Supplements, etc...

[Sherri]

Can anybody give me their opinions on PhytoPlex, ChromaPlex & Coral-Vite. Was told I need to have these. Still new at this! :roll:

By the way...I've been reading all the posts and I think I've learned more in the last week than I have in the last 6 months of building up my reef. Thanks to all you guys.

Sherri

[MikeP]

Phyto plex is basically just canned dead phyto I think - the stuff Kent Marine makes? It will work ok for inverts that strain/filter micro plankton but am not sure on particle size. Some of the commercial phyto might need to be diluted with some water and then put in tank. I use DT's live phyto instead but it is a bit more expensive and has a fixed shelf life. Also any of my corals that has a mouth I hand feed (Torch, brain, frogspawn) with either super minced seafood, zooplankton etc. As for the Coral Vite I think that's one of those corny M.Weiss products from what I can tell the only thing special is he puts pectin (apple juice extract?) in it. Snake oil IMO. it depends on what animals you are keeping but the whole supplement game is about as shifty as vitamins for people. Regular water changes will replace many trace elements and the only thing I ever add is calcium in the form of kalkwasser topoffs or sometimes I use aragamilk. Also a good rule I heard is not to add things you can't test for.

[z28pwr]

What if you're using RO/DI water that has 0 TDS ?

[Sherri]

That's what I thought...plus these things can get expensive! Everything in the tank is doing fine without them...Thanks!

[Yves Nobleza]

I use very few additives...I have gotten alot of growth with coral accell but I only feed my corals bio-life it's pretty pricey but you only use 1-2 drops per 60 galons (depending on bio-load) and it's frozen so the shelf live is really no concern. Trace elements (as justletmein said) should come from your salt, most quality salts have everything you need in it already. I rely on my water changes to replace the elements that are needed in the tank.

[Richard]

Phytoplex, Chromaplex and Coral-vite are all Kent Marine products. Both Phytoplex and Chromaplex are a blend of phytoplankton. I think they make another one called microvert and of course they recommend you buy all of them and alternate. Most people just use Phytoplex or one of the competing products others have mentioned.
Coral-vite is Kent's "Trace Elements For Dummies". So weak that you could probably pour the whole bottle in and not hurt anything. It's fine if you just can't live without dumping something in your tank but it isn't really doing much. In fact it says on the bottle that you still need to add strontium, iodine, calcium, marine buffer... Regular water changes is definitely the way to go.

Richard

[z28pwr]

How do you guys do your water change ?

Do you mix RO/DI water with Salt and let it sit for 24 hours then bring up the PH to 8.3 then bring up the calcium to 400 ? Or how do you guys do it ?

And what's all this stuff I here about pickle lime?

Thanks.

[TexasState]

Pickling Lime ( Mrs. Wages, Ball) is a cheap alternative to buying Kalkwasser from the store. It cost about $1 to $2 for one pound of Pickling lime vs. paying $10 to $20 for a hobby branded Kalkwasser.

If you can afford it, use the hobby brand Kalkwasser instead of using the Pickling Lime. There is less contamination when you're using the hobby brand Kalkwasser. Hobby brand Kalkwasser also dissolved more readily.

[Derek B]

As far as supplimenting trace elements, I like Reef Solution or Vital Gold. Aside from adding that, all I add is calcium and Alk buffer. Keep it simple.

[Sherri]

Please break down RO/DI for me. Since I am new to this that's all I hear. What I have been doing is buying purified water and/or distilled water. Is this RO/DI a special mix of some sort? I fiqured I must be doing something right cause I have 2 different colonies of zoanthid polyps doing great, started with 1 large striped mushroom - now have 6. I have a brain coral and I had posted a few days ago trying to figure out if I had 4 "anemones" starting on their own. Come to find out, I think they are plate coral - they do have a "mouth?" in the middle. Now that I have all my rock & I am established, before I start putting fish/corals in...I want to make sure I am doing my water changes correctly. And how often should I?

Also...I have about 2-3 gal evaporation about every 4-5 days. Is that normal? :rotf:

[TexasState]

Plate coral have a hard, dish looking plate, covered in corals tissue.

I don't have to worry about top-off, b/c my top-off are on an automatic floatswitch straight from the RO/DI. I do have nightmare about the switch failing and turning my saltwater tank into a freshwater tank. :o

Btwn Sleepless night and having to worry about topping off. I choose Sleepless night b/c I can always take sleeping pills. :roll:

[Sherri]

The lugging of water is the pits. I will definitely look into this. It really is a hassle.

The "plate coral" I'm talking about looks exactly like the one in the pic on Pg. 258 of "Aquarium Corals" by Borneman - color also. Can see a spot in the center of it even tho they are still small.

I will definitely be coming to this next meeting. When Mike (Aqar Sales & Ser) helped get me started in this, it was when they where closing. Kinda went into shock for a while - me not the tank. :o I've been doing africans for about 13 yrs - but this was all so new to me.

Really appreciate all the feedback. Mike had suggested I get involved. really glad to see MAAST up & running. :beer:

[Chuck]

I do add a decent load of Iodine to keep my xenia reproducing..
I think the bottom line is dont fix what isnt broken... but depending on what you are trying to do you may need to add a few things to produce a desired result..
I have an RO/DI unit and I change out about 10% every two weeks or so. I have (2) 48 gl cans that I store pre-mix in one and fresh in the other. I circulate and adjust the temp 24hrs prior to the salt change. For top off I just put in when needed. The next morning I run all the normal test and bump the calcium or Ph up if needed....
Seems to work fine for me as the Xenia are showing up all over. The other corals have steady growth and seem to be fine....

[dow]

Sherri,

I'll second the vote for the system from airwaterice.com (http://www.airwaterice.com). I also got the home/reef system. I'd recommend, however that you opt for the 75 or 100 gallon per day membrane, as it takes a while if you're filling water jugs as I do.

That said, the folks there are great to work with, and they have a very good product. Installation instructions are very straightforward, and easy to understand.

[Tim Marvin]

Trace elements are TRACE elements. I no longer add any extras to my tanks. The regime is too time consuming and does nothing for the tank. I have used probably every additive know to man in the past as well as medical grade lugols solution. I have found I was treating myself and not the tank. Now I just run a refugium, water changes, and Kalkwasser drips. The tanks stay very stable and no more problems or hassles with forgetting additives. In conclusion, I don't beleive there is any advantage to adding more junk to the tank other than routine water changes and Kalkwasser.
I do run a calcium reactor on the propagation system but, only because it was hard to keep up the calcium levels with hundreds of corals and clams in this system. It was actually too high before I added the big clams. Calcium is now in the 525 range.