Supplements

About how many times should I supplement my corals with calcium, iodine, etc.? Should I do it weekly, daily, monthly? I'm still new to corals so I'm a little unsure

 

You don't want to dose anything that you can't test for. If you din't have an iodine test kit, I wouldn't dose iodine. You should be fine with your iodine levels if you do bi-weekly or monthly water changes. For calcium you want to test it, and then dose as needed. A good level to shoot for is 380-450 with the higher end being better IMO. I keep mine at about 435, Mag at 1350 and 10-11 DKH.

 

+1. Yes you want to stay away from iodine dosing. You have a sm. tank and you can quickly overdose it. I would only worry about dosing when some corals start to become established. It is expensive and not needed until you get some sps growing. JM2C

 

Yeah I don't have a kit for iodine but I do for calcium. I'm also missing magnesium, but don't weekly water changes basically replenish the supplements? (or so I heard). I use Instant Ocean.

 

Do you have an ALK test kit? With your light bio-load and smaller tank size, you will be ok for a while with just water changes every 2 weeks IMO. Once you have a little growth on the LPS you may want to make sure your CAL, MAG and ALK are spot on. I would make sure you have all 3 test kits and see where the levels are. IO salt is good IMO but I prefer IO Reef Crystals. More MAG and CAL in RC

 

Yeah I'm about to order it since I thought I was going to just have a FOWLR, but now I'm working toward a reef tank and just have a few corals right now

 

Mag is often around 1100 in most salt mixes. 1350 to 1500 seems to keep Ca and Alk steadier.

 

I would use Red Sea Coral Pro instead of Reef Crystals. More Mag in the mix.

 

Ok thanks guys; I'll probably get the stuff during the week

 

By the way can i ask one more thing? How often should I check my levels? I'm thinking that weekly would be pretty good and then just dose when I have to, right?