esential elements

jnohs

jnohs

Member
does any 1 here dose a product like this. i figure if my water changes dont keep my calc,alk,mag up it probably does not keep up some of my other ions or minerals. so i was thinking of getting one of these products such as Kents "Essential Elements" and just dose half the recomended amount. I am all ready preforming this doseing regim with iodine. it says to add 10ml/50gallons/week and i am doing exactly half that.
 
islandcreation

islandcreation

Member
It would work if your were testing your parameters on a dailey basis to see how much essential elements your tank uses. The only thing is what happens when your CA is low and the rest is perfect or Alk is low etc.. You can't just use that product to raise it, otherwise everything gets raised.

Plus, since all salts read diffrent parameters. Wouldn't you need all of those essential elements individually to get it to the same parameters as your tank? Good luck
 
charlesr1958

charlesr1958

Active Member
Funny how they are called "essential", Other than calcium, magnesium and carbonates (alkalinity) I don't know of anything else that could be called "essential". Iodides for one has no known biological use that I know of other than algae sequestering it in relatively large amounts.
I believe you would be best served to simply test for the big three that I mentioned and supplement them as needed. You can buy them in bulk and save yourself a huge amount of money as well.

Chuck
 
lcstorc

lcstorc

Well-Known Member
I trust my salt for everything I don't test for particularly iodine. It is just way too easy to overdose iodine for me to mess with that one without tests.
I test for calc, alk, and mag and adjust as necessary but otherwise my every 2 or 3 week water changes keep my reef pretty happy.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
jnohs said:
...I am all ready preforming this doseing regim with iodine. it says to add 10ml/50gallons/week and i am doing exactly half that.
Click to expand...


What are your current water parameters and what makes you say the salt mix isn't "doing it" for you?

How ofter are you doing a WC and what percentage of total tank volume?

Are you testing for IODINE before dosing? I am running a tank that's VERY heavy in Xenia and still haven't needed to dose YET! The stuff is growing like MAD and all I do is water changes.

I'd look really hard at my salt mix and my technique before I added the complication and associated "Risk" to my Reef Tank. In my life I try to remove/reduce Risk every change I get.

:)
 
jnohs

jnohs

Member
thank you everyone for your replys. i do test for calc,alk,mag and dose acordingly. i dose iodine at half dose. I do weekly 10% water changes. I just figured that since the big 3 need to be dosed and water changes arnt enough to keep them up. i figured that there are other elements that corals use. there is no way that corals only use the big 3 for life. and if they use 10ppm/week and i am only replacing 10% then i am loosing 9ppm/week and sooner or later eigther i would need at least a 75% water change or dose the missing elements.
 
charlesr1958

charlesr1958

Active Member
"i figured that there are other elements that corals use. there is no way that corals only use the big 3 for life."

Its that kind of assumption that keeps a great many needless products on the market.

Chuck
 
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