Should I dose trace elements or not?

[drmrp17]

I have a 75 gal. mixed reef tank and am still relatively new to the hobby. I have my LFS telling me to dose 4 tsp. of Seachem mag 2x weekly and 2 tsp. of Seachem stron. 2x weekly. I have been reading a lot of RC posts and there are lots of different views on dosing trace elements. Am I dosing a correct amount of mag/stron. for my tank? Should I be dosing iodine/iodide also? Or should I not dose at all and just increase water changes? I want to do whatever I can to maximize my coral growth.

[LPS_Blasto]

If you're going to dose something, you need a test kit for it.

If you can't test it, then don't dose it.

The LFS is NOT doing you any favors by telling you blanket statements like "dose this much frog poop 2x per week, and this much fly barf 3x per week." They have NO IDEA how fast your tank will absorb and use the frog poop or the fly barf. They have no idea if dosing x-2 fly barf 4x per week will crash your tank. They don't know squat.

If you want your corals to grow fast, do 20% water changes twice a week and forget about dosing anything at all.

If you don't want to change that much water, then buy a test kit for anything you plan to dose. If they don't make a test kit for it, then you don't need to dose it.

[bertoni]

Magnesium and strontium aren't really trace elements. Magnesium is worth testing now and then. Some tanks need supplementation, and some tanks do well with water changes. Strontium doesn't appear to be useful in our tanks:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2003/chem.htm

For trace elements, water changes should be all that's needed for coral health. Some people dose various elements (not always trace) to change coral coloration, but that's a more advanced topic.

This article might help:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php

[wmdick_2007]

Iodine --- will not stay in a tank long and may need dosing --- carbon and skimming removes it fast if you dose. I isolate my tank when I dose for a few hours.

Magnesium --- always needs dosing and helps in many ways ---- it keeps the tank from excessive precipitation also. I keep mine high.

Strontium --- I don't worry about

Check the coral forums --- they push Ca and Alk to the edge and have a few tricks !

[bertoni]

There isn't any evidence that iodine is needed by the organisms we keep:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/chem.htm

I'd be careful when dosing it, since the kits we have for measuring iodine seem iffy.

[wmdick_2007]

I have read that article many times --- it is good --- it is also a maybe !

[jcw]

When I spoke to eric briefly when i picked up some of his live rock from his famous glassbox, he said he doses trace elements to play with the color of the corals.

I did not know enough about corals at the time to ask any intelligent questions but he kindly gave me some stuff called CoraGold++. He said he gets stuff like this to review all the time for the magazine. The bottle packaging looks european to me. Stuff is labeled in liters, etc.

Anyway, I've been adding this stuff once a week. For what it's worth.

And Eric, if you are reading this, the acropora on the LR is doing GREAT under LED lights and growing quickly. The LPS that broke off the rock is also very happy looking. The white and pink monti (?) is holding it's own but not flourishing like the other two. Too bad, because it's my favorite of the three. If anyone has any suggestions.

Thanks, again.

[Alex T.]

I've read Randy's article regarding Iodine not needing to be dosed. For 2 years I didn't do it. When I started carbon dosing some of my corals went pale but the ones that had the hardest time recovering were my blues. I remembered the warnings, but kept looking at SunnX and Reefbum's tanks (two of my favorites) and saw that they dosed iodine weekly. They had/have some of the most beautifully colored corals with unparalleled polyp extension.

I went to my LFS and bought some Kent Lugol's solution. I came home and dosed half the recommended dosage per week for a month. I changed nothing else in my tank. Photoperiod, weekly maintenance, water change volumes and feeding were all the same. I don't test for Iodine and now dose the full recommended dosage for my estimated aquarium volume. I'm not telling others to do this, but my SPS are looking better each and every week and polyp extension for the last six months is the best its' ever been. My colors are back, and blues are better than ever.

I believe there may be something to Iodine dosing with people that run huge skimmers and lots of carbon with a heavy bioload and lots of SPS. Both SunnyX and Reefbum have HUGE skimmers that are capable of having a second tank plumbed in to the sump with no problems in handling the load. I myself have a 150 gallon tank with a skimmer that is capable of offering SPS water quality in a 300 gallon system. I have several large fish and love being able to feed them so they look as robust as in the wild.

If everything didn't perk up each week I probably would have never dosed it again. Sometimes we have to go on a hunch, and although I've been warned, it showed its' benefit immediately. I've had no ill affects whatsoever. No weird bacterial or algae growths...just better looking SPS that are still growing.

Just my .02

[bertoni]

Coral coloration is a difficult topic, and I wouldn't be surprised if trace elements can affect it. The original poster is new to the hobby, though, and I don't think that level of information is useful at this point. Lugol's solution can be dangerous to dose, for example, because it contains elemental iodine, which is not present in saltwater and can be toxic.