What are you dosing? Sps keepers.

[penfold2]

I notice that my BRS KW seems to keep the mag up.

Kalkwasser is just calcium hydroxide. There's no magnesium in it.

 

[EliMelly]

Meh… it’s just a number lol.. I’m 48 going on 70

I’m 23

 

[EliMelly]

Awesome thread by the way a lot to learn here.

 

[Koty]

Is there a benefit to dose A and K. Aren't those same elements in AFR. I just use All for reef to dose A and K and the calcium and alkalinity components

No idea about how much A & K are in AFR. I use Balling 3 part and use much less than recommended. And it’s still enough to take care of my Corals Chaeto (and algea?)

 

[Troylee]

Idk I figure between the water and all for reef trace gets replenished

That’s where I’m at! Plus foods and nori add them also! How much of what idk haha! I’ve never seen a reason to send in a icp but maybe I will one of these days.

 

[Troylee]

now you have me wondering. I'd be curious if you could use this same method without the water changes and have equal success? curious what KW you're using as I see you're manually adding magnesium? I notice that my BRS KW seems to keep the mag up. I figured this out when I stopped doing KW for a while and all of a sudden I had to start dosing Mag because it tanked. Put the KW back online and it's been stable since.

Also, what size tank do you have an how much of AFR are you using? I'd assume KW is doing most of the work with the AFR for adjustments?

That doesn’t make any sense.. mag isn’t stable in kalk and Randy had busted that myth and brightwells for thier kalk+2

 

[Formulator]

2-part balling, Neonitro for nitrate upkeep, moonshiners for trace, sodium silicate for my sponges and linckia. No water changes in over a year.

When I feel like it or if my nutrients are too low for comfort I will dose Red Sea AB+ and live phyto for a while.

 

[Troylee]

That doesn’t make any sense.. mag isn’t stable in kalk and Randy had busted that myth and brightwells for thier kalk+2

 

[Troylee]

2-part balling, Neonitro for nitrate upkeep, moonshiners for trace, sodium silicate for my sponges and linckia. No water changes in over a year.

When I feel like it or if my nutrients are too low for comfort I will dose Red Sea AB+ and live phyto for a while.

Nice looking tank! What are you finding you need to dose in the moonshiner line? What’s the major ones you always gotta use I should say.

 

[wickedxreef]

Nice looking tank! What are you finding you need to dose in the moonshiner line? What’s the major ones you always gotta use I should say.

Incase you're curious, here is what I'm dosing on my 220 waterbox for moonshine. you can see how daily this adds up. Note: I split up the corrections over the month now vs correction done in a few days time. feel the tank responds better.

 

[Formulator]

Nice looking tank! What are you finding you need to dose in the moonshiner line? What’s the major ones you always gotta use I should say.

Thanks man! I go pretty much by Randy’s list of trace elements actually backed by experimental evidence for the reef moonshiners. My daily’s are manganese, iodine (seachem), cobalt, chromium, selenium, vanadium and iron. As a biochemist by day, I’ve taken it a bit further and measure more precisely than the dropper method - but otherwise have just followed the moonshiners guide and make ad hoc adjustments to other elements about every 3 months.

Here is that thread of Randy’s if you haven’t seen it: Randy’s List of Elements to Dose

 

[Troylee]

Incase you're curious, here is what I'm dosing on my 220 waterbox for moonshine. you can see how daily this adds up. Note: I split up the corrections over the month now vs correction done in a few days time. feel the tank responds better.

Sheesh that’s a lot! Huh…. I just use all for reef and dose a couple drops of lugols daily cause I see everyone’s iodine always low. Back in the day I did strotium but don’t know why! We didn’t have icp or anyway to test them lol.:

 

[Bohemian Waxwing]

Huh… didn’t know I couldn’t have a nice tank unless I used the shine.. I mean I think my tank looks pretty good considering I don’t use it nor do I icp test. I really wanna know how it’s gonna better my tank if I used it! .

pfft

you should...should see my birdsnest... :(

 

[wickedxreef]

Sheesh that’s a lot! Huh…. I just use all for reef and dose a couple drops of lugols daily cause I see everyone’s iodine always low. Back in the day I did strotium but don’t know why! We didn’t have icp or anyway to test them lol.:

I believe iodine doesn’t stay in solution long. I seem to remember reading that somewhere that it depletes/falls out of solution quickly.

