supplements

[paramedicma]

Ok, I am a little new to this hobby and I have been a little confused on what supplements to add. So far I have been using reef trace, lugoils solution, and strontium. I have been using seachem but I am not shure if this is the best choice. What does everyone use?
I have a 36gallon reef tank with a few fish, frogspawn, xenia, and a brand new yellow grogonian.

[Toddrtrex]

To Reef Central

If you don't test for it, shouldn't be adding it to your tank.

The main ones to be concerned about are, calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium. Anything should be taken care of by regular water changes with a good salt mix.

[AZDesertRat]

With what you have you should not need anything at all other than regular water changes. Most anything will be included in a good salt mix so additives or supplements are not needed. Once you get to the point where you have a heavily stocked hard coral tank, calcium and alkalinity adjustments may be needed but as already mentioned, never add anything you do not have a good test kit for. If you don't know for sure its needed don't put it in there! Its really easy to get a small system out of whack by adding supplements.

[jamest0o0]

from what I've heard dosing Iodine can actually be bad

[paramedicma]

The only thing is that I had a xenia before and it ended up dieing, and I was told that I should add the lugoils. Since adding it has never looked better. I usually add all of the supplements at 1/2 dose.


What kind of salt do you use?

[tmz]

I agree with the above. No need to dose iodine or iodide,sttrontium or other trace elements.Water changes and feedings should take care of these things. Calcium and alkalinity addition along with magnesium will help not only coral but coraline too. Most of your focus should be on relatively stable temperature and salinity in a newer tank.