additives

[SpiderOne]

my army

note: Shiny Floor

[shiraz]

Dr Seachem, is that Lady Coralife and Don Reefez i see?

[Chris]

Spider,

Are those for your tank or for self-consumption?

[Hon]

look like a distributor for seachem product line eh..

[Tanzy]

From this we can obviously see that having more additives/supplements doesn't make your tank look better.

I use kalkwasser (calcium hydroxide) regularly. Anything else is on a as required basis.

[shiraz]

[Golden Tooth]

my army

note: Shiny Floor

Use all that to shine the floor?

[IanJ]

With all those additives are you sure there is any salt water left in the tank?

If you have a test kit to measure the effect of each additive, must be cheaper to just do regular water changes.

[SpiderOne]

From this we can obviously see that having more additives/supplements doesn't make your tank look better.

but no one has seen my tank before . This is the only way to keep the ball in my court indefinitely

Test kits are like insurance. Why tempt fate. I dont like bad news.

[Achilles Tang]

With all those additives are you sure there is any salt water left in the tank?

If you have a test kit to measure the effect of each additive, must be cheaper to just do regular water changes.

Regardless of how much water changes you make, every tank has a different filtration system, bioload and uptake rate of cal, alk, ph and other trace elements.

Test kits are an essential part of a reefer's husbandry tools.

Unless you can dip your finger into the water and report the various levels of PH, alk, cal, NO2, NO3, phosphate, etc by tasting the water! As far as I know, only the Senior Reefers in SRC are able to do that!

[SpiderOne]

the gargle method. . for testing PH . i want to learn it

I am almost able to Compute Density Accurately based purely on taste

[Achilles Tang]

the gargle method. . for testing PH . i want to learn it

I am almost able to Compute Density Accurately based purely on taste

Tongue drip method is suitable for PH testing... gargling adds CO2 into the water, affecting the PH test results. *shake head* - what do they teach you in school?

[IanJ]

Well to answer the original question, i dont use additives, Ca reactor and regular water changes surfice. You may wish to investigate a similar approach someday

[SpiderOne]

suffice. but are they optimal?. If regular water changes suffice. Theres going to be a lot of companies that are going to go straight out of business. kalkwasser and buffers are the only thing i add regularly . the rest are on a need then dose basis.

[IanJ]

What is optimal? Even the various salt mixes have differing trace element levels, few being close to sea water. Some additives can and do help, but in my opinion it is difficult to accurately add the correct and necessary levels, (what is the real volume of water in the tank question and how accurate is the test kit)

hence why i believe in regular water changes to help maintain trace elements.

When SPS were first successfully kept in tanks, it was written that elevated levels of Sr, achieved via additives was essential. How many people do this today?

In my opinion you can keep an excellent reef tank maintained with water changes and no additives. Of course SPS keepers may wish to elevate certain levels to optimise growth or colours. A lot of additives are unnecessarily used, but if that's what people wish to use and they work for them, then who am i to argue.

[SpiderOne]

im juz curious.. but why do u seem to be assuming i have a nemo tank.

[Achilles Tang]

Wasn't it one before? Oh wait.. it was a lanternfish tank... nope...that was last month? Or was it last week? Before that was seahorses right? LPS? SPS? Sea monkeys?

Joking! I know who to look for in emergencies!

[SpiderOne]

what emergencies? too many frags emergency? no space for more clams emergency? ..

last month.. it was a Brine shrimp tank. I fed my baby sea monkeys eggs . but one day i woke up and saw them all going through the powerheads. i was shattered

[Froggy]

Whats the basic additives you all would recommend for a fish and live rock only tank (i would love to have lots of coralline growth too)?

The additives will be used in conjuntion with bi-weekly water changes, other suggestions than kalkwasser.

[Coral_ClamS]

do RO?DI water provide trace elements also?

for sps calcium reactor provide everything rite and with weekly changes to replenish TE can anot?

[SpiderOne]

weekly changes will kill u. calcium reactor provides calcium.. Ro/Di water is just hydrogen and oxygen