Water Additives

[chromakey]

Good Day:

I have a mixed reef aquarium with mainly LPS and soft corals. I aim for a 20% water change every 10 -14 days. I have never added any additives but was wondering if anyone would recommend an additive that would help the corals and invertebrates in the tank. I am trying to keep the upkeep fairly simple.

I have been looking at something like:

Brightwell Aquatics KoralColor Aquarium Additive;
Brightwell Aquatics Koralle-VM Trace Element Supplement - 500ml;
SeaChem Reef Plus Additive - 500 mL;
SeaChem Reef Trace Additive - 500 mL;
Kent Marine Essential Elements Additive - 16 oz;

Thanks,

[Aquattro]

What are you trying to make happen, or fix?

[kien]

I would suggest marine salt as a water additive. Your corals and fish will appreciate it.

[chromakey]

Hi:

I was looking on Liveaquaria.com and noticed that for a lot of inverts it mentions supplement with iodine and trace elements. I am not sure if these are typically in most salts. If there was one product that I could add easily I was going to try that.

Thanks.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by kien

I would suggest marine salt as a water additive. Your corals and fish will appreciate it.

Agreed. Regular water changes and you're good.

[hillegom]

+1^^
Your typical salt has all the trace elements that your reef needs.

Read this
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/

Do you add oil additives to your engine oil?
Its not recommended by the car manufacturers

[monocus]

you shouldn't have to top up any iodine.test for potassium,you might want to add that to bring out the green in coral,and magnesium

[Myka]

Originally Posted by chromakey

I have a mixed reef aquarium with mainly LPS and soft corals. I aim for a 20% water change every 10 -14 days. I have never added any additives but was wondering if anyone would recommend an additive that would help the corals and invertebrates in the tank. I am trying to keep the upkeep fairly simple.

Have you tested calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium? How about nitrate an phosphate? Do you keep your tank at a proper reef specific gravity of 1.026 or 35 ppt? If these are all within proper range, and you have fish in there that you feed, then your corals are likely quite happy between the fish poop, excess fish food (hopefully not much), and the elements in the salt mix.

If you insist on trying something, then I suggest you try target feeding some of the LPS with an LPS pellet like Fauna Marin LPS Pellets (my fav). Keep in mind that feeding the corals is the same as feeding the fish as far as nutrient load goes, so watch for algae.

I don't recommend feeding into the water column unless you have a really good protein skimmer, a really good clean up crew, and a good amount of experience in the hobby to see the signs of impending algae bloom before it happens.

EDIT: I just realized these 3 threads are all from you. Skip the questions in the first paragraph, I saw the answers in your other thread and made comments in your other threads regarding those values.