Chemicals...

[Mickey13]

Right now I am running a 75g while I work on setting up my 150g. It's a fish with LR & dsb tank. Half of my LR (>50 lbs) is around 2 years old covered in coralline and other types of algae. The rest of my LR (~40 lbs) looks natural, basically coral skeleton.

I'm not running a sump, but I do have a HOB with built in skimmer stuffed with course and fine mechanical filters, bio-max rings and matrix. I also have a cluster of mangroves planted and a ball of chaeto floating around.

Typically my nh3 and no2 are 0. My no3 like almost everyone else is a battle.

Anyway, a lot of the local aquarist use chemicals like chemipure or purigen. I was at one fellows house looking over his very impressive tank and he asked me what chemicals I used where I replied none except prime when I add a new fish or maybe I overfeed and he gave me a look like I was crazy and told me to start using chemipure etc.

Am I mistaken that using these chemicals would starve the BB or am I missing something?

[75mixedreef]

Some people think highly of themselves when they add a bunch of complicated sounding chemicals to their tank and they think they know what they are doing with it. You can feel like a chemist. The only chemicals I add are Alk, Cal, and Mag. Obviously other than salt, water and food.

Mine is a reef tank too. Fish only tanks are usually not as concerned about the chemicals they are adding to maintain a pristine system. As long as you are doing water changes, then your tank should be getting all the chemicals it needs from the salt. No need to dose anything unless your nitrates are really an issue, but even then more water changes and moderating feedings would do the trick.

[Mickey13]

Thanks. Just wondering if I was really not understand something at this point. I plan to eventually have a reef, but I'm not there yet. I get the idea behind dosing but I sense a distinction between dosing needed elements and removing harmful or unwanted nutrients.

[75mixedreef]

The chemipure and purigen are nutrient removal tools. The chemipure renders the nitrates and/or phosphates inert so they are undetectable and do not react with your system. The purigen absorbs the nutrients like a sponge and you remove them from the system when you pull the purigen pad.

This is different compared to other dosing. People will do things like vodka dosing, and chemicals to run zero nutrient systems. That is basically something that encourages bacteria blooms so that the skimmer can pull those nutrients out.

Typical dosing is the main parameters that people talk about in their tanks. Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium. Without corals, there is rarely a need to touch these. The rule of thumb, though, is to never dose anything you are not testing for. It is safer to do more water changes with quality reef salt. Sometimes you can get signs that Mag is low and it is fine to add a little, but the danger is that you are adding too much without checking.

If you want a reef tank then just add corals. Start with something easy that won't take over. That way you can ease into it. Double check what you are adding though. You don't want to go too difficult or add any weeds that you can't get rid of later. I made that mistake with mushrooms and still have them to this day even with multiple attempts to eradicate them.