Overdosed trace elements, now what?

[whoisthejman]

Like the title says, I believe I have added too much trace elements in my reef which is the cause of my algae bloom and corals looking very sad. I have been using Seachem Reef Plus and Reef Trace twice a week for the past month or two on top of weekly water changes. I'm just realizing that I may have added way too much trace elements to the tank and am now wondering how I remove them safely. Would adding activated carbon to my HOB filter do the trick? Not sure a water change would help considering the salt I use contains trace elements as well. Please help.

 

[rishma]

I think to get useful advice, it would help if you share more information about the tank. How old is the system, what water test info do you have, etc. More details may help identify the problem.

I’d be surprised if it was due to trace elements.

Were you following instructions on the bottle? Sorry if that is a dumb question, but my first instinct is that an overdose of trace elements to the point of a problem seems very unlikely to me unless there was a significant accidental overdose. I am not familiar with those particular products.

Water changes help with lots of problems. I do not know of any salt mixes that have problematic high levels of trace. I think that is a fine path when things are not going well.

GAC is unlikely to remove enough trace to make a difference (if elevated trace levels were indeed part of the problem)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How much more then the recommended dose are we talking g about? 2x? 200x?

 

[Dr_Orpheus]

I would do what Red Sea tells me to do if I overdose their trace elements: do a 50% water change. The amino acid products like Reef Plus can cause a bunch of algae issues if you put too much in. The Reef Trace is where your trace elements are coming from. No way of knowing if you've put too much in if you haven't tested for some of the trace elements in there, but a sign could be unhappy, dull, drab corals as well as unwanted algae.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I would not recommend a water change until we know how large the overdose was. It might be a waste of time and money.

 

[hatteras hank]

Big water change is best bet then retest and see where levels are.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Again, though, what if the “overdose” is 3x. Water changes would be a wasted effort.

 

[BryanM]

Agreed, need to know the amount overdosed to be useful.