additives

[ferrybongo13]

:tub:With so many brands and types which are good and which are bad...they all claim to do different things or do it better then the other...right now i am using purple up(carib sea)and all in one..have used cycle,stress zyme,the list is endless...thought it would be a good topic to get some feed back on...thanks,Ben
Also marine snow,and all the other filter feeder foods.

 

[tosiek]

why stress zyme and cycle?

All you need to be adding is calc/alk in some form and if you are heavy on SPS mag. The rest should be taken care of through water changes. If you want iodine, iodion and stront if your salt is low in those but you should be testing. Anything else is in regards to dips and pest prevention. ESV is the best so far for addatives with minerals and parameters. Ive been using the biolab stuff and its descent.

Everything else is a waste to throw into the tank.

As far as for filter feeders, rods food is the best imo. people like marine snow though because stuff goes crazy for it. Any fresh food mix is great for the tank as a whole.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Do not add any supplement to your tank that you do not test for.

 

[ferrybongo13]

ok thanks

 

[Simon Garratt]

I think, the biggest key to additives is to look beyond the advertising. Allot of stuff out there tells you that you need to add it, but doesn't offer any form of information with regards to what it does in detail, nor how to test for it. Much as the guys have already said, generally I never dose anything other than what i can test for and only once i have found a definite need for it based on research to rule out any advertising jargon.

I always look at it this way...(lighting, filtration and food aside) its been proven time and time again that it is quite possible to have a stunning system with thriving corals on nothing more than good main core elemental supplementation (Alk,Mg,Ca) via whatever method you choose to supplement them, plain old regular water changes, and a sensible stocking regime. Anything else over and above this is in most cases purely speculative, and quite often the results of allot of additives are 'to put it mildly' open to extreme cases of placebo effect on behalf of the user...ie is that coral 'actually' growing better or is it assumed to be growing better because its now swimming in snake oil..:scratchch

regards

Simon.