Introduction to Additives

As the aquariums we maintain start to contain more and more diverse animal life, the need for even more complete additives becomes more of a necessity, and the make-up of these additives has to be geared specifically to these new type of aquariums in order to satisfy the requirements of all the animal life we now keep. So we are in reality dealing with two major variables: specificity and accurate amounts of all required elements.

I put this in the plural sense, giving the impression that we need more than one additive. This was certainly the case up to a little while ago when it was not unusual for us to add 5 or 6 or more different additives to our aquariums. As we shall see later, we can greatly reduce the amount of additives needed if we follow a good plan and buy high quality products/additives. Mind you there may still be occasions where you will want to buy separate additives if they happen to be required but cannot be mixed with the complete additive we are talking about here.

As implied in the "Introduction" we are looking for an additive that contains "many more" elements that the additives we used in the past. Also, we are looking to cut down on the number of additives we are using, and we are, in addition to that, looking for additives that contain the kind of chemical compounds that the greater variety of animals we now maintain, require. The latter, in itself, represents a major change from what was done in older type aquariums. That is not all though.

Because many modern reef systems are set up using newer and much more powerful protein skimmers the additive(s) used will be removed faster than used to be the case before. Filtration has changed a great deal and will keep changing as more progress is made. The impact of such methods on the availability of additives needs to be taken into account as well.

In addition what is important to consider is how bio available the components of such an additive are. Are they inorganic (low uptake), chelated (quite higher uptake), or are they colloidal (over 90 percent uptake versus 42-45 for chelated and 10-12 for inorganic).

This brings about the need to either have additives that will remain in the water for longer, or to adjust the dosages we use so that all required elements are present on a continuous basis in the aquarium water and remain present in the same type of concentrations as they are needed (both in terms of quantity and as a percentage of each other).

Note that many hobbyists still maintain systems operating that use older methods of filtration. There is, of course, nothing wrong with doing so. These hobbyists may very well be extremely satisfied with the additives they are using and t here may be no need at all for them to change their practices.

This document addresses itself to those of you who either are already running more modern systems or wish to do so. With modern systems I particularly refer to Berlin Type tanks, Live Sand Filtration tanks, and/or combinations of these two methods. Those running other systems can, of course, practice this approach as well. They are by no means excluded. The more complete and the more specific the additive the greater the benefit derived from adding it to the tank. The only difference between the two filtration methods would be a matter of quantity added, as in older type systems with lower efficiency skimmers, not as many of the elements may be depleted, and thus would not require the same amount of replenishment.

The more complete such an additive is the better results we will, obviously, obtain when using it. "Complete additives", in the sense meant here, are not commonly available. In fact, at this stage, there are really only two on the market: Combisan and Liquid Gold Pro. Other additives exist, of course, but none come close to the completeness of the two mentioned. I strongly suggest that you use one of those two. The both are very complete in their make up and what they supply the animals with.

Combisan was developed by Peter Wilkens and Vital Gold by Albert Thiel, both quite well known in the hobby. Both have written several books on the subject of reef tanks in addition to developing products. Julian Sprung markets many of Peter Wilkens' products in the USA through his business called "Two Little Fishes".

The main difference between the two products is that the first one contains iodine in a chelated form, whereas the second one does not. I personally prefer to add iodine separately, deciding on the dose myself, as I feel that this gives m e more control over how much iodine is my tank at all times and let's me be in charge, and make sure there is enough iodine available, especially since I may have more corals that require it than the developers of the other product had in mind when they decided on the dose of iodine to include in their product.

Would you not like that control yourself? I certainly do! I may have many more soft corals, for instance, that require a far greater amount of iodine than a is normally supplied. Adding it myself gives me total control over how much I put in and I can match the dosage with the amount needed, based on what my tank contains.

Both products contain a multitude of trace elements and organic nutrients as well as vitamins and other beneficial ingredients such as necessary amino acids. I do not know the exact composition of Combisan as it is not released to the public. I have or will (depending on when you read this) post the composition of Vital Gold in the Reefkeeping Tips Mailing list of our Web Site. If you have not seen it you can do a search on the message database and use the key word Vital Composition in our Mailing List Archive Search engine.

