What additives?

[fishiefishie]

I was told I would need to add Trace Minerals (got a bottle by Seacham) to my tank, 1-2x a week. Since I have soft corals only, is there any thing else I will need to add? Iodine? Calcium? Strontium?
Thanks!

[fsn77]

If you only have soft corals and are performing water changes as part of a routine (weekly or every other week) maintenance schedule, there's little reason to be adding any sort of trace elements, iodine, calcium, strontium, etc. You may find yourself needing to add an alkalinity buffer if you determine that alkalinity falls out of range between water changes. Maybe calcium once in awhile, but if you are not keeping any calcifying corals, consumption in the tank should be relatively low and water changes with a good salt mix can normally keep up with those demands. Testing for those regularly will help you determine what is needed.

Generally, if you're not testing for it, it's not a good practice to dose your tank with it. There's not a single test for trace elements and to try and test for many of them is a bit out of the hobby realm. Even so, trace elements are just that -- suppose to be around in trace amounts, which is why water changes are sufficient for maintaining them properly in the majority of cases. The exception would be for tanks heavily stocked with corals. Those may benefit from trace element additions since the potential for consumption is higher. Even then, larger or more frequent water changes can keep up with demand. Otherwise, I'd still dose conservatively while figuring out how much is needed to be beneficial.

[fishiefishie]

Oh, ok, then. Well I may just not mess with adding anything until I see how they do without it. If I start having issues of course I'll come here for some help. :)
Thanks!