Red sea pro coral program

[greg1786]

I know most use a two part to keep levels in check. I have been reading up on the red sea reef foundation ABC coral growth program and find it very interesting. Recently , brs came out with a very informative video about the red sea ABC program and their trace elements additives which re sparked my interest. I use the red sea test kits and love them so I'm thinking about trying out this program for the corals starting by switching from my two part (seachem) to the ABC and then slowly incorporating their trace elements in as needed. Before I make the switch tho I figured id check with everyone on here first to see who, if anyone, is using this program and if so did you replace your two part with it? how do you like it? is it better , not as good, or pretty much the same as what u were previously doing. How is the coral growth and coloration when using their line of products? any information good or bad is welcomed I'm just looking for some experience with it to help make up my mind, and for general know how. Also include what type of corals you have and how heavily stocked your reef is. Are they mostly frags? full grown colonies, in between or a mix of both. Sps dominated ? softies? mixed reef? etc etc. Thanks in advance I look forward to seeing what everyone thinks. happy reefing! -Greg


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[Ruge13]

Any opinions? I've thought about trying this too but the only opinions I can find are from store owners with a large Red Sea POP display pushing a product so they are hardly impartial.

 

[greg1786]

perhaps from the lack of responses nobody is using the red sea products. I too asked at my lfs and the guy I asked gave a pretty good review he said he uses them on his home aquarium as well as in his store. I hope we get a few responses on the subject I'm very very interested. Maybe ill just give it a shot and give my review here after a few weeks


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[doosiec]

I use the Red Sea kit, I have 3 types, the Reef Colors Pro, Nitrate, Phosphate, Calcium, Alk, Mag, etc. All have worked great and is very accurate, also very organized and easy to use. A bit pricey, but it pays for itself considering how many tests you can get from a single kit.

In each kit, there's simple instructions only, no long list of what to do.
The nitrate test kit comes with a color wheel for you to reference too.
One thing to remember is when you do the tests, do it in white lighting, otherwise you'll have a very difficult time making a decision on what color the test turns out on the color spectrum.

1 Low - 10 High, I'd rate this at least a 9

Pros : Ease of use, glass vials, multiple syringes, large volumes of tests, fun to use.

Cons : A bit expensive, large containers.

 

[greg1786]

thanks for the response , but just to make sure this thread doesn't go off in the wrong direction, (if it ever gets going lol) I actually have the test kits myself and like them as well. My question was not on the test kits but on the supplements red sea offers and their "coral growth program".


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[Yedgy]

I've been using the Red Sea program for a few months and I like it very much. I have a small mixed reef but am trending toward more SPS and eventually will be SPS-dominant.

The liquid foundation products are VERY concentrated, much more so than B-Ionic, and they need to be dosed carefully because of this (especially the alkalinity supplement, which I dilute by 2/3 before dosing). The dry versions mix up to concentrations similar to Randy's 2-part or the corresponding BRS products.

I bought a tub of the ABC+ all-in-one product because it's very easy to dose for small systems (they recommend against its use in large systems, though). It's very easy to use but it needs to be dosed slowly in its powder form directly into areas of very high flow.

They have a series of videos on YouTube which go into a lot of details about the entire program and how the various parts fit together to promote SPS growth or coloration.

They're not covered in the BRS video, but their NOPOX nitrate/phosphate reducer is very effective and their Reef Energy system is without a doubt my favorite supplement--it's like watching the Northern Lights in your reef tank every night. :spin1:

 

[greg1786]

I've been using the Red Sea program for a few months and I like it very much. I have a small mixed reef but am trending toward more SPS and eventually will be SPS-dominant.

The liquid foundation products are VERY concentrated, much more so than B-Ionic, and they need to be dosed carefully because of this (especially the alkalinity supplement, which I dilute by 2/3 before dosing). The dry versions mix up to concentrations similar to Randy's 2-part or the corresponding BRS products.

I bought a tub of the ABC+ all-in-one product because it's very easy to dose for small systems (they recommend against its use in large systems, though). It's very easy to use but it needs to be dosed slowly in its powder form directly into areas of very high flow.

They have a series of videos on YouTube which go into a lot of details about the entire program and how the various parts fit together to promote SPS growth or coloration.

They're not covered in the BRS video, but their NOPOX nitrate/phosphate reducer is very effective and their Reef Energy system is without a doubt my favorite supplement--it's like watching the Northern Lights in your reef tank every night.

Thanks for the input, I'm glad to hear a good review. I like that you said their supplements are very concentrated I feel like you get more bang for your buck. Some supplements I have used in the past have taken large amounts to have little effect. I'm very interested in the reef energy your talking about, until you mentioned it I hadn't heard of it. What exactly is it used for? -Greg


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[Yedgy]

The liquid supplements are very concentrated, but with only 500 mL in each bottle, you'll still go through the bottles pretty quickly. Even at lower concentrations, their powder supplements are more cost-effective.

I've chosen to dose the ABC+ supplement mix because it replaces 5 of the supplements, but I still have a bottle of each on hand to balance the levels out every 4 to 6 weeks.

Reef Energy is a 2-part coral food replacement and is part of their complete reef program. One component supplies carbohydrates and lipids, while the other one supplies amino acids and vitamins. The two parts must be refrigerated and kept separately until just before dosing, when a small amount of each can be briefly mixed. The skimmer needs to be turned off for about a 1/2 hour after dosing. The neat thing about it is that the mixture fluoresces softly and is dosed after lights-out, so it makes for a nice light show under blue moonlight LEDs (at least it does with my AI Sols). The entire tank glows with an eerie radioactive green color for a few hours.

