Fear of missing out an accumulating trace elements

Koty · Aug 30, 2023

I have a 420 liter tank with a Ceato refuge. I have many fish that are heavily fed and LPS, SPS and a few soft corals. My tank is close to 3 years old. I dose the TM ABC Balling system and I mix the K and A elements into the A and B respectivly. So It adds to about 60 ml of ABC and 3-4 ml of the A & K daily. I do not do water changes (almost 2 years). I dose 3 ml Elimi NP daily and one spoon Reef actif twice a week. My corals are looking great (apart from those niblled by my CBB). I run a powerfull skimmer, and GFO and GAC reactors.
My question is: Is there a trace element that I should worry about to accumulate to toxic levels long term?
Thanks

Hans-Werner · Aug 30, 2023

I have developed this kind of trace elements supply 1994 and 1995, almost 30 years ago, and I have not seen any toxic accumulation of elements in this time.

We sell All-For-Reef, which contains the same trace element formulas, for some years now and I have not seen one report of accumulating trace elements yet. Rather users may report some trace metals are not found with ICP-OES although they are supplied. However, this is normal. Since a continuous supply is guaranteed when using our trace elements products, it is not necessary to exceed the detection limits of ICP-OES when lower concentrations are absolutely sufficient. This is the advantage of a continuous and balanced supply over other methods which depend on analyses results.

Since there is a continuous demand by growing corals and this is balanced by a continuous supply, you create a very stable dynamic equilibrium without any total depletion or accumulation to toxic levels.

Koty · Aug 30, 2023

Thanks for the reply. Indeed, what I experienced in my tank using the abovementioned regime is very satisfactory. I do not bother with ICP-OES as my hypothesis that you confirmed was that the trace elements are short-lived in the water column. As I do not do any WC, I check KH, Ca, Mg, K, PO4, NO3, and salinity with the TM hydrometer (I keep it at 1.0264 ± 0.0002). One thing I found after starting with the K & A elements is that besides corals, my Cheato started growing at a much faster rate. I used to have only LPS, but I added a green and red Montipora to see if they would survive my "dirty" tank. Surprisingly, they are growing nicely, and I added a few more. My LPS seems very happy. Besides the trace elements, I have to say that I found your carbon dosing products, ElimiNP and the Reef Actif, in my case, extremely beneficial.
My primary goal is that fish will not die (2 years, no death except a single carpet surf of a fairy wrasse), so I feed them a lot of high-quality food, which results in challenging levels of bioload. I, therefore, use all possible means of export. Here is a glimpse of my dirty tank: