# Recommended Coral Supplements



## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

OK, here's my problem: I'm trying to finish up a 200 Gal. box of IO regular sea salt mix. NOT reef crystals. What supplements/ minerals should I be adding to my water to help my corals grow? I'm able to keep my Calcium levels at around 400 and my Kh at 8-9. My corals ARE grownig, but IMHO, a bit slowly... 

Basically, I'm looking for a product that I can drop in a certain amount each week after a water change or something like that. 

Any thoughts?


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I found that addition of the stronium has helped a great deal Started iodide. I added calcium to my tank and that's doing wonderful too.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

It's probably something other than what you're adding into the water - Ca 400 and DkH of 8 - 9, assuming Mg and K are in acceptable levels, you should be seeing decent results. How's nitrates and phosphates? Do you top off by hand or is it automated? Do you get large temp swings day/night? pH swings?

In my tank (all reef crystals), some of my little SPS have already grown 4 - 5 mm in 1 month. 

I think the biggest factor isn't necessairly the absolute numbers, but rather the stability of those numbers. I attribute a lot of my success in my earlier nano due to the fact that things didn't change much thanks in large part to my ATO and dosing units keeping things aligned in a tight range.

Also, how old are your bulbs? Do you run carbon/GFO? Skimmer?


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

minor hijack here. Eric, I need to get another brand of reef salt. As much as I adore tropic marin, my husband does not adore the price :/ told him it's well worth it. Suggestions? Hopefully I can get it locally.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Well, I was using a fancy salt before with a decent price, and then I talked to a few people who insisted on Instant Ocean. Now, the difference between IO and reef crystals at the boxing day sale was $10 - the cost of a bottle of supplements required to boost IO up to the same Ca and Alk levels as RC. On reef central, I've seen many a tank (many a TOTM, I might add) that run with - you guessed it - IO. If it works for them, then there must be something more in the water than whatever's in the salt, right?

So, I tried RC, and I got great results with it. Nice colours, growth, etc..

But people do say "But Eric, such and such salt has X more of Y!". Maybe true, but I figure with the extra solutions I dose, and the trace elements I add in, it's probably getting a good deal of whatever it's "missing".

But recently I came across a few people that started to do something that makes a lot of sense. Instead of switching salts bucket to bucket, why not just rotate through a few different brands week to week, or mix them all together? The idea is that whatever is "missing" or more plentiful in one salt would be balanced out by the other brand(s) that you're using.

I'll be trying the latter approch soon, I think. I'm going to do a 10g WC every week or two, so I'll mix one pail with RC and another with....dunno. Maybe DD since it's available locally, maybe try that Royal Nature salt that people seem to like these days. Or I might stick to RC since I already bought 2 more pails of it on boxing day (up to 4 pails now). Actually, I'd like to try the Seachem AquaVitro line (because of the snazzy bucket....lol). The big problem with the method being that now you have to buy two, three, four different salts at the same time, and that sounds like a lot of work, space and money.

So long story short, RC.
/hijack


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

reef crystals then it will be. I don't use ro though... :/


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## acer (May 18, 2010)

ameekplec. said:


> In my tank (all reef crystals), some of my little SPS have already grown 4 - 5 mm in 1 month.


I've gotten about the same results... except I don't dose :/ .... and I have "easy" SPS. :/ uhh monti digitata, green staghorn... but I use RC as well on my main tank.


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

I use RC, and I dose 2-part from Bulk Reef Supply (lowest price and good quality) for Ca, Alk, Mg.

I don't add any other trace elements. They are waste of money. 

Here's a rule of thumb - if you do not have a test kit for the element you're going to supplement, don't bother. Your salt mix will usually have enough trace elements for your reef tank (maybe not necessarily for all corals you have).


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## UnderTheSea (Jun 2, 2008)

Agree with Ameek, need to know more about other things like lighting, dosing etc.

We use just plain IO and does the calc, mag daily but once a month we do add iodine and stronium.


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

<puts finger to ears> La-la-la-la-la

I refuse to enter the next stage of this hobby... which is dosing..

I just do weekly water changes and monitor everything daily. In the last 2 weeks coraline has started to grow all over the place (powerhead/return lines, etc...)

BUT, I have a filled 34G.. if i had a 50+G that i wanted to grow out, then maybe i would


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Depends on how heavily stocked and what you've stocked your tank with. My tank had a lot of SPS - I filled a 2g bucket with dead coral skeletons after most of my SPS died. They would go through a lot of Ca and Alk daily, so I had to dose.

As for trace elements, I think they do help. I made up my first few batches with Tropic Marin's Trace B element package (Strontium/Barium, Iodine/Flourine, Heavy metal traces), and the colours I got popped a lot more. The last two batches I made I forgot to add them in, and while everything grew just fine and looks decent, the colour just wasn't as vibrant.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

Hmmm so perhaps I can get the RC and the TM trace B elements. and my corals will glow from all that uranium . the dead croal skeletons must have been heart breaking. You've put so much love into your tank that the loss must have floored you. I am trying ot learn something from that incident. Hopefully will make my move smoother (providing I port all of my stuff over. I may sell off my old rocks and get new stuff, keeping some frags.)