 

[Troylee]

I believe iodine doesn’t stay in solution long. I seem to remember reading that somewhere that it depletes/falls out of solution quickly.

It’s very possible! I look at people’s icp test and the most common thing I see is low iodine so I do a couple drops a day.

 

[areefer01]

It’s very possible! I look at people’s icp test and the most common thing I see is low iodine so I do a couple drops a day.

Here is my iodine from the various ICP tests I have done over time. Per my ICP test using Fiji water it came back at 78.71. Not a smooth trend line at all and I can't really say why it varies like it does. Oh well.

My results from April 9th are more inline with oceanic results at 77.17.

 

[djkms]

Sodium Hydroxide
Calcium Chloride
Magnesium
Propylene glycol - nutrient control
Ammonium bicarbonate
Captiv8 for trace elements (much like Moonshiners but almost all if not all the elements are 10x stronger and meant for larger systems and you can mix almost all the elements together to dose, RM elements cannot be mixed together)

Why do I dose individual elements? I like to tinker and this scratches the itch. I also feel that the colors of my corals are richer with this system. I have a buddy who lives down the street and we have much of the same corals and he just doses 2 part. comparing his corals to mine I feel mine are richer, more vibrant in color. I do tend to deal with corals turning more green then he does though but his system is over 5 years old, my current 600 is just shy of 1.5 years old.

 

[Troylee]

Here is my iodine from the various ICP tests I have done over time. Per my ICP test using Fiji water it came back at 78.71. Not a smooth trend line at all and I can't really say why it varies like it does. Oh well.

My results from April 9th are more inline with oceanic results at 77.17.

Are you dosing it or just water changes?

 

[Troylee]

Sodium Hydroxide
Calcium Chloride
Magnesium
Propylene glycol - nutrient control
Ammonium bicarbonate
Captiv8 for trace elements (much like Moonshiners but almost all if not all the elements are 10x stronger and meant for larger systems and you can mix almost all the elements together to dose, RM elements cannot be mixed together)

Why do I dose individual elements? I like to tinker and this scratches the itch. I also feel that the colors of my corals are richer with this system. I have a buddy who lives down the street and we have much of the same corals and he just doses 2 part. comparing his corals to mine I feel mine are richer, more vibrant in color. I do tend to deal with corals turning more green then he does though but his system is over 5 years old, my current 600 is just shy of 1.5 years old.

Pg huh?!? Never heard that one! I’ll have to read your thread! I know that’s what’s in my vape juice!

 

[areefer01]

Are you dosing it or just water changes?

I had a few ICP results saying it was low and recommended that I add it. I did a couple of times but if truth be told I'm not sure if it matters or not. A bit of a mixed bag of who says yes or no or maybe. Tropic Marin, Hans-Werner, talks about it a bit in the post below. RHF also is in the thread providing his input. A decent thread.

Long and short of it is that I did add some a couple of time but let AFR manage it to be honest. I do not do consistent ICP tests but try every 3 or 4 months. I buy them on sale and stash them away. Always the same vendor so assuming their testing protocols are followed, and sounds, I trust the results for the value.

Honestly I wish I knew why a number changes up or down without anything major happening in the display. Is it a burst of coral grow? Algae? Water change? No idea.

Oh - you asked about water changes. I try and do them every 2 to 3 weeks but I'm not really a huge fan of it since I'm lugging buckets around. I am also not a fan of the waste water it creates. We are both near enough to each other to know about the drought cycles. Anyway this ICP is my baseline as I'm going to go three months without a water change and compare results. I'm curious how the values compare just using AFR to manage water chemistry and ESV transition elements.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a...g-up-with-trace-elements.899260/post-10018295