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additives and test kits

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alexk3954

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Before I buy my live rock I wanted to have my test kits and additives on hand.

I was planning on going w/ the saliferts, but was wandering which ones I should get.

Also what are some good additives to have on hand? I know calcium, but that about it. What are good brands for these products?

As money is a little scarce right now, so I only want to buy the additives that are necesary for live rock and the clean up crew ( snails, hermits, crabs...)
 
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jdeets

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Definitely Salifert test kits. Calcium and Alkalinity tests should be sufficient at this stage.
 
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alexk3954

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dont I need something for the invert cleaners? Iodine or something? Do I need to add any sort of trace elements?

will test strips be sufficiently accurate for nitrate nitrite ammonia ?

Should I bother getting phosphate tests?
 
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Anonymous

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alex, I wouldn't spend money on supplements in the beginning; if you do water changes regualary the critters you listed don't really need that much. Until your tank fully cycles and you start adding coral I wouldn't worry about it right now :D

As far as test kits go, I like saifert also but for the values you check during cycling (nitrate, nitrite and ammonia) you can really use a less expensive test kit, like Red Sea. The reason being that you are going to be testing for those a lot until things in your tank settle down

In the saifert tests I'd get Ph and Kh, as jdeets said. What kind of water are you going to be using? If it's RO; you shouldn't need a phospate test yet.

And no you don't need iodine yet for your clean up crew, not early on in the game. In fact too much iodine has been reported to fuel algae which is a bad thing LOL. The thing about additives is that IMO, and IMO only, for the average tank on startup you don't need to do a whole lot extra, except change the water and watch your Ph and calcium ranges once it's cycled.

If further down the line you get more 'advanced' corals that need supplementing, that's when you spend the money on that stuff AFTER you research just what it does for your tank.
 
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MartinE

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I would get test kits for Ph, Alk, Nitrate and nitrite at first (rock and clean up crew) Then calcium, phosphate when and if you add coral. No need for suppliments at first as regular water changes will suffice. If coral is your goal then when you add them soon you will need some two part additive like B-Ionic.
 
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alexk3954

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Ok so does this sound good for when I only have live rock and clean up crew?

Salifert- Ph, Kh

Red Sea- Nitrate, nitrite, ammonia

Are you sure no additives?
I will be using salt water from the lfs which is RO
 
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Anonymous

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That I can't answer as I never buy rock online as I prefer to get it locally. But I'm lucky here to have several good sources. The only reason I like local stuff is that I can SEE each piece and am sure about the quality.
 
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MartinE

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I know some people frown on FandS and I patronize my local LFS's as much as I can, but I have ordered the premium Fiji live rock from liveaquaria.com once and I was pleased with it. Nice shapes, lots of coraline algae and good stuff like small brittle stars, all kinds of pods, right to my door packaged well in a box with still wet newspaper.
 
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MartinE

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I ordered 22lbs I think. I did not get a lot of rubble at all 2 pretty big pieces like 8-9 inches and a few a little smaller.
 
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Anonymous

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alexk3954":12xbr3a5 said:
Ok so does this sound good for when I only have live rock and clean up crew?

Salifert- Ph, Kh

Red Sea- Nitrate, nitrite, ammonia

Are you sure no additives?
I will be using salt water from the lfs which is RO
Click to expand...

I would go ahead and get all Salifert from the start. No reason to test the tank every day during curing. Once a week would be fine. No additives untill you start adding corals. I liked the sea chem reef builder and reef advantage calcium.
 
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MartinE

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bleedingthought":228n6woe said:
How long for the re-curing of the liveaquaria rock, martin1042?
Click to expand...

Not to long at all, I think around two weeks, or less maybe. Its been a little while since I bought it.
 
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AstroCreep

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Have any of you used the Coral Vital?? "The reef life energizer"
says its supposed to speed up coralline algae...just wondering if it was good stuff or not
 
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Fulinn

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Hi,

I just ordered my live rock from liveAquira.com and was very pleased.

I got un-cured Carribean Rock...its covered in coreline algae. The pieces were nice sized. I had just one LARGE piece that I set my son on with a hammer, he broke it for into 4 small pieces.

there was some rubble in the bottom of the box but I saved it for my fuge/sump.

I'd recommend the LR, cycled my tank very nicely.

Bonnie
 
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