Whats the deal with trace elements?

[Djbetterly]

I picked up a duncan polyp frag today with about 9 heads on it, looks quite nice actually. When I read about it on liveaquaria it mentioned that duncans benefit from trace elements. Is this something I should consider? Or do you think well balanced water will do just fine? If I should consider dosing with trace elements, what do you recommend? When I googled it a lot of options came up.

I've attached a few pics of the other frags I have. Forgive the quality, I took them with my iphone.

 

[rbtwo4]

personally i think its just overpriced water. as long as ur water conditions are good u shouldnt have any issues.

 

[howze01]

+1. Unless you're running a very coral-heavy setup, regualr waterchanges should supply all the trace you need.

 

[jcdeng]

Just tested my waters after a week since my last WC, cal is at 500 and alk is 8.4, so I would think weekly or even bi-weekly water change will pretty much cover it. I use IO reef crystals.

 

[albano]

Whats the deal with trace elements?

didn't Seinfeld do a 'bit' on this?

 

[Djbetterly]

I kind of figured it would be fine without it, but I thought it was worth checking into. I use ESV salts and every time I do a water change I test the DT water and the new water going in to make sure I compensate accordingly. My tank is just over three months old so I'm doing five gallon water changes every week as of right now.

Thank you for the feedback!

 

[rbtwo4]

5 gal water change on a 34? thats a bit low. i do 15g on my 30. but thats just me. how do u like tha AI's?

 

[Djbetterly]

I have a 34G Solana. Most of the details are in my signature.

 

[LongIslandAndy]

If you check the amounts of trace elements in natural sea water they are minuscule. In my opinion we add a lot of stuff to our tanks that aren't really necessary. Doing regular water changes replaces the trace elements.( at least every 2 weeks)