Additives and Trace Elements
Marine Invertebrates from corals to crabs consume many trace elements and minerals in your reef tank just like fish do food ... just like you might take vitamins and minerals to supplement your health and well-being. Various minerals and elements must constantly be replenished, like in feeding the fish. For instance, corals are always trying to get calcium out of the water to grow if they are healthy. There are numerous chemicals, elements, minerals, etc., that all the occupants of your tank are competing for.
And so it goes for marine invertebrates especially, from iodine to strontium, magnesium to minute amounts of dozens of elements that normally naturally occur in the ocean (saltwater). In a closed system, we must add these elements or minerals to the tank to make up for what is constantly being taken up and used by our animals.
You need to create a schedule and regimen whereby you routinely add a series of items to ensure your tank is complete with all the chemicals, elements, and minerals the animals require. Fish are taking up some of these valuable nutrients too.
If you are new to this and can't keep track in your head of which of 15 systems need which additives, I suggest making a Word document, text Notepad, or even better an Excel file you keep on your computer with the names of the additives on the left going down, and across the top date a new column every time you do it, and go down each item and note amount of dosage. Also you can have some lines for temp, pH, test results of each thing you test for, and have a really, really good database of your aquaria's vital statistics. Use a different sheet for each tank.
You may not think you need this, but if something ever goes wrong, (or if something goes really right) you'll wish you had this data. :) It will help train you with good habits of good aquarium husbandry. Just as you may take vitamins regulary, your tank also needs supplemental nourishment. Remember ... calcium grows bones! Do not add milk to your tank, or feed multi-vitamins to your fish. :)
As for what to add, overall, most of the products out there are fairly similar. You'll see when you add iodine, usually within a day or two all the crabs and shrimp have molted. This is how they take up new iodine. Likewise you can see similar results from corals with increased polyp activity or color, and vigor.
Calcium, magnesium, strontium, molybdenum and iodine are all very important. I have for most of my tanks and systems over the years used a general all purpose trace elements additive as a basic all-around weekly or bi-weekly minimum. Then I add small amounts of other things as the above mentioned bi-weekly to monthly.
Now, I run our high grade of limestone in the system sumps and no longer need to specifically add calcium. If it is in the regular trace elements, whatever, but I don't buy my bi-monthly bottle. That can save you a lot on calcium. Fill, or half fill, your sump with good high grade limestone which is full of calcium and magnesium. It will encourage coralline algae growth, as well as coral and fish growth by constantly having enough available.
To name a couple of additives from personal experience, I've always been quite satisfied with anything Sea-Chem I've ever used. Lugol's Solution is another very good product. Kent Marine stuff seems fine too as is Warner's. Again, I think most of what is out there is very or fairly similar to a large degree.
Get what is available easily for you. Build a regimen up and stick with it. Like temperature or salinity, which you go with isn't as important as the consistency of it. But don't think you can skimp and save and not add anything to the tank for months on end, as some of the animals will be literally starving for strontium, or iodine, or molybdenum. Yeah, I think the stuff can be a bit high in price for a bottle of juice that is likely lots of H20, but we do have to have it to provide the best environment possible for the animals in our care.
They didn't tell you that when they sold you that setup? :)
Have a happy habitat!
birdfish
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