Trace elements question

[troypt]

I am wondering about dosing trace elements. Thinking of using TM A and K. Other than not helping and cost,is there a downside? Or will it be bad for the tank? Or cause bad things to happen?
Troy

 

[UMALUM]

I use them primarily because reef crystals is low to non existent on several trace elements. I would suggest sending in an icp before hand to get an idea of what the tank might be lacking. A lot of folks say water changes alone on low demand systems will do the trick. Between iorc and my demand I need A K C and potassium.

 

[Pod_01]

I would say there is no downside to dosing TM A and K trace elements assuming there are corals in the tank. I would start with the minimum recommended dose and only increase it once corals start to grow but keep it below the maximum recommended dose by TM.
If you feel that more is required I would use ICP test to confirm that some trace elements are not accumulating etc…

The trace elements in the TM A and K are essential for coral growth. Overdosing trace elements can be detrimental, hence my suggestion to dose the minimum recommended dose.

I use TM A and K and from my experience corals responded well:

Good luck,

 

[FishLvR]

I guess I am. I just dumped it into the dosing containers with the A and B.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I am wondering about dosing trace elements. Thinking of using TM A and K. Other than not helping and cost,is there a downside? Or will it be bad for the tank? Or cause bad things to happen?
Troy

There’s no downside to using it as recommended unless there is already an excessive trace element problem.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I use them primarily because reef crystals is low to non existent on several trace elements. I would suggest sending in an icp before hand to get an idea of what the tank might be lacking. A lot of folks say water changes alone on low demand systems will do the trick. Between iorc and my demand I need A K C and potassium.

How are you supplementing calcium and alk?

Just an fyi on potassium. It’s not a trace element, and it does not deplete in all systems. The reason I ask about alk and calcium is that some methods themselves will cause depletion of potassium (and other ions) independent of any consumption.

 

[UMALUM]

How are you supplementing calcium and alk?

Just an fyi on potassium. It’s not a trace element, and it does not deplete in all systems. The reason I ask about alk and calcium is that some methods themselves will cause depletion of potassium (and other ions) independent of any consumption.

I've always used your 2 part "soda ash". That's a very interesting fact that I don't believe I've ever heard discussed. When you have time would you explain the methods where this could take place and possibly the ratio? Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I've always used your 2 part "soda ash". That's a very interesting fact that I don't believe I've ever heard discussed. When you have time would you explain the methods where this could take place and possibly the ratio? Thanks

Sure. I explain that issue here, and the why it matters part of the title addresses that question exactly. I’ll just copy a small section of the article below.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/how-a...-calcium-system-works-and-why-it-matters.958/
Further, when one lowers the salinity to offset the rise from the accumulating sodium and chloride, one is necessarily depressing every other ion in the water. For example, if you dose at the 1 dKH per day rate, do no water changes, then after a year drop the salinity by 7.5 ppt, the concentration of every ion in the water will drop by a factor of (35-7.5 ppt)/(35 ppt) to 79% of its value on the first of the year. Potassium, for example, would drop from 400 ppm to 316 pm. Even worse, magnesium is not only depressed by this factor (1300 ppm to 1027 ppm) but was also getting consumed along the way.

 

[troypt]

I am wondering about trace elements because 2 years ago, I got some kind of fish illness (I added two fish that had been quarantined for 1 month right before going out of town for 2 1/2 weeks - not my best idea) and lost 8-10 fish and most of my coral. I slowly got things worked out and over the past 2 years, the tank was doing well. But a couple of months ago, my acros started slowly dying, but all the other corals in the tank-zoas, montis, stylopora, elegance coral, favia, blastos, acans, candy cane, and chalice, along with a RBTA are fine. I have done water changes, started running some GFO and carbon and slowly the remaining acros have stopped dying. I also put in some new cheato to help with nutrients. I say new because a couple months prior to the acros dying, my cheato slowly died. I tried some more and it also slowly died. This new cheato (it all came from the same friend) is growing well and I’m thinking that the tank was low in iron and using the GFO has helped the cheato to grow. Someone suggested that maybe I had a trace element problem.
I am thinking about adding some trace elements using TM A and K but didn’t want to do that if it could cause more problems. I use kalk for Ca and Alk. The tank has also been running since 2009 and other than kalk and water changes I haven’t used any type of supplementation.

 

[Pod_01]

I’m thinking that the tank was low in iron and using the GFO has helped the cheato to grow.

Interesting, GFO removes phosphates and generally cheato needs phosphate to grow and from my experience corals also need phosphate to grow . I never had good experience with GFO… I ended up with dead acros when I used it.

Iron is also required to grow cheato and corals, so deficiencies in iron could be possible problem.

GAC (carbon) I do like to use, it can remove potential pollutants from the water column.

As I mentioned I use TM A and K and I observed good results. I would only dose the minimum recommended dose and observe the tank for positive or negative effects and decide if you want to continue or stop.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I would not be afraid of dosing TM A and K. It’s not a risky thing.