Ok so I bought Pohls, and my zeo guy reccomended Coral Vitalizer and Bio Mate as well. Which is the best, and what are they analogous of - meaning - if I'm dosing Pohls, can I lay off on Reef Plus, or trace elements, etc?
Just make sure you dose each product one at a time so you can actually tell what's doing what.
I use all those products and here are my observations:
1. Xtra makes colors better. when i say better, I mean it can either bring out colors you never knew your coral had OR deepen certain shades. I don't know what it does for growth as I've almost always used it and have no metrics to actually quantify the rate of growth without.
2. Vitalizer is one hell of a drug... lol. What I've noticed is way better polyp extension. If you look at the green mille pictured earlier, you'll notice that it's actually orange... I preferred it that way... So all in all, this stuff can occasionally lead to undesired effects if your coral is nicer than its polyps, lol. I'd say that this is a minority effect though. In most instances, increased PE is way nicer.
3. Biomate is something I just started using. will have to report back on this one. I was told I'd have to clean my glass less, but its almost a moot point since I rarely have to clean my glass. I bought it hoping it might be able to help me with this algae problem. Again, too soon to tell, but I have my fingers crossed!!!
That hawkins and the purple coral below it are awesome! Is the first pick a pearlberry?
No doubt you have some good color. Can you tell us if the corals were like that before going into the tank? Did color stay the same or improve? What additives have you been using? Do you feel they have helped with color? Specifically what additives do you feel help the most? Please give us the details!! = ) And more pics! We love pics!!
LOL, believe it or not, none of those corals are lineaged. I purchased all of them as local frags and I think most of them were either from WC colonies or Bali/Indo Aquacultured. I've only recently started picking up things like Red Planet and the odd Tyree piece.
Most of my friends use KZ supplements, so the color change wasn't significant except in the case of that little blue monti with the red polyps. That thing came from a friend's Biocube

D) and was muddy brown for a long, long, long time. It was his kid's tank and when girls became more interesting than corals, the tank got the boot and I inherited the rejects, lol.
Right now, I'm using the following laundry list of additives: Coral vitalizer, xtra, b-balance, biomate, sponge power, amino acids and stylo-pocci glow. Of these, the xtra is the best product for sure.
One of the biggest caveats I'd like to mention is that the products are inherently unintuitive. You NEED to have good colors before they do anything. If you don't already have good colors, it means your system and animals aren't primed to take advantage of the supplements. Think of it like this:
If you're overweight, have a bad diet and live a sedentary lifestyle, no amount of vitamins or dietary supplements are going to improve your health.
I a surprised there is no mention of zeo spur, this is probably the most powerful zeo product. It can turn a muddy milli bright orange, it works by minimizing the zoos, so be careful it can be dangerous. But it really is one of the best addatives there is.
I tried this product a while back. I still have a bottle full of it. Almost nuked my tank, lol. My friend uses it, but he gave me the full rundown on what it is, how it works and how I should use it.
Now that I know, I want to try it out, but I'm still a little trigger-shy. However, I can't help but be a little envious of my buddy's corals being just a LITTLE TEENY BIT nicer than mine. %#&*!d