Salt Mix Brand and supplements

[scunfcu]

I have zoos, ric mushrooms and candy cane frags in my reef only tank. New to reefing. What is good salt mix brand? Do I need to add supplements often to buffer PH, major/minor trace elements or does my salt mix already supply them. I am using Instant Ocean. No hard coral in my tank.

 

[Deanos]

Instant Ocean is a good salt mix brand. For advice on supplements, read this thread.

 

[scunfcu]

Thanks, I will stick to Instant Ocean and checking water parameters. Have you had to add any supplements to your reef tank? There are so much products out there. I started a 12G Nano cube, 10 lbs of live rock, 20 lbs of Caribsea live sand with just zoos, ric mushrooms and candy cane. Concern that candy cane may be absorbing more trace elements than my Instant Ocean mix can supply.

 

[scumonkey]

make your own supps!
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php#4

 

[scunfcu]

Thanks for the suggest, but I would prefer to just look for a dosing solutions. I want to make sure that my corals will be healthy. They should be feeding from lighting and marine snow.

 

[Deanos]

Concern that candy cane may be absorbing more trace elements than my Instant Ocean mix can supply.

Should I assume you didn't read the 2nd article in that thread which addresses the need to dose trace elements? :scratch:

Dean

p.s. 2 scu members in one thread :division:

 

[scunfcu]

Dean,

Thanks, I skim throught it. I brought Kent Marine Nano supplement A/B. Hope this would be suffice.

 

[basiab]

I have a 10 gallon with mostly mushrooms and 2 candy canes and I do not supplement. The candy canes divide every once and a while. Maybe if I did supplement they would do it more often. But mine are nice and plump so I think they are healthy. As far as the mushrooms it seems that some type split easily and others just never do, at least in my environment.

 

[meschaefer]

As a general rule, I don't supplment anything I can not test for. With a small aquarium like you have, you are much better off doing regular water changes for most of your aquariums needs.

With testing, you may find that you need to dose clacium and alkalinity, even in a softy tank this willbe consumed as corraline algae starts to grow. If you want an off the shelf product to do this, I would go with b-ionic two part. While the Kent product you are using will handle calcium and alakalinity, it boasts that it adds other minor and major trace elements. What these are I don't know, and that is a problem.

Futhermore, you should not dose such products without frequent testing, to make sure you are replacing only what you need.