Using Meds in the tank

[rnk9394]

Could someone help me with a question?
I new to the whole Saltwater thing, but is it common to use numerous Medications, Chemicals, etc? I've had FW tanks for many years and use little or no chemical additives to the water(except Declorinator during water changes) but it seems that in saltwater everyone is using something whether it's PH buffers, Calcium Adds, etc. Is that because the tanks are new or lack of maintenance or something else?
The books I read don't really go into Medications in great detail.
Thanks in advance for your input
Rick

 

[joker_ca]

you never want to med your main tank
many people use a QT to medicate fish, but you want to stay away from meds its always better not to medicate your fish less stress on them

 

[elfdoctors]

Medications to treat specific ailments should only used within a quarantine tank. Few successful marine aquarists use them in their display tanks.
Most of the additives that you refer to would better be classified as nutritional supplements. Some of these are replacing minerals that are used up in confined systems. Some are additives which seem to prevent disease or replace components of foods in a wild diet which are not easily reproducible in a home aquarium.
If you are not raising some of the harder corals, most mineral supplements are unnecessary. Any elements which would be used up will be replaced with foods and routine water changes.

 

[scotts]

I aint no expert but take it from someone who started out listening to the lfs about adding chemicals to the tank. If I had a problem there was a $20 bottle of something that would cure the problem. Then there was the $20 bottle of something to help keep the water clear and so on and so on. I have no idea of how much money I literally dumped into my tank. Then I found this site, learned about keeping a tank properly and stopped dumping the stuff into my tank. My problems went away and I stopped wasting money.
Well I guess I am a little jaded as you can tell.
Scott

 

[lion_crazz]

Let me clarify this for you a little, rnk9394.
pH buffers, calcium additives, etc. are not medications. These are things that you add to your tank whether the fish are 100% healthy or not. For instance, I use Oceanic salt for my water changes. The salt itself only makes my pH at 7.8 so I need to use Kent Super dKH buffer to help push my pH up to 8.3. This is something essential for the fish's health. It is not something correcting a problem (medication).
Calcium additives are needed when your calcium level is too low. If you are not keeping a reef tank, you will not need to worry about this. However, back to my tank. My Oceanic salt mix only makes my calcium level at about 300-350. Thus, I need to buffer my calcium a little bit in order to get it to 400 where it should be.
You should not need to add medications to your tank on a regular basis at all. The only time I have ever added a "medication" to my tank was when my engineer goby came down with ich. I had to dose Parasite Stop into my tank. However, this is not a true "medication". You really should never add a "medication" into your tank because most "medications" contain copper. Copper will kill live rock, inverts, and corals. This is why people will always tell you to never medicate your main tank. Parasite Stop does not contain any copper, and is perfectly safe for every creature in your tank.
Thus, you only need to add the things to your tank that level out the parameters of your water. If you calcium level is too low, you add calcium buffer. If your pH is too low, you add pH buffer. If your kH is too low, you add kH buffer. However, one thing that is VERY important is that you do not add any checmical or supplement into your tank that you do not test for unless it directly tells you that there is no way to overdose on it! Most things, like pH buffer, calcium, strontium, iodione, etc. is very easy to overdose, and if you are not testing the level on a frequent basis, you will most likely run into a problem.

 

[thomas712]

With regards to the meds:
Antibiotics are not always safe for inverts. Some can kill the zooxanthellae that live within the tissues of photosynthetic animals. Not a good thing to use on crabs, snails, corals, anemones or your sand bed.
Thomas

 

[rnk9394]

Thanks for the answers. And if I read them correctly, you do have ongoing things that need to be added(additives) to make sure that your tank's water have the right water parameters. And LR & LS will not entirely solve the additive issue.
Thanks again
Rick