Individual vs by calcium use

Dsekula

Member
Hi guys,
I wanted to run an interesting find by you all.
When I started my salt adventure I already had a decent understanding on chemical dosing (I run water and wastewater plants daily) so this was something I felt comfortable with.
My intent was a mostly lps tank with some soft coral an anemone and clam I have some Monti caps and soft coral as well. I started tracking the tanks daily calcium and magnesium up take along with alk and pH.. not yet dosing anything ;). After about a month (once tank was pretty well stocked not from start) of just doing water changes to catch up usage I felt like I had a good data set to start from. I started using a very small amount of the red Sea skeletal abc+ blend and also tracking iron, stronioum, potassium, and iodine since their in this mix. I had some nice results but found that using this blend my magnesium slowly came out of proportion to calcium, nothing drastic since I was keeping a very close eye and hand dosing but enough that if I wasn't watching I would have an issue eventually. I switched to dosing calcium and magnesium independently with BRS brand supplements. I continued watching all my trace elements mentioned above and bought a brightwell set of individual supplements so I could hand dose these in very sparring amounts. I changed brands simply because this was what the lfs stocked and they all seemed like reputable companys worth a chance.
To date I haven't had any issues but noticed something interesting.
When I added the redsea abc+ mix my corals and anemones (espically the anemones) show much more vibrant greens and some blue iridescent like colors. Lately I tried adding a half gram (120 gal system) with water changes and this causes the same result. I tried the red Sea part D for blue purple colors in one water change proportion to calcium but that didn't seem to make any change. I don't like this method anyway since is proportionate and can't be tested. Otherwise I've been using rea sea charts for targets and fine tuning based on lifestock reaction. I haven't noticed any fluctuations when the more vibrant colors are present and tank seems otherwise healthy reguardless. Anyone know what is in this mix that is causing the more vibrant colors or have suggestions?
Tia,
D

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A guess is what all except an experienced chemist with knowledge of Red Sea products will get you.
Mine would be trace elements.
I have a Goni that has not grown for 3 years.
Sterted ESV Trace Elements & it has tripled in size.
 
A guess is what all except an experienced chemist with knowledge of Red Sea products will get you.
Mine would be trace elements.
I have a Goni that has not grown for 3 years.
Sterted ESV Trace Elements & it has tripled in size.
Any clue what specific trace elements to look at? I keep track and dose all mentioned above. But use different blends. I think next I will try the redsea separate parts to see if the "missing" element is in one of those. Even if I do a huge water change (I use IO salt mix btw) I don't have this result so the element in question isn't in there either. Just to be specific I'm trying to isolate what is causing this so I can monitor and dose this. I also married a chemical engineer so I have access to much more lab equipment than most etc. and will test any suggestions within a reasonable expense.

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Label on ESV states : Iron, Manganese, Zinc
ESV? Sorry not up on that abbreviation. But I'm pretty sure I know what your getting at. This is on the red Sea skeltal elements abc+ ? I haven't seen any specific listings and have looked, there's nothing else listed, it seems like there should be more ingredients to me? Where did you find this info?

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ESV is a company that sells supplements. :) I am not sure what affects coral coloration. The issue seems fairly complicated. It's hard to determine what causes changes.
 
ESV is a company that sells supplements. :) I am not sure what affects coral coloration. The issue seems fairly complicated. It's hard to determine what causes changes.
Thanks for the explanation :)
I know it's complicated I was hoping someone noticed similar results, even with a different product and maybe compair some different ones and look for common factors or really knows the specific chem. (I can dream right?)
As I said next I want to test redsea colors independently vs the bright well and abc+ Wich claims to have colors a & b included.
This stuff has something trace in it that takes my pieces up one or two on level of awesome looking so I want to know what it is as close as possible.
I'd just use the abc+ but I get outta wack with it.
For example I have a rock nem that was brown green with orangish tentacles. When I use this it goes neon green with orange center and orange and red highlights and tentacles that are irridesent blue. I also have a pally rock that's softball sized I picked up for $10 cus the coral was a brown unexciting color, these turned Robin egg blue. I could only guess that this element is something ignored in a lot of mixes because every piece I have has experience some amount of change. I have purchased from many stores and everything looks better than received.

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Just because... Here's is a before after example .. regrettably the before pic just isn't as good in general and I'm using my phone camera but the color difference is accurate. 1519879904932~4_2.jpgView attachment 388447

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People have very different experiences with the supplements for coloration. I haven't found much of a pattern, unfortunately.
 
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