what Additives do u use, if u dont water change?

[natureAddict]

hi all,
Noticed my hardy zoas started closing , so i dosed iodine daily n they started opening, even those that i thought had gone started to open.

I feel that without WC (water change), trace elements, etc r depleted.

So, what other stuff do u guys dose?

Or what happens to the chemistry when an ATS is functioning well, n no WC done?

cheers

[RkyRickstr]

Kalk and two part. Ocacionnaly kent magnesium. I feed alot though... I dont know if thats the reason my zoos and lps are happy as can be.

[kerry]

I dose in my top off water as fallows, Kalk when my Calcium and ALK is low but only baking soda when the calcium is ok. I also dose Epsom salt when the Mag is low to.

[natureAddict]

Kalk and two part. Ocacionnaly kent magnesium. I feed alot though... I dont know if thats the reason my zoos and lps are happy as can be.

when was your last WC?
what do u do with the detritus build up?

[natureAddict]

I dose in my top off water as fallows, Kalk when my Calcium and ALK is low but only baking soda when the calcium is ok. I also dose Epsom salt when the Mag is low to.

Hi bro, how often do u do WC? what do u with the detritus build up? tks

[RkyRickstr]

I havent done a wc since i set up the tank 7mo ago.

I sometimes syphon it through a filter sock then dump tge clean water back in.

I used to have a powerhead in the sump.. but after thinking about if for a while i said i rather syphon it out on the sump than let it accumulate in the rock somewhere.

Although i have not seen a diference in nutrients one way or the other.

[natureAddict]

It Is interesting to note that the corals r happy with minimum additives n WC !!!

my routine is calcium, sodium bi-, magnesium every other day as a top up - according to Brightwell dosage n instructions.

I have tried potassium together with the above, but have noticed that K feeds the algae. so now i add it only once in a while

[kerry]

Hi bro, how often do u do WC? what do u with the detritus build up? tks
I have not done a WC in my 40G breeder tank in well over a year. I have a great clean up crew and done really get any build up as I have good flow in all areas of the tank. My other tanks I water change a couple times a year at max. I dont do anything with detritus as I dont have a tank that accumulates it.

[natureAddict]

I have not done a WC in my 40G breeder tank in well over a year. I have a great clean up crew and done really get any build up as I have good flow in all areas of the tank. My other tanks I water change a couple times a year at max. I dont do anything with detritus as I dont have a tank that accumulates it.

Kerry do tell us how u keep ur tank detritus free?
Also what clean up crew u have ?
Thanks for the excitement :)

[kerry]

I have many little brittle stars (hitch hikers from rock), many bristle worms (which are awesome cleaners and also hitch hikers), Hermit crabs some blue and some red legged, and snails that are turbo and Nassarius types. Most of the reason why I dont have detritus is because of the flow I have in my tanks. I dont have any dead spots on my sand bed so its all kicked up into the water column. There must be others out there too that have their tank set up like mine.

[Doompie]

The simple fact is that detrius is part of the feeding cycle we replicate where the ATS is the base controling component.. the other "controls" are the additives..
so it´s a matter of getting all the pieces of the feeding cycle in the right balance, including detrius feeders (stars, heremites, snails, schrimps, ..).
For additives I use Kalkwasser for top-off and dose Mag every now and then, when it's low on my test set.

[RkyRickstr]

Flow being the key kerry. I got rid of all snails and crabs because they are bulldosers. Good flow keeps the stuff out. Keep in mind though that the low flow, low oxigen areas are also beneficial for n removal.

Theres alwas gonna be some stuff decaying, but the scrubber does a great job.

[kerry]

I like a lot of rock so I think I have the low flow taken care of. My 40G is the best set-up I have. That scrubber along with a ton of rock and dosing Kalk with vinegar is a winning combination for sure. I am so happy with that tank.
I am sure there is some dead spots between rock that I cant see and I am sure there is a mountain of build up there LOL!!!

