Modern Reef users experience thread

[Wonkabar]

I have hear more than a few people refer to the modern reef RKS system as a 6 part method not a 4 part due to the CRF/Polypop. To slings point I have not seen enough people using the system to see whether the addition of those 2 products actually makes a difference.

Another question I asked MR was in regards to water changes. They do promote water changes but not weekly. The suggestion was more like once or twice a month. I like this answer since I have never understood the logic behind zero water changes. We only test and know about a small amount of what is actually going on in the water. A great example of this is the yellowing of our water. Changing out old water with new is in my mind the easiest and most reliable solution to get some of these things out of the tank.

 

[apac]

Yes and if you listen to the interviews with Tropic Marine, Nyos, Red Sea, Triton, Brightwell, etc. they also said various things are essential and if you don’t buy their line of products your corals will not be as beautiful or you might get “old tank syndrome”. The primary reason I want onto try MR is there several tanks running it which are absolutely incredible , and the pricing seems reasonable.

Don’t get me wrong, I also bought the coral food system but I likely won’t dose those until a few months in since I want to isolate the effects of the products. I have enough MR product to run my tank for over a year and a half so I will give MR more than its fair shot!

It is not possible to put all elements together in one bottle, only some are compatible with some others. Hence the separate “food” items, which are actually missing macro and trace.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Both MR 4-part and ESV 2-part are sold as complete dosing systems which means they include alkalinity, calcium, magnesium and trace. MR supposedly has more “stuff” in it—specifically aminos, but I compared MR to BRS focusing exclusively on the cost to raise 100L of volume by 1 dKH. MR has 20,000ml of solution across 4 containers whereas ESV is 7,570ml across two. I like the larger volume since it means I don’t have to swap them out very often and I assume 3-4 containers allows for more optimal trace doing than what is possible with only 2 containers.

I currently does Captiv8’s trace mix. When I switch to MR I will take that offline and see how things go. My latest ICP-MS had everything in ideal range other than Iodine and Iron which were low. Iodine would likely have been in range if I used Captiv8’s standard mix but I made my own mix with lower iodine since other users reported higher iodine levels using the standard mix which does not seem to be the case for me.

As folks have correctly noted, ESV does not supplement any trace elements against consumption.

I discuss what that actually means here:

How a Two Part Alkalinity and Calcium System Works, and Why it Matters

How a Two Part Alkalinity and Calcium System Works, and Why it Matters By Randy Holmes-Farley This article is intended to help aquarists understand some of the important differences between the great variety of two and three part alkalinity and...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[slingfox]

.

I discuss what that actually means here:

How a Two Part Alkalinity and Calcium System Works, and Why it Matters

How a Two Part Alkalinity and Calcium System Works, and Why it Matters By Randy Holmes-Farley This article is intended to help aquarists understand some of the important differences between the great variety of two and three part alkalinity and...

www.reef2reef.com

The below is in the product description for ESV 2-part. As outlined in my responses above, I supplement with dosing Captiv8 trace since that helps me keep things in line. I don’t think ESV is enough to keep traces in line hence the need for dosing more stuff. Would like to simplify things if possible but I would not be surprised if I have 10+ dosers 5 years from now!

“In addition to supplying highly concentrated calcium and carbonate alkalinity required for calcification, B-Ionic Calcium Buffer System also provides all other important major, minor, and trace elements in the proper ratios to duplicate the composition of natural seawater”.

 

[slingfox]

It is not possible to put all elements together in one bottle, only some are compatible with some others. Hence the separate “food” items, which are actually missing macro and trace.

Yes, but the question is does any coral food bottle provide additional benefit above and beyond feeding a diversified set of food to the tank?

Don’t get me wrong, I have purchased almost the entirety of the MR product line, but I am skeptical by nature. The only major category I am missing is salt, that is because I already have over half a year supply of Nyos Pure in my garage due to Black Friday deals. I am pretty sure if I don’t feed the MR coral food for a month or two my tank will do just fine! If the coral food actually improves how the coral look then I will report that here!

 

[Wonkabar]

Yes, but the question is does any coral food bottle provide additional benefit above and beyond feeding a diversified set of food to the tank?

Don’t get me wrong, I have purchased almost the entirety of the MR product, but I am skeptical by nature. The only major category I am missing is salt, that is because I already have over half a year supply of Nyos Pure in my garage. I am pretty sure if I don’t feed the MR coral food for a month or two my tank will do just fine!

