[Bashiba]

I am a newbie who recently purchased a 75 gallon FOWLR setup and am converting to a reef tank. Yesterday I purchased some Very nice Live rock that came with lots of small corals and sponges growing on it. I haven't up until now been adding any sort of trace elements to the tank as all I had where fish and Live Rock. The guy at the LFS recommended These Trace element blocks. They are stamped Sea Lab #28 on the top. He claimed that they would disolve as needed and contain anything I would need to add. Anybody with any experience with these? I purchased a couple to try out. Or is there something better I should be using?
Thanks in Advance
Bashiba

[saltjunkie]

I do not think i would use it. Regular water changes, feeding and the addition of B- Ionic has kept my tank stable. But there are always more ways than one to do it right.
Rick

[ravenmore]

I really don't like additives other than calcium. Artificial salt mixes already have tons more of most elements than natural sea water, and fish/coral foods add even more. The problem is usually not too low level of elements, but rather too high.

[Starmstr]

Sea lab cubes are not bad at all. If and when I use them I am able to guage the disloution rates compared to the uptake of calcuim vrs the imput via reactor.

[Duncan]

Bashiba,
I have heard and seen the sea lab blocks throw levels in a system way out of whack. As suggested by a previous post, you would be better suited using regular water changes, and some kind of two part system to keep levels in check. Just my opinion. HTH.

Duncan.

[ravenmore]

Actually, if you use kalkwasser (aka lime water or calcium hydroxide), that's really all you need.

Kalk will adjust both your calcium levels and alkalinity via the hydroxide ions. If you have an exceptionally low bio-load you want to watch for ph swings (CO2 is required for converting the hydroxide ions to carbonate alkalinity - low, low bioload might not give you enough CO2...this is rare though). So Kalk provides a very economical way to maintain ionic balances in your tank. IMO, 99% of the time that's all you need to add to a tank.