Trace elements

[Jguido1987]

I have a question about trace elements.
I’m looking to improve the color of my corals and provide overal better health and development for my Tank.
I am currently am using a product by Aquavitro called Fuel. It provides amino acid, carbs, and trace elements. I also recently started to add from Kent Strontium and molybdenum.
I was thinking of starting to use the coral enhancement from Red Sea or something like this. I saw it for $20.
I’m just looking for some advice and/or maybe a better plan of attack. Is there a “better” product in the class? Should I stop using one product over another? Is it safe to use them all together?
My Tank is only 28gal btw.
Thanks in advance

 

[Jguido1987]

Has anyone tried using the color/trace elements from Korallen-Zucht. Seems very similar concept to the Red Sea product. Seems a little easier to figure out a dosing amount though.

 

[Tank Talker]

This may help.
This has been my experience over the past few years.
I ran the full Zeo system for about 2.5 years but the cost was killing me.
Then I change to Fuel & RedSea Colors and ran with than for another year. But thought that they were missing the mark as it was hard to keep the color and growth without starving the SPS.
For the last 10 months I have been using these trace elements and the color and growth is amazing.
http://www.professionalcoralsolutions.com/

 

[29bonsaireef]

I run a 29gal packed with sps. IME the best thing you can do for color/coral health in a nano is maintain weekly water changes 30-40%, if possible. That being said good lighting, and stable Sal, Cal, Alk are very important also. If you're not testing params very regularly the addtion of trace elements can lead to unwanted algae in small tanks, but thats just my experience.

 

[jda]

I would not add anything that you are not testing for.

As stated above, water changes can get all of the trace elements that your corals need. The rest of the stuff that is sold is not necessary - while some people swear by it, it is often only part of a renewed interest in their tanks and that interest as a whole was what made the difference and not a product. What is most common is that people use this stuff about the time that their tank matures and stuff was going to take off anyway. You rarely see people who have stopped using something like Fuel and swore that it made a difference after they stopped - most cannot tell. All of that being said, it will not likely hurt anything if you do it small enough and change some water to account for any build-up.

 

[Jguido1987]

I do a water change every week. Usually only about 10%. It’s a RODI water the salt is I believe reef crystals or instant ocean. I get it from my LFS. I have read that for the most part that, that particular brand isn’t the best for trace elements. I understand the idea about testing for what is added. Def solid advice, but I have also read that the test kits for trace elements are generally inaccurate.
The Korellan-Zucht product seems pretty easy to use and an easy dosing schedule. Does anyone know more about their product?. I saw it for sale at BulkReef.

 

[theMeat]

If you have big fuge, ats, or run bio pellets and have no or little need to do water changes then adding trace elements is good. If not just do water changes with quality salt, keep cal and alk in line and feed well.
Find BRS reef chilli to be some of the best cheapest coral food

Fwiw , have seen more people have better more consistent results with ZEOvit than any other

 

[Jguido1987]

I run gfo, a oversized protein skimmer, I also use phosguard, carbon, poly filter and ceramic bio cubes.

 

[cboltsd01]

If you have big fuge, ats, or run bio pellets and have no or little need to do water changes then adding trace elements is good. If not just do water changes with quality salt, keep cal and alk in line and feed well.
Find BRS reef chilli to be some of the best cheapest coral food

Fwiw , have seen more people have better more consistent results with ZEOvit than any other

I agree, I have not done a water change in 4 months. I have a good size fuge and run rophwas. I dose trace elements using the aquavitro fuel twice a week. I have been very successful with growth and consistency maintaining my cal. And alk. A great skimmer also helps with the bioload. I believe there are many ways people have success, you just have to decide what works best for you.

 

[DeepBlueSomething]

Reading the replies it reminds me that in this hobby there are general best practices that apply but each reef system is unique - it's own inhabitants, environment and desired results and care level.

I am new to the hobby and one of the best pieces of advice I have seen is to find what works and learn from what doesn't. Cheers to this discussion - I have Kents and Polyplab products sitting of my shelf and hoping for great results.

 

[Big E]

I'm with jda on this, none of those trace elements or liquids you mention are going to give you better color.

This stuff is just the current hype going on..............a few years ago it was acropower and amino acid supplements in general.

Trace elements have been sold for 25+ years and it's the same old marketing mantra today as it was back then.

A 10% water change will keep them balanced and replenished. Your fish food also carries plenty of these trace elements.

Strontium and Mo just don't get depleted enough to bother..........most people that dose end up with high levels that are hard to lower.

I do 7-10% weekly water changes with IO salt. The only thing I dose is alk and calc.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/big-e-rimless-80g-sps.206607/#post-2361242

If you aren't going to do water changes and also have an algae filter then it may make sense to dose a trace element liquid. I'd use brands that state what is in each bottle.

If you want better colors and your nutrients are in an acceptable range, I'd focus on your lighting.
Flow can be overlooked as well.........it helps accelerate growth and for most acros growth=color

 

[Peng]

You can use Red Sea's color program however IMO a complete Balling Method may give you better results and better stability. Both Tropic Marin and Aquaforest have their Balling programs, which goes into your 3 part dosing and is quite easy and not a big change if you are already dosing to maintain Alk, Ca, and Mg. But only use one trace element program and don't add others at the same time. So if you use Balling then you don't want to add in Sr & Mo unless the program you are using does not contain Sr and Mo addition, which most have strontium. Both, especially Molybdenum play a huge role in biochemical process in nitrogen fixation and enzyme functions. However if you don't use Triton test you might be overdosing Sr if you use Kent's option or you can buy Mo from Triton which I don't know if there difference is really worth the money. Commercial salts don't contain trace elements and heavy metals. However I've been using the Balling method and in my own experience certain colors improved very well under Balling. It's the results of scientific work and once you get started on Balling it's very easy to maintain Ca/Alk/Mg.

