Is copper necessary for macro algae??

[Rowboman]

I was recently listing to an old reef therapy podcast where Chris Meckley mentioned he doses copper to maintain a ppb of 9 in his systems since copper if necessary for photosynthetic organisms. I’m in the works of starting a small coral farm in my shop where each system will have a display refugium full of different types of macro algae’s and this podcast got into my head about the benefits of dosing copper carefully along with ICP testing. Anyone have opinions on this?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes, macro use copper, as do corals, they also use lots of trace
Elements. There’s no reason to fixate on copper.

I’d consider either adding lots of independent additives, or much easier, a premade mix such as Tropic Marin A and K.