Weekly discussion topic #3 - trace elements

[Luno]

To many trace elements are almost an unknown and too hard to think about. To others it is a final frontier of ultimate reef keeping making sure even the minute chemical makeup of our tanks is in check.

How do you deal with trace elements? Do you trust water changes to maintain these levels or do you dose? What experiences have you had when finding you were lacking in a trace element and what did you do to rectify it?

 

[jsker]

I dose the balling method to keep my parameters in line.

 

[Luno]

I remember early on in reef keeping when I thought I had achieve a certain level of success keeping an sps dominant reef tank. But I felt like I could get more out of my colours. So I read and read the interwebs and found out that maybe iron could promote my colour and I should try dosing it. Now thankfully iron isn't one that can be too detrimental as far as metals go, but when I finally did a triton test I was well over estimating my iron dosing needs. And found out that my water changes were covering it just fine without dosing any extra.

Later on though I found through triton testing that I was low in certain trace elements but trying to balance this was extremely difficult. I did end up buying home test kits for the elements that were down so I could dial it in better which I think was a good idea to fine tune anything you dose being able to test it on a daily basis to dial in its addition needs.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

In general I trust water changes for this. ICP tests are helpful to check up on it. This u.s. one reason I prefer a calcium reactor over dosing.