 

[cFloor]

Over the years I've experimented with quite a few of these bottles that are suppose to help color up and grow acros. The past few years I've beeb using the K.I.S.S method. Keep everything rock solid, weekly 10% water changes, and high quality fish food. I have achieved my best results using this approach.

 

[Shigshwa]

I'm not sure if trace elements have helped me gain color with my acros, but I know that running carbon dosing and then feeding heavily certainly helps them grow and thrive with all the nutrients available (while keeping nitrates and phosphates at a minimum). I also currently run Aquaforest, which doses trace elements, and I think that it has helped bring out stronger coloration in my corals. I'd say that alongside using ICP testing to monitor trace elements once every month or so, dose Fuel and see where it takes you.

 

[Jguido1987]

My main concern was using fuel along side a Red Sea color product. I’m just gonna have to compare the products side by side and go from there. I’m gonna keep up w my basic matenance schedule Bc that seems to be working. I’m not testing any phosphate or nitrates. I guess in a few weeks I will know for sure. Either it was a great addition or I spent $20 on snake oil. Either way I really enjoy all these different ideas about the hobby. Constantly learning new methods, practices, and ideas.

 

[BoomCorals]

I'm going to be switching my DOSing to use ATI essentials and cutting way back on my AWC. Will be interesting to see the results.

 

[tripdad]

I'm going to be switching my DOSing to use ATI essentials and cutting way back on my AWC. Will be interesting to see the results.

Please keep us updated, in your own thread possibly, on your results. As these products are new it will be interesting to have another result to look at.

 

[Zagreus]

I agree with my JDA Peng Big E and a lot of what others have said. No offence I think it is a very bad idea to add any chemicals if you don't test for even the basics. How do you even know if you have the basics under control and in balance such as calcium alkalinity nitrate and phosphate. Those 4 alone can have more impact on your color corals than anything else you're thinking about using right off the bat. For your size tank you can easily do weekly 10-15% water changes weekly with a quality balanced salt mix like red sea blue bucket, tropic marine etc that could replenish all your elements and most likely have a fairly stable tank easily.

Drossing the red sea color program with the drop in hope method yields more disasters then victories. I test regularly and I finally did a Triton test after dosing the red sea a,b,c,d color program by calcium re uptake. Triton showed high and low levels of trace elements impossible to isolate in the 4 red sea bottles. Just as what was said above I have dangerously high levels of some elements and low levels of others. That result pointed 100% to the imbalances of dosing trace elements with the red sea color program even by calcium reuptake that i test weekly for to determine how much red sea colors to dose.

Also why would you add GFO to your tank if you don't even test your phosphates. The fastest thing that colored up my coral with letting my nitrates climb up to 5-10 parts per million and allowing safe levels of phosphates. This all happened through the advice of this forum because I was running a sterile tank with Gfo and nopox.

Do yourself a favor and try the keep it simple method, research some quality balanced salts and buy some decent test kits to figure out if your parameters are stable before investing in anything else. Make sure you have flow and lighting dialed in as well. Good luck.

 

[Jguido1987]

I do test for phosphate. I get a zero reading. I started to run it based on what everyone on here was telling me. I had a problem w algae when I started up and even though I was testing zero everyone kept telling me I was getting false negatives Bc the algae was eating up the phosphates. I added a gfo reactor and a better protein skimmer and like everyone said my algae problem was no more. Every now and then I get a small patch of algae that I know is usually done Bc I tend to over feed. I ease up on feeding and the algae is gone in a few days.
I feel like my levels are doing really well and are pretty stable. But you are right unless I can test for everything there is no way of actually knowing. I do not add potassium at this point. I did some reading and found that it was important and that is what got me to do more reading about trace elements. If potassium is important then why are the other elements not. I believe that the Red Sea has potassium in it.

 

[Anirban]

I do test for phosphate. I get a zero reading. I started to run it based on what everyone on here was telling me. I had a problem w algae when I started up and even though I was testing zero everyone kept telling me I was getting false negatives Bc the algae was eating up the phosphates. I added a gfo reactor and a better protein skimmer and like everyone said my algae problem was no more. Every now and then I get a small patch of algae that I know is usually done Bc I tend to over feed. I ease up on feeding and the algae is gone in a few days.
I feel like my levels are doing really well and are pretty stable. But you are right unless I can test for everything there is no way of actually knowing. I do not add potassium at this point. I did some reading and found that it was important and that is what got me to do more reading about trace elements. If potassium is important then why are the other elements not. I believe that the Red Sea has potassium in it.

Potassium is not exactly a trace element. So, dosing it is different than other trace elements. With your water volume I will just do weekly water changes to replenish everything at steady levels. Trace means very low amount and generally our salts and foods contain good enough amount of them to keep them steady. If you have huge colonies which take up good amount of Alk/Ca then possibly I will suggest go full balling to replenish them. In that way you actually don't even need to do regular water changes. But you need to do regular ICP testing to know if your trace element levels are good or not.