Trace Elements

[slcw]

Trace element

I am a believer of non additives.

The use of chemical additives to replenish or supplement existing elements is considered essential by some aquarist and others waste of resources.

Evidence supporting the actual usage of additives by corals is not substantiated according to Eric Borneman in his Aquarium Corals Book. He further states that corals generally only need light and food to meet their energy needs, and they require a carbon source and calcium for calcification. (Calcification is the complex process by which corals take calcium from sea water and form aragonite or calcite to be used in skeletogenesis. Skeletogenesis is the process by which the limestone {calcium carbonate} skeleton is formed.)

Of the many elements available, Strontium is widely used or misused. From his book, I understand that this trace element is involved in coral skeletogenesis. Corals replace or substitute calcium ions with strontium ions in their skeleton. It sounds to me that excessive calcium ions may not be good. He adds that calcification rates increase in the presence of enhanced strontium levels. The incorporation of strontium results in reduced or slower growth and increased skeletal density. Skeletal strontium content decreases as temperature increases. But not affected by light intensity. All these sound alien to me.

He concludes that the levels of strontium incorporation may depend on mineralogy and adsorption properties of the skeleton, salinity, crystal formation, species or genetic differences, water depth and unknown metabolic effects.

Iodine a trace element deemed important to corals. Soft corals weere said to require it for health and growth and benefits to all corals were reported to include increased coloration and a degree of antiseptic protection against pathogens, but this is claim is not supported.

The author concludes saying that every day hobbyists proclaiming that a certain element is directly responsible for some wondrous effect. However he feels that commerical salt mixes already provide most of the major and minor trace elements that far exceed the levels of natural seawater.

Therefore regular, partial water changes are being performed, replenisment of trace elements with additives is probably not justified and in some cases poisonous.

Overdosing can easily lead to ionic imbalances, blooms and nuisance algae or even the death of corals.

The above is summary of what I read and any credits goes to the author of Aquarium Corals, Eric Borneman. The article was to share with the rest of the members here an insight of aquarist and researcher of corals. From here, members can further read other articles or his book and decide if additives are justified in adding to your aquariums.

[Reefbum]

I think your view is a bit lop-sided in that you draw conclusion after reading an article.Yes, regular PARTIAL water changes do replenish the elements but in very tiny amounts that will be further diluted in the tank unless you are talking about regular 100% water changes.Regular PARTIAL water changes are done primarily to reduce the amount of nitrates and other nutrients buildup and not TOTALLY replenish the elements which had been utilised, removed by skimming and exhausted though chemical reactions within the tank.Hence I rest my case.

[slcw]

b4 reading i actually prefer not to add (i got the from my planted tank - did not see the benefits of add liquid fertiziliers) hence when moved into marine. I also carried that belief.

Yes, I agree with u, one cannot totally replenish the lost or exhausted elements. Yes skimming also does their share.

after reading the page on the book by this author, I agree one thing is unless I know and can test the elements I try to stay away from additives.

however, i do have iodine, calcium additives from my previous purchase. And I do intend to use a calcium reactor.

I respect n agree on what u said. I just wanted to share an article i read, that's all.

[Reefbum]

No worries bro.I also learning form you and everyone here.Cheers.

[scarab]

One thing that I learn from reefing is underdosing will not give you the perfect water parameters but overdosing is absolutely harmful to your reef. So I rather go with underdosing.

I used to dose Trace Elements and have seen negative effects on my corals. SPS tend to STN and discolour, although I'm not sure it is because of the dosing. But since I've stop dosing, the STN episodes have drastically reduced and the colouration of the SPS has return.

What I did was instead of dosing Trace Elements, I do 5% water change every week (which amounts to 5 gallons for my reef, 1 red pail). I know the amount of trace elements replenished is minimal with this amount of water change but at least I know there is something going in and I'm definitely not overproviding.

Another reason which deter me from dosing anymore trace elements is that the take up rate for the different trace elements varies within your reef. So if you keep dosing, the trace elements will be replenish with the same amount everytime while certain elements will not be absorbed by the corals at the same rate. This will lead to build up of certain types of trace elements which will be detrimental to your reef.

Just to add another point on dosing (for any type of additive) which I practice is to break the dose to as many small doses as manageable. Like for Aminoacids, my dosage for a week as stated in the instruction is 24 ml, I break it to around 3ml daily dosage. I always drip my calcium, magnesium, alk or pH buffer (when required) and kalkwasser as well. I feel this will make your water parameters more stable with no sudden surges of certain elements which will occur if you just dump in the additive wholesale.

Juz my 2 cents...

[slcw]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Yeah, I kinda agree, it is what bob fenner said whatever the instructions tell u to add dose less. Then if there are no effects you can slowly increase the dosage.

Thought drip would be nice, I think it requires at a bit more work in terms of setup the drips and topup.

I would see if I can incorporate that in my new tank.

[scarab]

For drip, just use a container, drill a hole, install one of the small green plastic tap and a short airline hose, and there you have it. Just mix the additive with DI/RO water and pour into the container and let it drip. For kalk just drill the hole a little higher so that the sediments don't choke the flow.

In short, just pour into the drip container as oppose to pour into your sump. That's all.

[kareen]

I agree with scarb.... underdose is better than overdosing. I also observe the same thing happen on my corals too. Now, I hardly dose any additives except for calcium and the carbonate. I believe that the rest of the stuffs can be replenish via partial water change. For me is a pail about 20 litres weekly.

[Reefbum]

Agreed with all said here about dosing the RIGHT stuff and not plain dosing for the sake of replenishing trace elements.Whatever it is, one must know what is being put into the tank.