There is a major difference between the two though. The first one is meant to be dosed once a week, whereas the second one takes the approach that it is better to dose "more frequently", the reason for this is that foam fractionation (or protein skimming) may remove some of these necessary elements quite fast and that some of these elements may, therefore, be in short supply until a week has gone by and you re-add Combisan.

Given the limited choice of truly complete additives, my suggestion is that you try both for a while. A while in this case means several weeks in a row. After you have done so, decide for yourself which one of the two gives you the better results. Testing an additive is probably the best way for you to find out which one you have the best results with. It is sometimes suggested to make photos before you begin a test and several during the test and one at the end. You can then compare the look and appearance of the animals as you go through the test. Do so for both tests if you are going to use two different products, and run the test for 2 to 3 weeks to be sure that you are able to see results.

Keep in mind that other additives or supplements are necessary. They are covered in the next section. Using just a full additive is not enough. Your tank requires more than that.

A number of additional supplements or additives are necessary to maintain a healthy environment for corals and other animals alike. Let us take a look at these one by one and give you just a little input, based on my personal experience with them.

Kalkwasser or Limewater

We all know, or should, be aware of the fact that stony corals require calcium for growth and survival and to remain attached to their exoskeletons. The only safe way (at least this seems to be the consensus among hobbyists and experts alike) is to pro vide this added calcium amount by adding so-called Kalkwasser or Limewater.

Kalkwasser is, basically, and very simply a liquid mixture made up of calcium hydroxide and water. To prepare this mixture you should, preferably, use treated water (e.g. reverse osmosis, deionized or distilled). The powder should be added to that mixture to the point where the mixture is saturated. Saturation is achieved by adding sufficient amounts of calcium hydroxide and stirring the mixture gently to minimize the introduction of carbon dioxide which poses a problem. It is important that the calcium hydroxide you use is as pure as possible.

Indeed, when carbon dioxide is introduced, calcium carbonate is formed and the pH of the saturated Kalkwasser mixture (which should normally be around 12.3 to 12.4) will go down. Additionally calcium carbonate does "not" dissolve and does not contribute to an increase in available calcium for the corals. Stir the mixture gently. Powder will settle to the bottom and the clear liquid at the top is your actual Kalkwasser.

We recommend that you add 2 to 3 tsps of calcium hydroxide to each gallon of treated water you use to make Kalkwasser. Not all of this powder will dissolve because water gets saturated with calcium hydroxide and any excess powder will not dissolve. Note that cold water absorbs more calcium hydroxide than warm water does.

When you have prepared the mixture you are ready to use it on your aquarium and add it to its water. This is done in a particular manner. The liquid, which now is Kalkwasser, is not added to the tank "all at once". This is the wrong way to use Limewater. Indeed, it needs to be added slowly. The drip method is therefore preferred as opposed to adding large amounts of KW (Kalkwasser) to your tank at once. In fact, adding too much at once may create problems and may lead to a calcium fall out.

The drip method is easy to implement and is explained in other documents in the Library. We will not go into it in further detail here. Check other Kalkwasser related documents please to find out more details on how to set such a drip system up. Let me just point out that "all" evaporated water should be replaced with Kalkwasser, and that such should be done using the drip method. Not using the drip method will lead to pH variation problems that can become quite difficult to deal with. It can al so lead to alkalinity (dKH) problems can are not easily solved either. Stick with the drip method only. You will not regret it.

If you need more information on the need for Kalkwasser you can find other documents on this WEB site in the Library and in the Product Guide section that you may wish to consult.

Strontium

The need for Strontium has not been scientifically very established well. Strangely enough though, adding small amounts of strontium seems to benefit stony corals. Empiric evidence is there to support adding this supplement. Scientific evidence does no t seem to have caught up with the experiences of hobbyists.

This is not "unique" as hobbyists have discovered many techniques for propagating corals for instance. In fact, Steve Tyree, who is active on CompuServe's Fishnet forum sells small fragments of various corals with instructions on how to propagate them. These kind of experiments are unique in our hobby and you can certainly participate in them by sending Steve a message on CIS.

Tell him you read about it in the Thiel Aqua Tech WEB site ( http://www.athiel.com ) and explain that you would like to participate in the experiments. He will get back to you with more information. I believe he charges a nominal fee for the pieces. It "really" is nominal.

