Trace Elements

[Turbo]

I have had my 10 gallon tank up for almost two months. Should I start thinking about trace elements? If so, which ones should I use?

 

Also, I would like to put some pictures up from off my hard drive. Can someone explain to me how to do that?

[Tempest]

Most trace elements are replenished to some degree by doing weekly 1-2 gallon water changes. The only things you may have to dose are calcium, magnesium, alkalinity buffer and a pH buffer. Do NOT add anything to your water without testing it first. Salifert makes great test kits for all of the above. IMO any test kit will do for pH though.

[JohnnyMTB]

Like Tempest said, you need to test your tank's trace elements to determine whether or not you need to dose. I like to keep the elements I supplement at or a little above natural salt water concentrations. Most test kits will tell you what these levels should be, along with most trace element supplements. Your rate of trace element use will be determined by the species in your tank.

 

As far as posting pictures, make sure neither the height or the width is more than 600 pixels, and compress the file to 100kb or less. I use the "Save to Web" feature in Photoshop, I'm sure there are other programs to compress pics, but I don't use them.

[zzpw3x]

Tempest - I thought the alk buffer was the pH buffer?

[Tempest]

zzpw3x - I could be getting my chemistry wrong, but I think that Alaklinity plays a role in pH, but is noty the ONLY factor. For example - you can have a high alkalinity (kh/dkh), but still have low pH if there is insufficient disolved oxygen or too much acidic by-product from decompostion (sp?) in the water.