I have the exact same questions and basically did the same as you, except I got it all in 3 orders and mine is tropic marin pro lol. MR doesnt give much if any information on what is actually in there products. We kind of just know they work. I feel like you and I are going to end up doing the same thing. I plan to switch things over to MR and icp my tank on the same monthly cycle I already am. Based on ICP MS results over time I will at least get the answers of what is in the whole system. I am not willing to piece meal each product then test to figure out what traces are in what product however.

 

[apac]

Yes, but the question is does any coral food bottle provide additional benefit above and beyond feeding a diversified set of food to the tank?

Don’t get me wrong, I have purchased almost the entirety of the MR product line, but I am skeptical by nature. The only major category I am missing is salt, that is because I already have over half a year supply of Nyos Pure in my garage due to Black Friday deals. I am pretty sure if I don’t feed the MR coral food for a month or two my tank will do just fine! If the coral food actually improves how the coral look then I will report that here!

I use Nyos pure salt too. Good luck getting your MR system up and running soon.
I use use Reef Zlements dosing system.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The below is in the product description for ESV 2-part. As outlined in my responses above, I supplement with dosing Captiv8 trace since that helps me keep things in line. I don’t think ESV is enough to keep traces in line hence the need for dosing more stuff. Would like to simplify things if possible but I would not be surprised if I have 10+ dosers 5 years from now!

“In addition to supplying highly concentrated calcium and carbonate alkalinity required for calcification, B-Ionic Calcium Buffer System also provides all other important major, minor, and trace elements in the proper ratios to duplicate the composition of natural seawater”.

Exactly. So ESV does not provide ANY supplementation against ANY consumption of trace elements.

I understand that may confuse some folks, which is exactly why I wrote the article I linked to explain what the comment from ESV means.

 

[Wonkabar]

Morning everyone,
I just started the program yesterday evening. Starting very low at 60ml a day and will pay close attention and test a lot over the next 48 hours so I can increase agressively. I am having some issues getting my neptune dos to separate the increments by 10 minutes or more. I made a seperate thread with the post so I dont take this thread off the rails. Linked below.

Neptune dos and 4 part

Morning everyone, I am dosing a 4 part balling method and the instructions say to separate each part by 10 minutes. Does anyone know an easy way to do this with the DOS? I currently have the below settings Alk1- 00:05-23:05 Calcium-00:15-23:15 Alk2-00:25-23:25 Mag-00:45-23:45

www.reef2reef.com

 

[billyocean]

Started Saturday. Consumption is online with what I was running. PH is as high or tiny bit higher than the soda ash I was running during the day so im impressed there. Cut kalk dosing by about 40% last night and ran the MR to make up for it. Alk remained steady and ph still only dropped to 8.2 for the night. So far so good.

 

[Wonkabar]

Now that my system is up and running on the RKS system I reach out about polypop and complete reef food. Akil said not to start them until an established maintenance dose is figured out. Wanted to let everyone know just in case anyone else was rushing into it like I was.

 

[Wonkabar]

Started Saturday. Consumption is online with what I was running. PH is as high or tiny bit higher than the soda ash I was running during the day so im impressed there. Cut kalk dosing by about 40% last night and ran the MR to make up for it. Alk remained steady and ph still only dropped to 8.2 for the night. So far so good.

Glad to hear. My PH is actually so high after starting I pulled my CO2 scrubber off my skimmer. My PH probes hit a high of 8.8!

 

[TLO45]

I know there is more than one way to reef. I’m a 30 year reefer that would like to hear some reasons why someone like me using a calcium reactor, kalk and weekly water changes would consider changing?
Is it more cost effective? Is it easier? Are the corals more colorful and healthy? Ect.
I have a 450 gallon system with a ton of sps coral.
I’ve tried dosing methods before but they always promised great results but cost more, became unbalanced over time and was more work.
I’m not bashing the system for I have seen awesome systems using the method. I’m just wondering for those users is this a better system than what I’m currently using?

 

[Wonkabar]

I know there is more than one way to reef. I’m a 30 year reefer that would like to hear some reasons why someone like me using a calcium reactor, kalk and weekly water changes would consider changing?
Is it more cost effective? Is it easier? Are the corals more colorful and healthy? Ect.
I have a 450 gallon system with a ton of sps coral.
I’ve tried dosing methods before but they always promised great results but cost more, became unbalanced over time and was more work.
I’m not bashing the system for I have seen awesome systems using the method. I’m just wondering for those users is this a better system than what I’m currently using?

