Tropic Marin Bio-strontium

[jer77]

Has anyone every heard or tried this product. I was wondering which kind of strotium salt it is, and what else is in that contains CO2 for zooxanthellae as it says. If anyone has tried it what do you think of it?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Tropic Marin is notoriously poor at providing a description of what the additives are supposed to actually accomplish. Few people understand that BioCalcium provides alkalinity as well as calcium.

For BioStrontium the same confusion exists, but I take their description to mean that it provides strontium (probably chloride and possibly sulfate) as well as sodium bicarbonate (possibly carbonate). IMO, the alkalinity part of it is unnecessary and unimportant in a strontium additive.

http://www.tropic-marin.com/web/english/produkte/biostrontium.htm

FWIW, I do not generally think that there is good evidence to suggest that strontium is an important element to supplement. I neither test nor supplement it.

These articles have more:

Strontium and the Reef Aquarium
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2003/chem.htm

Magnesium and Strontium in Limewater
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2003/chem.htm

[jer77]

Is Bio-calcium not such a good supplement even being poor at doing what it describes?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It is a balanced calcium and alkalinity additive that needs to be added as dry particles to the aquarium. It should not be dissolved in a small amount of fresh or salt water, or else calcium carbonate may precipitate. Adding solids to the tank risks them landing on delicate organisms before they dissolve.

[jer77]

So its just like a 2-part additive in power form? Hmm. And the strontium is just like this too. It seems like you need to use a lot of it to to do the job. I've been using ocean's blend 2-part balanced additive. What do you think about this?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So its just like a 2-part additive in power form

Yes, that is correct. Probably the same for the strontium.

I do not know about the Ocean's blend brand of two part.