Hi guys, I'm a newbie just starting to setup up my 65G reef and wanted help with the supplement side of this hobby. I wanted to hear suggestions on what supplements I
should start off with. I'll start off by saying I dont have any corals yet and wont begin dosing
until I both have corals and test kits for the elements I'll be supplementing. My LFS just tested
my calcium level to be 370ppm. What they use in their tanks and their customers tanks is regular dosing of seachem marinebuffer ( for ph and alkalinity) and kent marine's "reef starter kit" (calcium, stronium, and iodine) along with frequent testing of clients water. My concern with there system is that they don't test for nor dose magnesium. After reading several discusions on here and reading several articles (such as this one Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php)). It seems to me the 3 most important things for me to monitor and supplement for are calcium, magnesium and carbonate (alkalinity). That article also suggests not to dose for stronium or iodine. I'm currently using seachem marine buffer to keep my PH around 8.3, im yet to determine what effect this product has on my alkalinity (its advertised to increase alkalinity). My "plan" is to keep using the marine buffer and add seachems reef complete and reef carbonate. Reef complete is supposed to also contain magnesium in proportion to typical to calcium:magnesium usage ratios. I figure I can start off supplementing these 3 products and in the future add a magnesium test kit and if need be reef magnesium. Does this sound like a good "plan"? Better than what my LFS typically suggests? Any better products out there I should consider? etc etc. Also would it be worthwhile to add any other supplements such as Reef plus ("iodide, bromide, molybdenum, iron, manganese, cobalt, potassium, inositol, choline; important vitamins such as C and B12; and beneficial amino acids, such as cysteine, proline, glycine, alanine, and lysine") Sorry for being so long winded. There are soo many supplement products out there its really easy to get confused and feel lost. Thanks in advance, this forum has added immensely to my enjoyment of this hobby.

I wanted to add that I like seachems products because they have a great calculator online to compute how much of each one of their additives to use. That said feel free to suggest any other brands/ or particular supplements that work well for you guys. Also I feel I have found a good LFS, the owners are the only ones that run the business and are always extremely helpful and willing to spend time with me. That said, "there are several ways to skin a cat" and I always check out their advice on here and ask for second opinions. They have several gorgeous reef display tanks in their store and their system obviously works for them. I'm just not sure what they use is necessarily the best system.

Hi Ricky,

I am a strong believer in don't dose what you don't test for. Since you are probably not testing for all the elements that are in Reef Plus I would not dose it. Other than that I think your plan is fine.

the seachem products have done pretty good for me and I still use them for magnesium and strontium. I like the fact that they have a pretty decent dosing calculator on their site. Recently to make things easier and prep for my dosing pumps I switched my alk / calc to the B-ionic 2 part which has done great, if I make a change that causes a swing out of the norm (such as adding a clam, etc) I still use the seachem to catch up as the dosing calculator makes it quick and easy. I use lugols sparingly for iodine and test for all. I'm another one thats not a big fan of dosing what I cant test for.

Really all things aside, I started with purple up.... and the best advice I've found is to go with a dosing plan that works in your schedule and for you whatever it may be. Test very often at first as you adjust the plan and when you've got things fairly set continue to test weekly or every other week to make sure your keeping up!

Is what my LFS reccomending bad advice? At least to start off with until I get more experience and into the routine of dosing and keeping parameters stable. The LFS uses the products I mentioned, prescribes a dosing regimen (calicum MWF, stronium tues, iodine thurs) and frequently tests clients water and adjusts the dosing amounts. I just wanted to know if this sounds like a good advice, or if the use of stronium and iodine is "outdated" or not recommended.

I dont believe you need to supplement anything in a tank as young as yours. Regular water changes with a good salt mix will provide all the elements a FOWLR tank needs. I would personally put more trust in a person like RHF (who isn't paid for his work) versus the LFS that is in business to sell stuff.

I'm not saying that your LFS is bad, but they (and SeaChem) should not be advocating you to dump stuff into your tank with out knowing if it is needed.

I totally agree poppin_fresh, thats why I come on here for unbiased suggestions. I am not looking to start supplementing yet, I just know there will come a time ( when I begin to add corals) when I'll have to start supplementing. At this stage I'm simply looking to learn as much as I can so as to be prepared when that comes around. I'm just trying to get a feel for what others would recommend I test for later on and supplement if needed. That will guide me to the correct products.

I have always dosed Magnesium and have tried to keep the levels about 3X what the calcium levels are. I have recently switched to a Calcium REactor in my new tank and I have added Magnesium to that as well, so I no longer need to dose it per se, but it rather gets dissolved similarly to the calcium.

