What Supplements

[mr.elcajon]

LPS,SPS, softies, encrusting, branching; so far ive noticed that all corals depend on different supplements in the water to grow and thrive. well im curious to know what supplements would be best used for what kind of tank. right now i dont have too much at all in my tank. so i havent had to worry about adding to much. but since ive got my new light its time to start making the tank beautiful.lol. im still trying to figure out wether to go LPS or SPS or just softies, or a mix of all 3. i know it can be difficult to keep even just the two SPS and LPS together let alone all 3, but its a mission at hand. i would like to have ur guys' opinion on what to use as supplements.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

First off, what is your lighting?

There are almost as many options on supplements as there are choices on lights and skimmers. LOL

I personally dose Magnesium, Iodine, Strontium, and a trace element mix. Your nutrient levels are going to have a huge impact on how well your corals will color up. Since I started with my dosing regime, my colors have really begin to pop. The only other thing I "dose" is by buffering my top-off water using Pickling Lime. I use Oceanic Salt, and as such, my alkalinity is not as high as I would like it, however my calcium is nice and high. To balance it out I use the lime. When I begin do do this, I noticed a drastic difference in my Montis and even some of my LPS.

Mixing 2 and even all 3 of them is entirely possible. Understand, there really isn't a difference between LPS and SPS, the distinction is purely superficial and for the purpose of the hobby. While there are differences in care, they are still stony corals and there is no scientific distinction between them. Keeping LPS and SPS in the same tank is really not that difficult at all. There are 2 main challanges to this, first you need to keep them out of stinging range of each other, and second, you need to provide areas of lower flow, and in come cases, lighting for the LPS.

Keeping Soft corals in with these others is where the challange comes in because of their ability to employ "chemical warfare." Many soft corals are capable of releasing some really nasty toxins into the water when you trim them back, and often times stony corals do not react well to these toxins. Providing you maintain ample flow and space, keeping all 3 in a tank together is entirely possible, I had all 3 in mine. :)

[labnjab]

We have a mixed reef with softies, lps and sps. The only thing we do is a cap full of purple up a day to keep calcium up and we boost the magnesium in our top off water. LPS and softies grow extremely well and the sps grow great too, but are a little slow. The colors look awesome on everything

[tim k]

So far I am not dosing at all , I want to but I need more time to research dosing before I start.
I want to make sure I fully understand what and why so I don't harm anything.
I am using ReefCrystal salt that is suppose to have higher levels in it (even though my test prove otherwise) and so far all the coral are doing well.

Tim

[oldhead]

Simple rules is don't dose anything that you can't test for. As far as my dosing goes, I rely on water changes and Bionic 2 part, everything seems to be thriving in my tank to this point. Keep it simple, you'll be much happier that you did.

[mr.elcajon]

ILUVMYGOLDBARB, didnt want to highlight ur whole thing u typed.
so heres what ive got, maybe u can help.


Sunpod(i believe)-2x250MH
Euro Reef Protien Skimmer
about 75-85 lbs live rock
2 micron filters with sponge inside them
phosphate remover
2 koralin pumps i ithink koralin something like that
1 outlet from sump to tank,

Total probably 850 GPH of filtration and about 1600 actuall gallons of flow per hour. i know 1600 seems a lot, but its perfect for my 72 gallon. and just so u know i mean 1600 all together. 800 filtration and 800 inside the tank using the koralin pumps.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

1600gph doesn't sound like a lot at all. LOL, I have 850 out of my return pump and a pair of Koralia 3's in my lower flow tank. Sounds like you have the perfect setup for a SPS tank. In that case you may want to consider something like a Zeovit nutrient system.

[mr.elcajon]

zeovit nutrient sytem??? lol??? explain please, or if u have a site i can look up.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

If you do a Google for Zeovit, you'll find it no problem. It is a bit pricey however so if you are looking for a cheaper method, you may want to look into Dr. Brightwells stuff. All his supplements are reasonably priced considering the concentrations of them. That is personally what I use for my tank.

[mr.elcajon]

ty very much, ill be postin some pics once i figure out how to work my dam camera. so hard to get the blue out of the pic.