Additives For Corals?

[plantedbully]

I have my tank almost cycled. It is a 14g biocube. I was thinking about putting in mushrooms, button polyps, colony polyps, and maybe a leather coral.....all beginner stuff. The guy at the store told me that I'd have to add kent's part a and part b daily or the coral would die. another online website said to add that only once a week. what do people think about this? What do you all add to your nano's daily or weekly. He also was telling me that to feed the coral I'd have to feed some brine shrimp or micro-plankton daily to weekly is that correct???

 

[plantedbully]

I'm currenlty adding a SEA LAB NO 28 tab to the tank is that enough additives for my future corals or will I have to use the Kent's A & B additive.

 

[Lynden]

I do not add any additives to my tank (with softies, nems, and some colony polyps) and never will. Probably anything you add will be enough, but only add what you can test for; things have a habit of getting carried away in SW dosing.

 

[SkiFletch]

Agreed, only add what you test for. Never ever blindly add chemicals to your tank. If you're keeping hard corals, you'll NEED to keep track of calcium and alkalinity, and although not required, I'd also keep track of magnesium as proper concentrations there make your life easier. I've posted some good links on chemistry and additives in the realm of knowledge sticky atop the marine chit chat section, page 2 . Might wanna have a look through those if you're serious about hard corals and dosing

 

[steelhealr]

Corals don't need anything other than.....REGULAR WEEKLY WATER CHANGES. No other supplementation OTHER THAN CALCIUM/buffer is needed and ONLY AS INDICATED BY TESTING. As Ski said, do not add anything YOU DON'T TEST FOR. Now here is where my fellow reefers get on my case...it's too early for you to add corals. Take your time and give your system a little bit of time to settle in. Hitchhikers, cyano, hair algae usually show up early. It's a pain to take care of that stuff when you have corals in there, even if mushrooms and polyps are hardy. SH