coarl propagation??? HELP

[King Triton]

I am just wondering if any one has suggestions for incressing the propagation of my coarls.I have a good stable tank been running over 5yrs on this one use only ro water nitrates in tank are between 0 and 5 ppm i use kents kalk to buffer ph which is at 8.1 I have metal halide 400 watt and coarllife florecents yet they just dont seem to spreed the coarls I do have are looking healthy I feed kents coarl vite and kents phytoplex.I was told to add idodine to water what does this help if anything and wont it discolor my tank?Any better supplements than kents out there?My local fish store sucks I order off the net because his tanks look unhealthy and he dosent seem to be on my page as far as takeing care of a marine tank he once told me I should just mix salt with tap water and add it to tank.I live in the city which would meen adding clorine and floride also.this is why I am lookig for help elseware.Anyone have suggestions.

[Ninong]

You wouldn't be adding chlorine (or chloramine) to the tank if you used a salt mix that includes a dechlorinator/declhoraminator. In fact, Instant Ocean, the largest selling salt mix, tells you right on the bag that it is based on using ordinary tapwater. I wouldn't but that's what they have always suggested. They also suggest NOT using Instant Ocean for reef tanks but their customers have ignored that advice for years. They recommend Reef Crystals for reef tanks and Instant Ocean just for fish-only tanks. There are one or two brands of salt mix that do NOT include a dechlorinator.

Chlorine (or chloramine) could be the least of your worries with tapwater. You have no way of knowing what else could be in there and no way of knowing if and when they might decide to "add something" to clear the pipes, which many water districts do once a year or so. Most tapwater is safe most of the time but that's a big risk because even if you get a copy of the federally mandated biannual water analysis report from your local water district you still have no way of knowing what the water will be like when you turn on the tap. And the levels of contaminants that are considered safe for human consumption could kill invertebrates. It's highly unlikely that your tapwater will contain dangerous levels of copper but the federal guidelines do allow levels of copper that would be leathal in a reef tank. They wouldn't harm us and they wouldn't harm fish but they could kill many inverts.

You shouldn't add anything, especially something as toxic as iodine, to your tank unless you know for certain that your tankwater is deficient in that element. Natural seawater concentration of iodine (all forms) is 0.06 ppm. If your iodine levels are below 0.06 ppm, then you should consider supplementing iodine. Chances are your iodine levels are above 0.06 ppm even if you have never dosed iodine. There is a lot of iodine in the foods we feed.

You should maintain normal water parameters. How you do that is up to you. As long as you are maintaining your calcium between 425-475 ppm, your alkalinity between 8-14 dKH, your magnesium near 1300 ppm, your pH between 8.0-8.4, and performing occasional water changes, you don't need to add anything else. If you drip limewater (Kalkwasser) to maintain calcium and alkalinity, you may need to dose magnesium from time to time. If you use a calcium reactor (especially if you include about 10% dolomite with the aragonite media), then you probably won't have to dose magnesium.

Whether you feed your corals, and what you feed them, depends on what you have.

[scubadude]

Hey Triton
What are your goals for coral propagation? What species are you interested in propagating? I would seriously consider adding a prop tank/area to your system if you dont have one already, it can be real simple and cheap depending on your system how its setup....got pics?