I think it's also important to do for Potassium. K+ greatly enhances the blue/purple colors in the corals. Having said that....this is, of course, not as important to dose until you actually have corals. I started a whole new system this fall and moved many of my corals over in November. Many of my acroporas were more a brown color in my old tank (MH + T5s). My new system is only T5s, which I really like. My corals all seem to like the light and have grown significantly since the switchover. However, over Xmas I began to dose potassium....within weeks, some of my acroporas have taken on unbelievably intense blue and purple colors. At the time, that was the only thing that I had changed in my system. I am now a firm believer in the need for potassium supplementation. I do also measure this as well, but it's been fairly difficult to get too high of a concentration. I think it gets used up fairly quickly.

Iron is another important supplement, but care must be taken to not overdose. Iron is important for bringing out a lot of the green colors in corals and I have noticed an increase in intense green in my coral polyps and tissue, since having started to dose with iron.

I also dose ZeoSpur2, which is a trace element supplementation. It's supposed to be helpful in controlling the amount of zooxanthellae in the coral tissue to bring out more intense coloring.

I have switched over to all the ZEOvit supplementations. They are pricey at first...the acquisition of the substances...but, you don't really have to dose much. They are pretty concentrated, so the bottles go a long way.

that is very tec-e for a newbie reefbaby

he should do that after when his addiction grows out of control.
Please start k and Fe dosing in another thread because I would love to have a detailed discussion on this topic.

B-ionic and Mg is all I dose on normal reef tanks. If there are a lot of softies I like to add iodine once a week along with a water change with enhanced reef salt. That is all for normal reefs. I have had tanks go for 10+ years with no problems this way.

Christi,

Are you dosing the K+ straight or as KI?

Christi,

Are you dosing the K+ straight or as KI?

Right now I'm dosing K-Balance Strong, which is just potassium as far as I understand. I have been using this to get my potassium levels up, because this supplement is pretty concentrated. I dose iodine separately, however. Pohl also has a Potassium-Fluoride-Iodine supplement that I have as well, but will probably finish off my bottle of K-Balance strong before switching over.

If you're interested in Korallenzucht's supplements, as well as Zeovit, please check out the webpage. I can start a separate thread about this as well.

Korallenzucht/Zeovit System (http://www.korallen-zucht.de/en/shop/products-technology/zeovit-basic-water-maintenance/index.html)

Thanks Christi. It might be nice to have a thread about your experience. I always am interested in learning more about what the Europeans are doing with regards to dosing and Zeovit and I think others would be too.

I'll add another vote for more information on potassium dosing and zeovit. Either in a seperate thread or keep it going in this one.

hay Christi
what are your k levels?
how much is consumed in how much time?
what do you have growing in your tank?
I want a k test kit jest have not got around to getting one.
my suspicions are that many of our tanks are k deficient I jest cant prove it yet.

okay, I'll start one up in a separate thread. I'm certainly not the expert, but I can definitely attest to the benefits of what I've started dosing the past 6 months. My LFS has completely switched over to Zeovit and is absolutely convinced as to the benefits. His corals certainly prove it. One of the members took one of their corals and stuck it in his tank for one month. It was a completely brown acropora when they brought it there. Now it's a spectacular white/cream acropora with brilliant blue tips. Unbelievable...but, I'm diverging....I'll start a thread. I promise! :D

hay Christi
what are your k levels?
how much is consumed in how much time?
what do you have growing in your tank?
I want a k test kit jest have not got around to getting one.
my suspicions are that many of our tanks are k deficient I jest cant prove it yet.

:D....you posted before I could finish typing mine! Again...I'll start a thread, but answer your question here as well!

I spent about two months trying to gradually get my K values up to about 350. When I started dosing, my values were between 100-150...quite low actually.
I'm not sure how much is consumed over a period of time. I haven't actually stopped dosing in order to see how quickly the values drop. However, I do dose daily (!) in order to keep the values at around 350, so it must be getting utilized fairly efficiently.

I have mostly stony corals, primarily SPS with a few LPS. A few leathers, mushrooms and zooanthids as well.

I would highly recommend the Korallenzucht test kit, if you're able to get it in the US. It's a bit subjective to tell exactly where the color change occurs. The test sample gets very cloudy when you add the reagent and then you have to slide the vial over a piece of paper with a sliding color scale. Once you can no longer see the color through the vial, then that's your value. Over the two months that it took me to get my values up, I could definitely see the test samples getting more and more cloudy, which is a good thing.
I was quite surprised how low my K values were. I was using Tropic Marin salt at the time. I need to look it up to see if it even contains potassium or not. I would agree with you that the majority of tanks are very deficient in potassium levels. It's a fairly new chemical to test for.

I look forward to having a lively discussion on this in a thread that I WILL start...be patient please! I arrived in Colorado on Sunday and have a huge experiment running tomorrow...