That is the million dollar question. On a 450g tank where most of your consumption is handled by the reactor and Kalk it will most likely not be cheaper. Kalk isnt doing anything for your trace as far as I know. The carx definitely is but is it enough. I will say that there are less things to go wrong in my mind when I am using a few dosing heads as opposed to kalk and a calcium reactor. But you may feel different since that is what you are comfortable with. What it really boils down to is does it make sense for you and on much larger tanks. I guess you will be able to ascertain more information once more people use it and disclose their consumption rates. One thing moder reef does offer is the black bottle. Which is just double the potency, so it would work the same for your 450 as my 225.

 

[billyocean]

I know there is more than one way to reef. I’m a 30 year reefer that would like to hear some reasons why someone like me using a calcium reactor, kalk and weekly water changes would consider changing?
Is it more cost effective? Is it easier? Are the corals more colorful and healthy? Ect.
I have a 450 gallon system with a ton of sps coral.
I’ve tried dosing methods before but they always promised great results but cost more, became unbalanced over time and was more work.
I’m not bashing the system for I have seen awesome systems using the method. I’m just wondering for those users is this a better system than what I’m currently using?

No idea....I run a 300 acro dominate...if theres nothing wrong with how you're going then keep at it. Im just glutton for punishment so trying it out. I did run 2 part carbonate with part c and moonshiners before. Really just more of a tinkering thing for me...my growth and color is already great so no real reason other than experimenting

 

[Bryman]

I just ordered and started using BIODiversity, BIOBac Blend, and BIOActivator which I am using with KZ Coral Snow to battle a Dinoflagellate outbreak in my 20g nano. So far it seems to be helping. I will also be switching from Red Sea Blue Bucket to MR Professional Reef Salt once it arrives.

Currently, I am using Tropic Marin All For Reef on a doser to maintain my parameters. I see that Modern Reef has a similar product called One-4Reef. Does anyone have any info on how they compare?

 

[Mmoore0324]

My consumption has increased slightly since starting. So far so good. Like with Fuana, little to no precipitation. I really like how quick and clear the salt mixes. I mixup 35g at a time and store it for 7 days for AWC. No problems there. I have been doing a very small dose of Polypop and Reef food. Maybe I should hold off for a few weeks while consumption settles.

 

[X-37B]

I know there is more than one way to reef. I’m a 30 year reefer that would like to hear some reasons why someone like me using a calcium reactor, kalk and weekly water changes would consider changing?
Is it more cost effective? Is it easier? Are the corals more colorful and healthy? Ect.
I have a 450 gallon system with a ton of sps coral.
I’ve tried dosing methods before but they always promised great results but cost more, became unbalanced over time and was more work.
I’m not bashing the system for I have seen awesome systems using the method. I’m just wondering for those users is this a better system than what I’m currently using?

30+ reefer here also. My 150
Runs a carx and kalk 24/7.
Setting up a IM 112 with kalk and A4R soon.
I have 5 other systems and will follow this to see the results.
All other systems run esv 2 part.
I may look at MR for 1 system if the results look good from everyone running it.
Then I can run it alongside my other systems to compare results.
All systems get a 5% month WC.

 

[slingfox]

I know there is more than one way to reef. I’m a 30 year reefer that would like to hear some reasons why someone like me using a calcium reactor, kalk and weekly water changes would consider changing?
Is it more cost effective? Is it easier? Are the corals more colorful and healthy? Ect.
I have a 450 gallon system with a ton of sps coral.
I’ve tried dosing methods before but they always promised great results but cost more, became unbalanced over time and was more work.
I’m not bashing the system for I have seen awesome systems using the method. I’m just wondering for those users is this a better system than what I’m currently using?

I currently run ESV 2-part. I did the calcs and MR’s 4-part system is comparable in price or slightly cheaper for the primary component dosing only and providing zero value to any supplemental trace or aminos dosing that is included in MR and not in ESV.

I doubt any 2-, 3-, or 4-part is cheaper than an established Kalk + CR setup but some people don’t want to deal with those kind of setups.

If you run an SPS dominant system and are the type that want to try out squeeze out additional color (ie, want that illusive 4th or 5th color!) on the SPS or polyp extension then MR is worth a try—particularly if you already have a dosing system setup that is easy to experiment with.

 

[Featherweight]

Mine arrived Monday. I'll be starting it soon