[natureAddict]

I like a lot of rock so I think I have the low flow taken care of. My 40G is the best set-up I have. That scrubber along with a ton of rock and dosing Kalk with vinegar is a winning combination for sure. I am so happy with that tank.
I am sure there is some dead spots between rock that I cant see and I am sure there is a mountain of build up there LOL!!!

hey bro how about a pic of ur set up with ats.

vinegar? did i read correct?

[natureAddict]

Anyone dose trace elements?
Can a reef grow n keep its color without trace elements?
I m currently trying out Seachem trace elements for reef. see how it goes.

[kerry]

I dont really dose any trace elements very often, every now and then I add Iodine and Strontium and Molybdenum. Here are some pics taken with the phone of my 40G breeder.
http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q566/kerryconklin/2012-09-27_06-15-23_627.jpg
http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q566/kerryconklin/2012-09-27_06-15-09_264.jpg
http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q566/kerryconklin/2012-09-27_06-12-29_832.jpg
http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q566/kerryconklin/2012-09-27_06-12-03_243.jpg
http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q566/kerryconklin/2012-09-27_06-11-35_233.jpg
http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q566/kerryconklin/2012-09-27_06-11-11_634.jpg
http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q566/kerryconklin/2012-09-27_06-11-01_473.jpg
http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q566/kerryconklin/2012-09-27_06-10-45_856.jpg
http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q566/kerryconklin/2012-08-12_14-08-55_345contest.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Traces are in the food you feed, except for Cal, Alk, Mag, Str, and Iron

[Floyd R Turbo]

I got rid of all snails and crabs because they are bulldosers.

I hate turbo snails for this reason.

[RkyRickstr]

Yup vinegar. I use 15ml per teaspoon of kalk.. works great.

[natureAddict]

[QUOTE=kerry;25620]I dont really dose any trace elements very often, every now and then I add Iodine and Strontium and Molybdenum. Here are some pics taken with the phone of my 40G breeder.

cool man! looks pretty clean. that's what i aim for.

whats that next to the eagle eye zoa - looks like cloves but white n with stem

[natureAddict]

Traces are in the food you feed, except for Cal, Alk, Mag, Str, and Iron

bro, is this science or wisdom? but whichever seems higher logic :)

[SantaMonica]

Science.

[kerry]

Those are pulsating Xenia, my wife calls them clappers LOL. They grow like weeds, I trim them back to stubs every 20-40 days. Its a very exiting coral to watch because its always opening and closing its polyps.

[kotlec]

My Xenia stopped growing at all and nearly disappeared . Do you know any good reason for this to happen ?

[kerry]

No, not sure on that. My nutrients always read zero-ish. My 10G always shows just a touch of nutrients (nitrate and phos) and I cant get to grow there.

[sklywag]

I dose Warner Marine two part.

[RkyRickstr]

Xenia is always the first coral to die if nutrients rize. For being a weed its suprizingly delicate. I purposely rose nutrients in my tank once just to get rid of it.

[kerry]

I guess thats why it does so well in the 40G

[Floyd R Turbo]

Really? The original thought when I joined this site was that Xenia would die in a tank with a scrubber, because of lack of nutrients. I found this to be very untrue, and in my current personal tank, which has what some would consider high nutrients (N>20, P>0.20 for a long time) the Xenia are holding their own just fine.

So where are you getting that excess nutrients would cause them to die?

For the record, I'm talking about pulsing/pumping type of Xenia.

[kerry]

AKA Clappers!!! LOL. All I can say it that they do very poorly in my 150G That normally has 20-ish nitrate and about .05 phos. In my 10G its zero nitrate but it was very high in phos as one of my posts a couple weeks ago talked about and its slowly disappears in that tank but I have been knocking down the phos with WC's so maybe it will get better at supporting Xenia. My 40G does not show any nutrients on my test kits and Xenia in that tank is like wild fires out west, Uncontrollable if I go dont trim about every 30 days!!!!

[RkyRickstr]

Yup.. not only that, any change in alk or temp or salinity and it got stressed. Like i said, not typical of a weed.. lol

[natureAddict]

Xenia would be a good N n P indicator lol - no need for test kits
anymore