Yes, I tested mag and cal after making a fresh batch when setting up my new tank. Not accurate in the least. When dosing, you can gauge the exact amount to dose or very close to it because it goes in separately...not mixed in with salt.

oh ok i got ya makes sense:):) crazy that your house is so dry with that much moisture

a lot :sad:

Delphinus, don't get me wrong, I completely agree. I am not against water changes in fact I see some tanks that have a bioload which screams weekly water changes. In a system where bio-waste is kept at a low, water changes can become substantially less frequent to a a point where...cough...months are acceptable. Now people here can cling to minute trace elements all they want (most of whom don't even have a clue on what any of them do) and argue semantics but I think I made my case, even with the trolls coming in here to derail the thread.

Keep bioload low, run excessive mechanical filtration, dose and monitor. Simple.

And sorry Sphelps if I was being a douche, I felt douchery coming from you so I countered. No hard feelings.

for those still arguing thier sides to this debate here is my 2 cents and you can quote me on this ...who cares.... lol. the best way to solve this dilema of who is right and who is wrong is a duel to the death.. first person with a major tank crash loses. you have al said your opinion everyone has seen both sides and will still do what teh heck they want so there is no point. it may nothappen today it may not happen for 5 years. but whom ever is wrong will suffer huge losses. and will have no one to blame but themselves. there is no point in having a my tank is bigger than your tank conversation. when in essence no matter how long we are doing this hobby we all make mistakes with our ideas and ideals. noone is getting hurt here other that the OP whom asked a simple question and gets drama over tank envy or plain stubborness... that is all happy reeefing :)

and grizz i think ppl needmore cute puppy pics to calmthier nerves lol

Unfortunately the first tank crash would come from my side since my position requires a low bioload and everybody overfills their tank with pretty fishies. It also requires monitoring. It is like the anti-zeovit but with with all the -paying attention- still there.

I already said u can search what's in your choice of salt (and its not just calc alk) so im not just "arbitrarily adding a indeterminable amount"

make a batch and test it. And I am not talking about that 50 dollar a bag Louis Vuitton or whatever designer salt. I am talking Kent or instant ocean, the garden variety stuff. The ingredients are not accurate. If they can't even get the cal or mag correct, how is those miniscual trace elements going to be at all correct.

But wait, you can't even test those miniscule trace elements accurately unless you are a hydro electric damn or a reservoir. So it is moot. Cal, mag, and the biggies you can, but aquarium unobtanium which helps in hypothetical this and that, good luck.... to put it as bluntly as possible. Your salt mix dosing is not better then my bottle dosing. End of story.

Hmmmm after re-reading on non-conservative elements I can see why you are confused, i have used the term 'non-conservative' incorrectly . Thinking about it a bit more, I should have said that I dose everything you would expect to be replaced when doing a water change with a high quality salt, or at least I think I am :). I test for Ca, dKh and Phosphates monthly but have my dosers/GFO dialed in pretty closely so find my levels don't drift too much (I also periodically test for nitrate, Mg and just got an Fe tester more because I am curious than concerned). I also watch for color changes in some of my corals as indicators for some of my supplement requirements (specifically B, Fe and K). For elements I dose K, Fe, I, dKh, Ca, Mg, Boron, Sr and trace. I have also been tinkering with BA Elemental (I think it is the same as Purple Up under a different brand) to see about increased seeding rates for LR with coralline as well. On a side note, to my surprise my recent addition of boron supplementation has actually made a difference (IMO), although I am on a DIY dKh recipe which is boron free, so that may explain why. Thanks for pointing that out :).


FragIt Dan

That's weird cuz I use io reef crystals and the few times iv tested my water it was fairly accurate give or take a little and i don't have to dose trace elements because there in the salt and my w/c helps reduce what buildups there may be from the elements that don't get used up as fast which is all we've been saying "end of story"