feed back needed on red sea products

spscrazy · Jul 12, 2012

I started using red sea no3 po4 X about a month ago this stuff is amazing! my nitrates are down from 20/30 to .5 I don't have a phosphate test but it must be down because my byropsis and geladium (sp?) has stopped growing & is getting thin & brown tips & hermits & snails are snacking on both (a first!) tank is so much brighter, corals are finally getting color that is not swamp mud brown. I've been dosing 1 tsp kalk to 1 gal of top off water everyday in the last week I have had to go to 2 tsp of kalk in order to keep calc. alk & ph up so corals are up to something ha ha so this all got me to looking at their other products I am using red sea coral pro salt but only change out maybe a few gallons a month I was wondering do I really need all the coral color products (and all the tests for each) or should I just get better at changing out water every week ? in other words does the salt have what the suppliments have or are they "better" ? I would also like to eliminate the bio pellet reactor it has been running for over a year & has not come close to what the nop3 po4x has done but not sure if this product has just made it work properly & should be kept? thoughts on this? would like to hear from those using any red sea product they think has made a change in their tank

shecter · Jul 12, 2012

I don't dose anything. But I do use the red sea coral pro salt. I change out 5 gallons every week and all my sps and zoas are happy. I don't test anywhere near what I should but I watch my tank for an hour at least every day. As for the pellet reactor as long as you change your media I wouldn't take it out. I can't see it hurting things.

spscrazy · Jul 13, 2012

no one else using red sea products for sps?

MarineDepot · Jul 13, 2012

The Red Sea salt contains the major trace elements and minor trace elements necessary for your coral. Performing water changes more often will certainly help with most issues and help maintain proper levels. Ensure you are testing frequently, especially your Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, and pH. Many hobyists have success with 10% weekly water changes and maintain their calcium and alkalinity levels with a 2 part dosing system.

The Red Sea Reef Reef Care pacakge is desgined as a complete reef care system. It's a little more advanced, but is supposed to help bring out colors in coral, especially SPS. The salt is the foundation of the system. You then run a low nutrient system and remove nitrates and phosphate with the NO3

OX-4. You can maintain your calcium and alk levels with the Reef Foundation A & B prodcuts. Then you help add in vitamins and aminos with the Reef Energy and Reef color additives.

Esentially, you lower the nutrients in your system and supplement to help balance your trace elements and help with color. You will need to ensure that you test the levels often as well. I hope this information helps.

Chris R.

ppipalace · Jul 13, 2012

Red Sea products

I agree, that stuff is great a couple of months ago I had this slimy brown algae all over my corals it was killing everything I talk to this guy and that guy, everybody told me what to do and nothing worked I wish I had the money that I lost all my Corals that died because of this crap I got a hole of Mr. Scott and Red Sea and he turned me on to the no 3 PO 4-X this stuff is the greatest stuff since orange juice within just a week all of that that crap in the tank went away and I've been using 10 to 15 ML everyday I talked to the people at Red Sea and they told me that they spent a lot of time and a lot of money designing this product if you having problems in your tank this stuff really works.Phil:wink:

lpslover · Jul 17, 2012

I am a huge fan of the Reef Colors line. Seriously, my frogspawn went from mint green to flourescent green with pretty lavender metallic tips, and my acan went from rust colored to blood red with pale turquoise bands. At the time, the only thing that had changed, was that I replaced my seachem iodine with the four reef colors line supplements. I had needed more iodine and I had read that potassium dosing can be helpful if you are carbon dosing. So I thought I'd give it a whirl. Very glad I did.

After that I tried the coral pro salt which I love.

I also tried the NO3PO4X but had to quit using it and go back to the VGV mix I was using before. The cyano was out of this world. Some people have had issues, others haven't. The stuff works as well as the VGV on nutrient control and was more convenient than mixing VGV, but I couldn't get rid of the cyano. A week after I went back to the VGV, the cyano disappeared, even though the nutrient levels remained the same.

I've also been using the coral nutrition line for about 6 months, and while I think it is okay, I'm not terribly enchanted. I don't know that it has helped much more than other similar products. As far as I can tell it is basically an amino acid mix and a reef snow. I feed my tanks really heavily, so maybe there would be a more dramatic difference on a tank that doesn't already receive heavy feeding. It does make me a bit suspicious that in the six months I've used it daily I have had fish and shrimp die shortly after dosing on two occasions. It could be coincidence that they just happened to die around the same time of day, but I do wonder if it may not be terribly safe for fish and shrimp.

I have not tried the foundation line. I like the BRS products too much. But I will probably be recommending it to a friend who is starting her first marine tank and needs an idiot proof system while she learns. Not that she's an idiot, but I think the integration of the test kit recommendations (their new pro line test kits rock too) and the dosing instructions in this regard could help alleviate a lot of beginner's anxiety and potential mistakes.

Overall I think it is a great new line.