Trace dosing options

[Formulator]

I’ve been on the reef moonshiners program for about a year with excellent results. Haven’t changed water in a year and the tank has never been better. Problem is that I moved to a smaller company in the midst of growth and the hours are intense, plus I have a 4 month old baby at home… Everything else in my system is highly automated, but I haven’t been able to automate my daily trace dosing due to the small volumes and limited precision of hobby grade dosing pumps. I just don’t trust a peristaltic pump to dose 200uL consistently, and nobody is making hobby grade syringe pumps to my knowledge.

Currently I dose 8 elements daily and I’m looking to switch to a trace dosing regimen with fewer solutions to dose, and with higher volumes to enable automation. I think I would continue to do periodic adjustments of individual elements via reef moonshiners, just looking to replace the daily upkeep with something more practical. I looked into just diluting the existing moonshiners elements, but was cautioned against this for some reason.

Current daily elements are:
Iron
Copper
Vanadium
Selenium
Iodine
Manganese
Cobalt
Chromium

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’ve been on the reef moonshiners program for about a year with excellent results. Haven’t changed water in a year and the tank has never been better. Problem is that I moved to a smaller company in the midst of growth and the hours are intense, plus I have a 4 month old baby at home… Everything else in my system is highly automated, but I haven’t been able to automate my daily trace dosing due to the small volumes and limited precision of hobby grade dosing pumps. I just don’t trust a peristaltic pump to dose 200uL consistently, and nobody is making hobby grade syringe pumps to my knowledge.

Currently I dose 8 elements daily and I’m looking to switch to a trace dosing regimen with fewer solutions to dose, and with higher volumes to enable automation. I think I would continue to do periodic adjustments of individual elements via reef moonshiners, just looking to replace the daily upkeep with something more practical. I looked into just diluting the existing moonshiners elements, but was cautioned against this for some reason.

Current daily elements are:
Iron
Copper
Vanadium
Selenium
Iodine
Manganese
Cobalt
Chromium

Tropic Marin A and k seems like a fine choice

K: barium, boron, chrome, iron, cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel strontium and zinc

A: bromine, fluorine, iodine, lithium, molybdenum, selenium and vanadium

 

[Miami Reef]

Would using Tropic Marin A and K work? They have all of those trace elements within 2 bottles.

 

[Formulator]

Tropic Marin A and k seems like a fine choice

K: barium, boron, chrome, iron, cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel strontium and zinc

A: bromine, fluorine, iodine, lithium, molybdenum, selenium and vanadium

This does look like a great option. Only problem I have currently is very elevated lithium I can’t seem to figure out. Admittedly, I haven’t really investigated extensively because the tank is doing so well, but I’m not sure I would want to intentionally dose more…

While on the topic, is there a good way to selectively remove lithium or am I stuck with water changes?

 

[Miami Reef]

This does look like a great option. Only problem I have currently is very elevated lithium I can’t seem to figure out. Admittedly, I haven’t really investigated extensively because the tank is doing so well, but I’m not sure I would want to intentionally dose more…

While on the topic, is there a good way to selectively remove lithium or am I stuck with water changes?

That’s a very good question. How high is the lithium?

Following.

 

[Formulator]

That’s a very good question. How high is the lithium?

Following.

I’m embarrassed to say :face-with-tears-of-joy:

1120 ug/L……not a typo - that is one thousand

 

[scotty333]

I have the same problem with barium but the a and k doesn’t raise it too much higher

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’d probably ignore the lithium. Not sure why it is elevated, but lithium appears to have fairly low toxicity.

 

[Formulator]

I’d probably ignore the lithium. Not sure why it is elevated, but lithium appears to have fairly low toxicity.

Thanks. That would align with my experience considering these results in the presence of 10x normal lithium :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[SVP]

This does look like a great option. Only problem I have currently is very elevated lithium I can’t seem to figure out. Admittedly, I haven’t really investigated extensively because the tank is doing so well, but I’m not sure I would want to intentionally dose more…

While on the topic, is there a good way to selectively remove lithium or am I stuck with water changes?

Without dosing trace specifically you'll not find a Magic bullet one stop shop in 1 or 2 bottles. As I'm sure you are aware every tank has its own issues with regards to trace due to vast variety of variables. The only way to properly manage that is to dose the trace elements singularly. However as you've pointed out in your later comments not all trace equally effects corals in either high or low concentrations. So it becomes a matter of what are you willing to live with and how do your corals look. Also remember that the numbers recommended by the shine aren't set in stone. They are a semi-generalized number that isn't coral specific nor region of collection specific. The areas corals are collected from have big differences in trace elements which isn't even currently considered in reefing programs.
I do agree with you that the shine can become a bit cumbersome when more important facets of your life require more of your attention ie family and job. I know others have automated dailies since they don't really change much. Monthly corrections wouldn't be practical to automate since they vary in type of trace and amount needed.