[wayne sarah kernow]

Just got in an argument on another forum because I mentioned adding sugar to someone who asked:


I buy my water from my LSF - and after going there for months and having a disastrous start to marine tanks (i have had a clown, royal gramma and humbug die) i asked them to check my water for me - all is wlell with the water - iasked if there was anything i could add to the water to make it extra healthy?!?!? - he started by saying well you already add the buffer! to this i replied what do you mean! - I went to them to start my hobby and thought i was doing everything right i have now added a few spoonfuls of Tropic Marin triple buffer as suggested. Is there antyhing else i can do to my water that would be good for the fish/soft corals, recently added a uv filter - i want the best for my fish and would be greatful if anyone could suggest something i could do to give them the perfect water!

I said:

magnesium
plankton
calcium
iodine
sugar
amino acids
coral food

anyways I was told off for telling a newbie such a thing so can someone do a better job of explaining exactly pros and cons what sugar can/can't do...

simon please give us some wisdom

[Simon Garratt]

Well, not sure im the best person to ask but heres my take on the whole newbie advice thing.

Whenever i give advice to newbies i try to do 3 things.

1: Make them aware of the need to understand 'basic' water chemistry and the need for 'testing' over and above any other advice they are given, and deffinately over and above any recommendations for this and that addatives.
This goes a hell of a long way towards instilling a sense of responsibility for thier own successes and failyers rather than being too relyant on others for basic advice and fault diagnosis....By and large the vast majority of issues are easily avoided and solved if you can keep good, 'basic' water quality, or know how to adjust it.

2: Keep it simple...
There has always been 1 simple rule that ive tried to instill in any new reefkeepers i chat with. And that is...Get into the habit of understanding from the very start that a correctly stocked, and well designed system should run perfectly well on simple water changes and moderate feeding alone for at least the first year...Nothing more, nothing less. If you can run a system that way for the first year without issues, then your running the system right, and it will give you time to get to grips and tinker with more advanced principles. one of the biggest problems with this hobby is that there is so much information out there on so many different methods and so many quick fix products and potions that its all too easy to forget that at a basic level 'all reefs' run on a simple set of ground rules...Its only when we break/bend the rules, push the boundries or try starting off at a level that is beyond us that we come unstuck and force ourselves into running before we can walk...Imo, the best introduction anyone can ever have into reefkeeping is a simple no frills berlin system, coupled with slow stocking and regular testing.

3: Never add what you cant test for or dont understand..

That is a hard fast rule of reefkeeping. Adding anything that doesnt come in your salt already, just becouse people say you need it, or a person says that they use it is folly at the best of times.. Any addative/ chemical that is continuously added to your system over the long term will (unless it is 100% pharmacutical grade) always have impurities that can build up over time to harmfull levels unless you both test for it and understand it..Equally, adding something when you dont know whether your stock needs it is just as bad.


Out of the items you have stated I'd say the following..

magnesium (test and adjust if nessesery along with Calcium and Alkalinity...you cant/shouldnt make changes to one without knowing where the others are in relation..)

plankton (for a newbie, id honestly say to skip this untill the system is stocked to a degree that it is deemed worth while...Plankton is a nutrient source the same as any other food...If you add it to a system that doesnt have the stock (coral population/density) to take advantage of it, then you might as well be taking a poo in your tank...either way it will make your life a whole lot harder if its put in when not required or utilised effectively..)

calcium (as with magnesium)

iodine (in a new system, deffinately not imo....iodide levels in systems that have regular water changes and good feeding rarely if ever 'need' iodide levels boosted unless they are very well grown out systems that take up iodide at high assimilation rates. even those that use powerfull skimmers rarely suffer iodide depletion to levels that represent a danger to stock or hold it back....added unnesseserily, iodine can in fact have very detrimental affects if it builds up to high levels. It is one of those very powerfull family of elements that should never be taken lightly, and should never be added unless you 'know' through testing that its required.)

sugar (much the same as Iodine....it is a very powerfull addative that if used incorrectly can have very detrimental affects on a system if it boosts bacterial levels out of control....Much the same as the point i made in rule 2....think of it this way...for a great many years people have run extremely successfull reefs without the need to dose sugar..in fact in many cases, better reefs than those who 'do' dose it...so it begs the question...why recommend it to a newby if it simply makes things more complicated and isnt proven to be essential to any degree visible, when comparing 50 reefs that do use it, to 50 succesfull reefs that dont..?)

amino acids (same sort of thing again..In a new system that is not overgrown for its available water volume and food input, is it realy nessesery? or is it simply over complicating things for somone who through lack of experience at a visual level, wouldnt know whether it was working or not, or whether they were overdosing with insufficient assimilation going on to use up what they are adding...The same thing again with regards to the 50 tanks using and the the 50 tanks not.....Its never been proven to be an essential addative to any degree that proves a tank runs better in all situations, so its best avoided in the case of newbies as a blanket recommendation...

coral food (this one id say yes to within reason, ie add it if you know the feeding habits of the corals you have, ie match up the particle size etc shown on the bottle with the feeding preferances of the corals you have, and add at a dosage that is applicable to the number of corals you have)...


This might sound like ive shot you down in flames as well, but please dont take it that way...I applaud anyone who is willing to take time out to help others by offering advice. I think in general when giving advice to newbies, that you have to stick to the 'essentials' first, rather than the 'might help' things or advanced methods.

I think in general this is the only place your advice may have been misconstrude...but either way i dont see anything 'dangerouse' as such in your advice bar the slightly risky iodine bit..and i see no reason to shoot you down.


If you want to offer them some more advice that ive found to be pretty safe as far as newbies go when it comes to maintaining a tanks core perameters to a high standard, then please feel free to quote them this page from my website that was done with the collaboration of Andy Hipkiss some years ago, but is still accurate today as a basic guide to water management.

Basic Chemistry

And here is a link to info on iodine dosing that you may find quite interesting from a slightly more advanced angle.

Iodine in the reef aquarium


Regards

Si.

[sowenna]

A big thankyou Simon, after a few hicups a drop in calcium and a rise in dkh and a mior panick attack, we found your information on basic chemistry very valuable, and easy to understand. Have now tweaked a few things and are back on track. all the best Jackie and Paul