Supplementing a calcium reactor

[Brew12]

I have a question regarding trace elements I'm hoping you can help answer.

I run an SPS heavy system, roughly 160g water volume, use Tropic Marin Classic salt mix, and do a roughly 25g water change every 3 weeks. 1.027sg, 9.0dKH, 420ppm Calcium.

I maintain Alk and Calc using a CaRx and melt almost 2 pounds of media a week. My alk demand is more than 4dkh per day. I feel like with such high demand I should be doing more for trace elements than the water change. I have no idea what trace elements are provided by the media in the CaRx. Would it be beneficial to dose the Original Balling Component - Part C in a system like mine? If so, do you have recommendations on how much to dose?

 

[Robinson]

Following as I'm looking for this as well.

 

[Ocelaris]

My thoughts: Balling component part C is just Sodium Chloride free salt; i.e. everything but NaCL. The main components of media are Calcium carbonate, Magnesium carbonate, and the trace quantities that have been incorporated into the skeleton of the coral. Since you're not adding excess NA + CL in the Calcium Reactor, I don't see that as being the appropriate solution. They always mention in the 3 part components that Part C is not intended as a "trace element" supplement, but only designed to balance the imbalance of the typical 2-part solution.

IMO, you can chase trace elements in a bottle, or a more limited potassium/iodine regiment which some reefers do; or just up the water change frequency. Most people depending on the media of their calcium reactor may aim for a separate Magnesium heavy component, but I think your thoughts are correct. The skeletal structure of the coral doesn't incorporate all the living tissue that may have other requirements that may not be laid down in skeleton. Which leads you back to the ICP method, which seems a bit excessive.

If you think about it, you have dozens of trace/minor elements being taken out, and unless there is an easy test to measure removal; the best you can do is "the solution to pollution is dillution". I.e. remove water and replace with known good quantity (i.e. fresh sea water). The axiom "if you can't measure it, don't add it" seems to apply here.

Hopefully Tropic Marin has some thoughts on supplementing Ca reactors.

 

[dson78]

I am hoping Tropic Marin can chime in as well. I'm using a Calcium Reactor as well and would like to know a good starting point to dose their Trace Pro-Coral K+ Trace 1 and Pro-Coral A- Trace 2.

 

[Lou Ekus]

I am hoping Tropic Marin can chime in as well. I'm using a Calcium Reactor as well and would like to know a good starting point to dose their Trace Pro-Coral K+ Trace 1 and Pro-Coral A- Trace 2.

You can, of course, adjust the following recommendation up or down, depending on your system. However, here are our recommendations for useing Trace A and Trace K:

Add 1 ml trace elements of each solution per 100 l / 25 US-Gal. of aquarium system water volume daily. The trace elements solution must not get directly onto the animals. The demand of trace elements increases with increased aquarium population density. In heavily populated aquariums, dosage may be increased up to the maximum dosage below.

Maximum dosage: Do not exceed a dosage of 2 ml per 100 l / 25 gallons of aquarium system water volume per day.

Use the new dosing calculators for an easy determination of the required amount of dosage for your aquarium:
A- ELEMENTS
K+ ELEMENTS

I hope that helps for establishing a starting point!