Calcium should be in the 380-420 range
Alk in the 8-10 dKH range
Magnesium around 1300

I don't know what test kits you have now, but you should have pH, nitrate, alk, calcium and magnesium. Don't dose anything you don't test for.

Lighting will also play a role in what type of coral you can keep.
 
do water changes naturally reduce nitrates or Ca? Or is the salt sort of buffering/adding to it? I just added some mag & cal (after testing for it) and since I'm doing a water change, I'm not sure if I should have waited...
 
Water changes will reduce nitrate if the new water has less nitrate than the tank water...and it should. New water should have 0 nitrate. Water changes will reduce calcium if, for example, your tank is at 450 and your water change is at 380. Also, if your tank is 380 and the new water 450, it will raise it. It depends on the brand salt you use.
 
Water changes will change the concentration of anything in your tank. If the concentration in the new water is different than that of the old water, it will create a new level somewhere in the middle.
 
yea, I understand that taking away the water and adding different would change the levels - I think I should I've asked it a different way - does the salt in the mix generally contain a fair amount of mag and cal? Significantly less? How often (and I know it depends on bioload) in general do people dose?
Hope I'm not hijacking!!
Thanks
Alex
 
You don't need to waste your money on "trace element" supplements, or iodine. I doubt they would make any noticeable different other than you having more bottles of stuff in your cabinet and less $ in your wallet. I bought all that stuff too a couple years ago, and decided after reading up that it'd be best to get rid of it than dose it without testing.
 
parrotchute said:
yea, I understand that taking away the water and adding different would change the levels - I think I should I've asked it a different way - does the salt in the mix generally contain a fair amount of mag and cal? Significantly less?
Click to expand...
It depends on the salt you use.
parrotchute said:
How often (and I know it depends on bioload) in general do people dose?
Hope I'm not hijacking!!
Thanks
Alex
Click to expand...
It depends on what, if any corals you keep and what salt you use.

Do you see a theme here? The brand of salt can make a big difference.
 
JAG107 said:
You don't need to waste your money on "trace element" supplements, or iodine. I doubt they would make any noticeable different other than you having more bottles of stuff in your cabinet and less $ in your wallet. I bought all that stuff too a couple years ago, and decided after reading up that it'd be best to get rid of it than dose it without testing.
Click to expand...
actually iodine can bring out the blues in corals
 
Think there might be a market for blue hair algae? I know some of these kids nowadays like their hair to be blue.
 

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