Reef Energy is meant to be dosed instead of traditional coral foods like Reef-Roids, Reef Chili, etc. and is supposed to be more digestible than foods while polluting the tank less. One of the videos on Red Sea's website covers it in detail.

 

[AquaReeferMan]

I have been using their coral supplement program since it came out. Reef foundation A,B and C - Reef Colors A, B, C and D - Reef Energy A and B.

Foundation A, B and C are dosed daily by a Bubble Magus dosing pump. Reef Colors are dosed by hand twice a week. Reef Energy A and B are dosed by hand once a week.

I have been very happy with their entire line. I mix the Calcium and Alk from the powders.

Tank is a 65 Max tank. SPS started all as frags. This is the tank as it sits today. I strongly recommend giving them a shot.

 

[Yedgy]

Woweewow! That's beautiful growth! Any reason why you feed RE only once per week? I thought the instructions called for nightly dosing.

 

[AquaReeferMan]

IDK daily just seemed like too much to me. There will be weeks when I don't even dose it and I really cannot tell the difference.

I wish my phone could pick up the colors a little better though...

 

[galkito]

I have been using their coral supplement program since it came out. Reef foundation A,B and C - Reef Colors A, B, C and D - Reef Energy A and B.

Foundation A, B and C are dosed daily by a Bubble Magus dosing pump. Reef Colors are dosed by hand twice a week. Reef Energy A and B are dosed by hand once a week.

I have been very happy with their entire line. I mix the Calcium and Alk from the powders.

Tank is a 65 Max tank. SPS started all as frags. This is the tank as it sits today. I strongly recommend giving them a shot.

Can I ask you something? you said " I mix the Calcium and Alk from the powders". I use their ALK and find it difficulties mixing it. It seems that I always see particles floating in the bottle. Is that ok?
Also, I am using Reef energy A & B. Dosing 4ml of each every day. Corals seem to like it. I use to have problems with a favia and an elegance coral due to low NO3 and PO4. Both are under ~0.03. After I started using reef energy they got back their colors and "texture".

 

[AquaReeferMan]

I personally havent noticed any particles floating in mine. I just fill and mix them up in some left over A and B liquid bottles I had.

 

[Dexters Reef]

I dose Reef Energy A and B every 2 days, I use 10 ML of each in my 75 SPS / Mixed reef and have great colors, polyp extension and growth. Been using it for 4 months with positive results. My LFS swears by it and uses it daily in their 300g sps tank as well

Blue Stag first pic - 10/9 second pic 12/7
yellow green millie first pic 9/28 second pic 12/7

 

[greg1786]

I have been using their coral supplement program since it came out. Reef foundation A,B and C - Reef Colors A, B, C and D - Reef Energy A and B.

Foundation A, B and C are dosed daily by a Bubble Magus dosing pump. Reef Colors are dosed by hand twice a week. Reef Energy A and B are dosed by hand once a week.

I have been very happy with their entire line. I mix the Calcium and Alk from the powders.

Tank is a 65 Max tank. SPS started all as frags. This is the tank as it sits today. I strongly recommend giving them a shot.

IMAGE#1

aqua, Your tank is beautiful, how long did it take to go from frags to your picture? I am excited to start this program after reading these reviews. I had an issue where my mag dropped to 1180 about two weeks back. After starting this thread I decided to try red sea mg supplement(part c) to raise my mag back up. The seachem supplements I've been using for two part have not done a great job with mg lately as my corals have gotten bigger. I am very pleased with the results from red sea. I dose 20 ml on the 11th and then again on the 13th. when I got home tonight and tested, my mg was up to 1280 in four days. I'm gonna drop the dose back to ten ml to slow it down until I get it around 1400 again. Thanks for all the input so far I cant wait to get the reef foundation kit !


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[AquaReeferMan]

Tank was set up October 2010

That was the last picture I took before I ripped the tank apart, fragged everything and rescaped. That was about 6 months ago. Everything was just so overgrown. You can see the blue digi is growing out of the water. I like it open now... Until it over grows again lol.

When I fragged this frogspawn I just broke it in half. There were over 55 heads total.

 

[xenon]

I dose 20ml of each Reef Energy A/B daily for my 150g sps dominated system. I have also noticed an improvement in color.

 

[luk81a]

Wow great transformation. Ive just started the red sea coral program but am still using no pox to reduce phosphate. Did you use the no pox nitrate and phos reducer? what do you use for filtration? did you change the lighting? may I ask what lighting are you using?

 

[luk81a]

My post was for Aquareeferman

 

[AquaReeferMan]

Wow great transformation. Ive just started the red sea coral program but am still using no pox to reduce phosphate. Did you use the no pox nitrate and phos reducer? what do you use for filtration? did you change the lighting? may I ask what lighting are you using?

I have no need for the NO3O4-X reducer. Both Nitrate and Phosphate stay undetectable. I run heavy nitrogen sponge biological media and a phosphate reactor.

My filtration consists of biological media, live rock, live sand and phosphate media. I run no sponges or carbon. I also have a Reef Octopus LX1000 skimmer.

Lighting is 6x39 HOT5's stock red sea max hood with a single reflector. The first 3 pictures were with 3 10k lamps and 3 460 actinic lamps. I ended up switching the bulbs up though. I am now running 4 ATI Blue +, 1 Giesemann 15K and 1 Giesemann 8K