Coral Additives, Are They Any Good?

[craigybaby37]

ive been seeing various coral additives about for a while now that quote to do a range of different things but are they actually any good?? and do any of you on here use any in your tanks if so what ones??

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

I dont really use the bottles which contain mixtures of things but pure stuff like calcium, magnesium and iodine.

When i started using iodine, which wasnt that long ago, i saw a great change in my green srat polyp coral within 1 day, the polyps where alot mroe open and looked alot healthier, so i keep adding it once a week.

 

[craigybaby37]

may have to give that a go then and see what happens.

If anyone else has any advice its would be much appreciated.

 

[Musho3210]

anything thats not calcium, magnesium, alk buffer, or maybe in the rare occaision strontinum is 100% unneeded snake oil.

Even with calcium, mag, and alk these things are not needed if theres nothing wrong with your tank. So, is there anything wrong? If not then you can ignore these additives.

Water changes replenish everything.

Its also VERY possible to have a tank crash (like me) if you overdose any additive.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

You need to test things to see if your tank is lacking in anything before you start adding stuff to it,as musho said if all is well in your tank you don't need to add anything.
Personally I have to dose with a magnesium supplement to keep the desired level(1350~1400ppm) and I also drip 2 liters of kalkwasser every night in my 45gallon which keeps my calcium at 450ppm, alkalinity at 10 dKh and keeps the ph up.

 

[craigybaby37]

i cant say anything is wrong in the tank all is weel (touch wood) i was purely qurious as to weather they were a good thing or not.

There was a particular product i saw that had 3 different bottles A, B and C. But if you say they aint needed then ill stay clear of them

 

[dilbert]

For all stuff that you add to your tank you would need a way to test it.

Otherwise, you can't really tell why something is thriving or diminishing. There are so much different chemical processes happening in a tank that it can be pure coincedence that something starts thriving because you added yesterday a new supplement.

Also, you need the testing to be sure not to overdose the supplements.

As already mentioned in the former postings go only with those supplements and be aware that also calcium and magnesium measurements can be faulty. Many tests dose a powder with a little scoop and there is the possibility to introduce an error. Various tests or different test kits for the same thing can let feel you a bit safer.

What most is needed is ph adjustment due to the following problems:

1.)
The air in the room with the tank in contains too much CO2. That can be because of heating in winter and windows almost airtight. CO2 stays in equilbrium with the water in the tank and forms an acid which lowers the ph constantly.

2.)
Overfeeding or feeding an overstocked tank produces also too much acids which constantly lower the ph.

In that case, kalkwasser is the cheapest way to enhance the ph. At best at night, where the ph is already lower due to photosynthesis.

Very important is that you independently measure the ph and that you don't rely on the dosing instructions only as the influence of above mentioned points 1.) and 2.) can vary significantly.
One day, for some reason your CO2 concentration is lower as normal or the food doesn't produce that much acids.

I doublecheck all my tanks with a small digital ph meter (costs a tenner when ordered from China) which has an on/off switch to save batteries (but has a socket for external voltage, too).
I get around the tedious calibration by simply checking the boundaries of my daily swings with a ph water test kit. Salifert has a good colour chart suited for this task. So, when my ph is very low (7.9 e.g.) I test with the Salifert kit and adjust (or mostly control only) my ph meter and do the same at the higher limit (8.4 e.g.). So, I also have a good measure not to add too much kalkwasser at once (what now can have different concentrations as you can watch the instrument while dosing.)
Many not so hardy critters get stressed when the ph changes too fast.

 

[garybuk]

Sorry to hijack but what about Purple Up?? and phytoplankton ?? are these any good?

 

[SkiFletch]

Purple up is a solution which doses MOSTLY carbonate, and NOT calcium. Baking soda is cheaper and more effective

Phytoplankton CAN be good, but be careful of why and how you use it. You can quickly foul up your nitrates and phosphates if you use too much of it, and you can also quickly remove it via protein skimming, thus making it's addition kind of useless...

 

[garybuk]

Purple up is a solution which doses MOSTLY carbonate, and NOT calcium. Baking soda is cheaper and more effective

Phytoplankton CAN be good, but be careful of why and how you use it. You can quickly foul up your nitrates and phosphates if you use too much of it, and you can also quickly remove it via protein skimming, thus making it's addition kind of useless...

So again sorry to hijack.... what shud i be looking to get to help my tank or corals/live rock! or is the best thing time?

what about iodine and ph buffer? things like that

 

[SkiFletch]

Before you know what to dose, you MUST know WHY to dose. As such, I'd read through all of Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley's How to Guides to Reef Chemistry for Beginners, parts 1-4 written in 2007

 

[dilbert]

Also most corals, at least stony corals, feed on zooplankton. Phytoplankton can feed zooplankton, so it's not completely useless for carnivorous corals.

And, for many corals target feeding is less polluting.

There is also a "dissolved organics" test kit from Salifert. My nano has 10 times and my pico 15 times the concentration what Salifert says is to aim for. (But it keeps little sponges and other hitchhiker filter feeders happy.)

ORP meters give some info about that sort of pollution, too. ORP meters don't give an easy to interpret figure, only of a vague sum of as a whole unknown processes but there is some info also on the pages mentioned by SkiFletch.