Additives to the reef tank?

[edikpok]

I just wanted to get your opinoin with regards to trace elements and iodine additives.

I have a 12g nano cube with: goby, cardinalfish, cleaner shrimp, some hermits, pom pom crabs, candy canes, anthelia, zoos, xenia, mushrooms, gsp and some other soft corals. I don't have a carbon filter nor a skimmer in my system. It has been running for over a year now but the candy canes were added only recently. I shall also say that I do a 3-4 gallon water change every 2 weeks.
Do you add any additives to your system? Would you recommend me adding anything like trace elemenets? calcium?

Thanks!

[kwirky]

I don't think you really have to add anything. you're doing large enough water changes that any trace elements will be replenished by the salt mix. as for calcium have you tested it?

[ron101]

Since trace elements can become toxic when their levels get too high, you really need to be measuring your levels to be safe. If your are doing water changes that frequently I would not bother investing in a hundred or more dollars worth of trace element test kits.

Since you are in the Vancouver area, with our soft water, calcium and carbonate alkalinity values from salt mix often come up short. I don't think that it would be a major problem in your system beyond perhaps not giving you optimal hard coral growth but those are two test kits and additives (kalkwasser or calcium chloride/baking soda) that you can make an argument for.

[edikpok]

I don't usually test any of the parameters other than pH once a month or so...

Kwirki - I am hoping for the same thing. I hope that since I only have two 4-head frags of candy canes and a bunch of softies, calcium that comes from the salt mix should be suficient...How about iodine? do salt mixes contain it? I have a bunch of inverts so....yeah....

ron101- us with our soft (and often cloudy) water. Is optimal growth the only thing that can get affected by not adding additional calcium? can it affect the health of my current heads in any bad way? as you can imagine, I would prefer these candy canes to not grow too big in a little 12g tank....