questions about chemical additives

[dbacksrat]

i want to get maybe a couple of small inverts online--i was reading that they need things like iodine to help molting, and calcium to build shells---i'll have a 29 gallon and i'll be using instant ocean salt---the salt has everything i need right? chemical additives are only for larger reef aquariums where they are used frequently by corals and other inverts right? i just want to make sure i dont mess this up.....

 

[aresgod]

no, when you have such a small tank frequent water changes can affect suplements i still use them in both my 35 gal and my 90 gallon reef tanks, and my corals look great in both

 

[S.Reef]

What do you mean by small invertabrates. If they are small shrimp or crabs you wont reall yneed to add anything to the water, as long as you do partial water changes. If they are coral you should really be monitoring water quality, and you should know what additives, if any to add.

Sam Reef

 

[dbacksrat]

i mean mostly shrimp, small crabs, snails, and starfish

as for the monitoring of water quality, i would have to buy all sorts of other test kits, right?

 

[aresgod]

yes i was under the assumption you were keeping corals anemones ectt...

 

[dbacksrat]

oh no---i'm just a beginner, and i dont have the right lighting for those inverts (20 watts in a 29 gallon)

 

[wayne]

My shrimp is moulting and rebuilding just fine in Reef Crystals and previously did just as well in IO

 

[dbacksrat]

i'm using the basic instant ocean salt--will this work fine?

 

[wayne]

Yes, it did so for me.

 

[dbacksrat]

thanks wayne-you've been a huge help and you've saved me from unecesary spending

 

[wayne]

Leave the old shell/skeleton in the tank - let it be recycled into the tank.
As a note when I setup the 30 I had pretty good coralline growth. However when I added the T5's this died back quite a bit. At the time I assumed this was because of the extra light inhibiting coralline rather than a chemical lack.. However since I went to Reef Crystals I must say my coralline growth has exploded again. This leads me to think that I had run out of something in the water, and that 10% weekly wasn't replacing it adequately. The most obvious thing missing would be calcium, but I ought to test to find out. My number 2 'miissing element' would be strontium which apparently is important for coralline