what supplements would you use
 

I am thinking of a 33 gal with a few beginner corals.im planning on around 160 watts of compact flourescents with lr and a lsb.i dont want to add too many chemicals but i want my corals to grow and be healthy.so im planning on using kalkwasser,coral accel and phyto.I only want to add one more for trace elements.So what would be the best bet for the health of my system?Is there a good"multi-vitamin"?it seems that every bottle i read list four or five others that i should be adding as well.I plan on doing around 5-7 gallon water changes every two weeks.

I would do regular water changes only. Once you've determined with test kits that your Ca is depleting, then start using kalk as your topoff.

I gotta agree with Brad as usual :biggrin:
I have a 27gl with a 33 footprint that never had anything added to it other than new water for at least the first three years.
Water changes should replace everything that's being used up, that is until you have a half full thriving. Unless you plan on stocking it full within the first few months, stick with this advice as it's cheaper, easier, and of course healthier for you and your reef :biggrin:

Is that gonna cost me another frag?? :razz:

Uh yeah :razz:
You know which one too!
That special Island cap of yours would do just fine :mrgreen:

well my tank presently has various star and mushroom polyps and some anthelia that are not growing at all in fact they have slowly shrunk over the last 6 months and a large condy that is doing great gettin really big.My water quality is great and my baby copperband and fire fish are doing very good.So what am i doing wrong for the polyps?All i do now is phyto, coral excel and water changes levels are good calcium is 460.

Id do regular water changes(month or two) and drip Kalkwasser on a continuous basis for all evaporated water. Wouldnt add any of the other additives besides the Phyto.

I wouldn't even add the phyto, and make sure you're doing water changes. If your water quality really was good, your stuff would grow. What is your water change schedule? You say you plan on 5-7 gallons every two weeks, but the tak is 6 months old. So what have you been doing so far? The lighting is fine for what you have, so it should be growing. Ca consumption is pretty minimal for those corals also, so I'd watch how much kalk was used. Right now the Ca is more than fine.

Kalk and water changes. Supplements aren't always useful. Actually, I tried some and ended up killing things. Imagine a legless fireshrimp (after molting) due to the use of Calcium Buffer (and Other Essential Elements) Blocks. I've used Iron, various Calcium additives, etc. All junk or useless.

I disagree Brad. Its the bottom of the food chain, everything feeds from its addition. Mind you, I do add only small amounts cause it does cause problems if you go overboard, just like anything else.

Chris,
I think that Brad suggested just simple water changes to start out because this is going to be a new setup.
There's no reason to add phyto to a brand new system that doesn't have much stock yet. There's no need to feed those algae cycles with added food, especially for a beginner.

"Reefnut"
Are you transfering your current tank, to the 33, or are you starting a new system?

It's hard to tell if this is a new setup, or 6 months old. While I agree that phyto has it's place in the food chain, I found that when I used DT's, I got more build up of algae on the glass and my skimmer got dirtier. I didn't see any improvement over not using it, so therefore deduced that it was just dumping money away.
Of course there are as many people that swear by it as there are that swear at it, so I guess the best thing to do is get the tank established and try it both ways, then decide for yourself.

:cool: Im one that swears by it.

well i currently have a 48 that is 6 months old.My fish a healthy from what i can tell and i want to go to a bigger fowlr tank so i can have some real fish.I also want a smaller beginers reef tank that will be my new 33.I already have water substrate and a few pounds lr in it.I will soon ad a few pounds of sand from the 48 to the 33.Right now im testing for am.nitrite,nitrate,calcium and ph and sg of course.All these levels are good.those are test from my beginers test kit.What should be the next test kits i go for?Im trying to learn my way into this,take it one step at a time.

P.S. This site is great thanks for the advice.

I used it for 6 months and never bought anymore, actualy did better with out it. But I know people that swear by it so go figure.

Steve