Trace elements a waste?

[Kit Walker]

I have a tank with with live rock and anenomes plus the fish. Since setting up the tank I never added any additives other than regular water changes. My anenomes have split and I noticed one of the corals on the live rock has more than doubled in size. Due to the growth of the coral I thought maybe it will need trace elements in order to flourish, plus I plan on buying some corals. However, within minutes of adding Seachem Reef Plus I noticed my protein skimmer extracting more than usual almost half filling it's collection cup!

This led me to believe the skimmer was extracting all the elements I just added? Should I turn the skimmer off after adding trace elements? Or are the trace elements a waste of money?

Thanks in advance.

[Joey D]

Hey kit, I know i'm just a junior member but listen to this. Trace elements, from what i've been told just give the water more of it's natural ingredients, ya know, more of what your creatures would have in the wild, so i wouldn't get rid of them. The type i use is a white block that says No28 on it and when you put it in your tank it dissolves like alka seltzer over the course of about a week, slowly adding elements and dissolving as needed. I have read that when adding anemone food or plankton that it is a good idea to turn the skimmer off for about 4 hours. Check out peteducation.com, that site has sooo much info. Once you get there, click on the fish link, then follow the links to where you need to go. Another good site is drsfostersmith.com, these doctors will answer your questions via e-mail or you can call them, and they're pretty good about helping people out.
Good luck...

[Ray Pollett]

In my opinion, if you are doing regular water changes; trace elements are rarely a good idea. They can do a lot of damage if over doesed(SP?).

exception seems to be calcium if you have any heavy calcium users in the tank.

Ray