additives

[vizia2]

Im getting a reef together (tank has been up for 3 months, now want to get corals, have 100lbs LR cureing for my 75 gal) and Ive been reading and looking at a lot of supplements that are out there, boy are the a lot, but what do I really need and witch ones would you recommend. I know I should get some iodine, and strontium, so Im going get some Kent products. Also I need a calcium buffer, this is where Im torn between B-Ionic or Kent Tech-CB, which one is better, Id rather go with Kent Tech-CB because it is easier to use, but if B-Ionic is much better then I will deal, so is one better then the other? That’s basically my main stuff. Also thinking of getting Kent essential elements for my fish, and Kent Micro Vert, is that stuff any good? says it feed inverts. You think I should get Kent Coral Accel, or Marc Weiss Reef Vital DNA any good?
Brake down:
*Kent Iodine
*Kent strontium
*B-Ionic or Kent Tech-CB
*Kent Essential elements
*Kent Micro Vert
*DT Photo
*Kent Coral Accel or Marc Weiss Reef Vital DNA
That every thing, I think. Am I missing any thing? Do I have too much stuff? Which is the better stuff.
Thanks for all in put

 

[broomer5]

vizia2
Here's my thoughts ...
I'm sure you've already thought about this, but I'll mention it anyway.
Looks like you have 8-10 fish in this 75 gallon tank ?
Some will remain small .. some will grow pretty large.
That's a lot of fish for a 75 reef tank in my opinion. It may appear okay now ... as a FO tank, but a reef tank with corals sometimes requires a little different stocking approach.
So now's the time to decide if you're going to keep them all, or remove some.
Once you place 100 lbs of live rock in this tank - you'll increase the hiding spaces, but decrease the available swimming space.
If it was my tank - I would first consider thinning out the fish population some ... before adding the live rock. It'll be tough to remove fish once the rock's in place.
Didn't mean to get off track from your original questions, just thought it was worth mentioning.
If you don't have these 8-10 fish in the 75 ..... then I must have misunderstood and I apologize.
In reply to your question - aside from having a calcium reactor, then a good alkalinity / calcium / pH maintenance program is essential. Some folks like to use separate calcium and alkalinity products, while others choose to use the balanced products.
I like ESV B-Ionics.
It works well, is balanced, and is probably one of easiest products to dose to maintain your tank's water chemistry.
I've never used Kent Tech CB ..... but I would imagine it's very similar. I believe both products contain other elements as well.
Aside from possibly dosing some phytoplankton occasionally, I would not use any other products ... providing I did monthly partial water changes.
Most good synthetic sea salts contain more than enough of the trace minerals and elements that corals need to survive.
That, plus the B-Ionics is all I use, and so far everything seems to be doing well.
If you do choose to dose any or all these other products - most would agree that you should be testing for them too. It's easy to overdose .. thinking you're doing the right thing for your tank creatures .. but in reality you may end up messing up your tankwater balance in the long run.
Good intentions sometimes lead to problems. Not always but sometimes.
Choosing to do regular water changes to replace depleted trace elements makes tankwater maintenance pretty simple. Less stuff going in the tank means less tests to perform, and reduces the chance of fouling the saltwater.
I choose to do water changes and feed the tank a variety of frozen and dry foods. An occasional dosage of DT from time to time to feed the corals and other micro fauna. This seems to work for me.
I'm sure other folks have other dosing routines they follow with equal or better success.
You're right ........ there sure are a lot of products out there to choose from.