Strontium is present in both complete additives mentioned earlier. If your aquarium is really heavily populated with stony corals, I personally recommend that you add additional strontium chloride to the aquarium. The complete additives we mentioned co ntain supplements for the "average" load tank. If yours is populated more than average, additional supplementation is certainly worthwhile and will benefit your corals.

Iodine

An aquarium that contains many soft corals requires a great deal of iodine supplementation. This is, usually, added in the form of diluted potassium iodide. The more soft corals you have, the more iodine you will need to add. The addition of ext ra iodine is thus recommended especially if you use "Liquid Gold Pro" as your complete additive as this product does not contain iodine at all as explained earlier.

Some hobbyists add "Lugol's solution" to their tanks to increase iodine. This is a practice that, in my opinion, is to be discouraged as it is much too easy to overdose if you do so.

Some additives contain chelated iodine. My opinion about chelated products is that we know so little about chelators that I do not like using such products. We do not really know what kind of chelators are used in these products, and we do not k now either what happens to the chelators when they release the chemicals they are attached to. Until we know more about the chemical reactions that take place and what the various chelators' effect is on the animal life until I feel safe about recommendin g their use. Hopefully some research will be done in this areas an articles will be published. At this time very little is known about them.

Buffers

It is highly likely that you will need to add some buffering compounds from time to time. Indeed organic acids, decay, metabolism and catabolism will all lead to a gradual depletion of the buffer. Some of the compounds in the tank may help buffer the s ystem (especially if you run live sand Jaubert Type tanks) but this may not be sufficient.

Check your dKH from time to time and if the level goes below 7 dKH buffer your system with a complete buffer that contains: carbonates, borates and bicarbonates. Only a complete buffer containing all these elements will do the trick for you. Using less er quality products will not. Adding baking soda alone (sodium bicarbonate) will certainly not do it. Do not even attempt to use baking soda just by itself. The pH of your tank will only go down.

Complete buffers are available commercially from several excellent companies. Just make sure that they are complete.

Trace Elements

Trace elements are included in the complete additives we mentioned earlier. You can add trace elements separately but there is no need to do so since the complete additives that we recommended.

If you do run an older type system and do not use the type of complete additives mentioned, then you may wish to add trace elements separately.

Note though, and this is really important, that as newer more absorbable types of additives come on the market some of them may be better added separately. The Colloidal supplements fall into this category. Thiel Aqua Tech is bringing out some of these supplements in the near future and may have some available by the time you read this. I personally believe that this will be the next improvement in supplement quality and bioavailability to the animals.

Vitamins

The same remarks apply here as the ones listed for Trace Elements in the previous section. The only additional remark I would like to make is that any vitamin mix you use should be fresh. Vitamins deteriorate quickly under heat and light condit ions and many that are in the manufacturer to distributor to store circuit may, in fact, have lost a lot of their potency already. Keep this in mind when buying vitamins.

Borate Supplement

At times it may become necessary to buffer your tank's water (as we have seen under the heading Buffers). Borate is one of the elements that may need to be added to achieve a proper buffer balance and a stable pH.

In the Library there is an article on Raising the pH which you may wish to read. It explains the entire buffering process in great detail. Borate is added in small amounts only and needs to be diluted in hot water. It will not or hardly dissolve in cold water.

Instead of using the borate compound (sodium tetra borate hexahydrate) you may wish to use boric acid. The latter is more difficult to use though. The former is a lot simpler to add by the drip method and is a stabler form in terms of its buffering capacity.

Sodium Carbonate

Sodium carbonate is yet anther additive that can be used to influence the pH and the buffer in your aquarium. If used, it needs to be added in very small quantities at a time only. It will indeed raise your pH very rapidly.

Several additives may be necessary to make your reef tank move towards a water chemistry that is conducive to the keeping of both soft and hard stony corals. The same, of course, applies to the keeping of crustaceans and any other animal life you put i n the tank.

This document has given you an overview of the most important steps you should undertake and which of the additives are really important.

At times other elements or chemicals may need to be added to deal with special conditions in your aquarium. These are not part of the matter discussed here and are thus not covered. We have dealt only the major additives, the ones needed in all aquariu ms to ensure success and healthy animals.