So, other than stronium/iodide what else is doesed? I have a magnesium test but I am not sure how to dose it. Nore can I find any stuff to dose locally other than my 2kg's of epsom salts


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

They weren't fun, but at the same time it gives me a great chance to start from scratch. I love the fun of tracking down pieces and letting them grow, so it's just another fun beginning. and I can start over and be pickier about what I get and how I place it now that I have a much better handle on SPS. And if other people can take something away from it, then I suppose it's for the greater good 

For adding Mg, I know people just use Epsom salts. I have a whole ton still of Fauna Marin Mg salts (sulfate and chloride) I got when I started dosing, and recently bought some more from Bulk Reef Supply. 

But if anything, again, I'd just shoot for stability and work on other parameters like flow, nutrient availability (-NO3 and -PO4) and lighting over worrying about trace elements. All that stuff comes after


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

I know the discussion so far has been all about minerals and such, however adding in addition to trace minerals, a coral health supplement is also a good way to boost colour and growth. I use Aquavitro Fuel (made by seachem).


> fuel™ is a comprehensive carbohydrate, vitamin, amino acid, polyunsaturated fatty acid, and trace element supplement developed to address nutritional requirements commonly associated with corals. fuel™ contains ascorbic acid in a base of chlorella, which contains a rich assortment of amino acids and vitamins.


You can add it directly to the tank, but I also soak my frozen foods and my dry powdered reef foods in it, before using a dropper to squirt it at specific corals.


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

Thanks for all the info, guys/gals... I think I'll research some of the supplements you suggested.

And to answer the questions- My bulbs are all less than 6 months old, most are less than a month old. I run a reactor with Phosban and carbon. It's not that my corals aren't growing, I just want to see them explode. Maybe I'm too impatient... I think there's a lot of nutrients in the water- I alternate between 2 different plankton supplements, and colours seem to be good too; pod populations are still holding strong even with the mandarin, and the feather dusters are everywhere. I was mainly concerned over trace minerals.


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## caker_chris (Apr 22, 2010)

ok I am a little confused. I was under the impression that copper in our reef tanks are bad because it kills inverts. How come the Tropic Marin trace elements and the Seachem Fuel contains copper in it?


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Because at some level it's required physiologically in some organisms.

You know how everyone says copper is toxic to all inverts? Some inverts have copper based blood (as opposed to iron). They bleed blue, and definitely need copper to survive.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

ameekplec. said:


> But recently I came across a few people that started to do something that makes a lot of sense. Instead of switching salts bucket to bucket, why not just rotate through a few different brands week to week, or mix them all together? The idea is that whatever is "missing" or more plentiful in one salt would be balanced out by the other brand(s) that you're using.


Eric,

The problems you might run into using this method, and not arguing with your basic principle, is that a lot of the different salts are actually quite different in size. This can lead to two things, both similar:

1. You will have to ensure you really measure each WC batch for salinity. Most people do this anyway, but I'm sure others just get into a habit of "two scoops = 1.025 SG" or whatever. Because of the different sizes, this might not be an accurate way of doing things anymore.

2. Over time, especially if the storage bucket sees a degree of movement, your smaller granules (for example, Tropic Marin) will end up settling at the bottom - or working their way down. This even happens with one brand of salt - I've seen the same exact "scoops" from the same exact bucket of salt be almost two points in salinity difference from the top of the bucket to the bottom. Having said this, with two different salts you will also end up losing the stability by dosing more additives when reaching the bottom of the pail!

Just some things to note - obviously these aren't a huge deal if you properly measure each time!


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Good point if people are mixing, but I'm just that lazy that I'd just have two different buckets of salt. It also makes easier to mix two batches at 1.024, then mix those two batches together afterwards.

But it also brings up a good point within the salt bucket - how many of us actually mix up the salt prior to mixing up a batch of water? In transit the salts can settle by grain size, so you could be getting a very uneven batch from the top of the bucket to the bottom. Mix it up folks! Roll that bucket around to mix that salt


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## acer (May 18, 2010)

Chris S said:


> Eric,
> 
> The problems you might run into using this method, and not arguing with your basic principle, is that a lot of the different salts are actually quite different in size. This can lead to two things, both similar:
> 
> ...


I do that with my display tank... but the trick is turning the the salt bucket so the stuff in it is better distributed every so often.


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## caker_chris (Apr 22, 2010)

ameekplec. said:


> Because at some level it's required physiologically in some organisms.
> 
> You know how everyone says copper is toxic to all inverts? Some inverts have copper based blood (as opposed to iron). They bleed blue, and definitely need copper to survive.


Ok I understand so copper is ok in certain levels but if that level gets too high then it becomes toxic.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

caker_chris said:


> Ok I understand so copper is ok in certain levels but if that level gets too high then it becomes toxic.


That's why it's a trace element. Besides, it's not like youre dumping in a liter of copper sulfate - it's probably less than a few ul over a few weeks.


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

caker_chris said:


> ok I am a little confused. I was under the impression that copper in our reef tanks are bad because it kills inverts. How come the Tropic Marin trace elements and the Seachem Fuel contains copper in it?


All substances are only toxic or beneficial in moderation.


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