Modern Reef users experience thread

[RoanokeReef]

Are you sure red sea is 200? That would be amazing if so. I have not been able to find any good information verifying that. I don't plan to take mine off for a little while in the beginning either. I found this thread but it doesnt really give a substantial answer. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/is-the-reef-mat-roll-really-200-microns-i-don’t-think-so-pictures-provided.1128914/

I will just leave it running to change as little as possible for now and in another month or so turn it off for a week and let the water overflow to see how my tank/nutrients are affected.

The older rolls used to have it printed on them, I'm guessing that's where the number came from. Not sure if that has changed, I use the Precon 20 now. I'm going with the same plan you outlined.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

alk and mag you can just let the tank consume and over time it will come down. Water hardness I have no experience with however I don't see how a water softner before your RODI wouldnt help.

Well, here's how it would not help.

I am not certain if Freenow is meaning hardness to be just calcium or calcium pus magnesium plus strontium, but none of those get through an RO/DI that is operating properly, and thus removing them before the RO/DI with a softener will have zero impact on the tank water hardness.

That said, one may want to remove them with a water softener to reduce scale formation on the ro membrane, which reduces flow through it.

 

[Freenow54]

Reduce or stop dosing.

The requirements for the product is to have a stable within range reading of these same as my previous statement regarding All For Reef. I am not using this product just trying to educate myself. Nothing was done to get the high readings except using Fritz High Alk . I was not dosing anything and got these readings. At your suggestion I dose K and A now along with an experiment Seachem Photo Plankton to try and boost survival rate and growth of some Coral. So I guess another

 

[Freenow54]

Well, here's how it would not help.

I am not certain if Freenow is meaning hardness to be just calcium or calcium pus magnesium plus strontium, but none of those get through an RO/DI that is operating properly, and thus removing them before the RO/DI with a softener will have zero impact on the tank water hardness.

That said, one may want to remove them with a water softener to reduce scale formation on the ro membrane, which reduces flow through it.

I don't believe my water is hard but I will test it. My source is Town water that comes out of Lake Erie . Here i

s a picture of my pre filter after 6 months which was white really gives you confidence in modern water treatment. The plant is almost updated interested in the results

 

[Freenow54]

I meant Magnesium Alk and PH

 

[billyocean]

Ill be switching over from 2 part with part C and kalk at night and diy trace elements. Really just kind of experimenting but also have the eye to realize if something isnt right and can make corrections needed...if needed. Theres nothing wrong with what im dosing now but figured why not try a little experiment.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The requirements for the product is to have a stable within range reading of these same as my previous statement regarding All For Reef. I am not using this product just trying to educate myself. Nothing was done to get the high readings except using Fritz High Alk . I was not dosing anything and got these readings. At your suggestion I dose K and A now along with an experiment Seachem Photo Plankton to try and boost survival rate and growth of some Coral. So I guess another

There’s no reason to want to dose such a product in your situation. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don't believe my water is hard but I will test it.

Seems like a waste of effort.

 

[Freenow54]

There’s no reason to want to dose such a product in your situation. :)

That after delving into the post and reading the article I wholly agree with. My entire goal is to resolve the mysterious Coral situation as some flourish.

 

[Freenow54]

alk and mag you can just let the tank consume and over time it will come down. Water hardness I have no experience with however I don't see how a water softner before your RODI wouldnt help.

I have tried the Patience approach it does not change

 

[slingfox]

We have it here in the U.K. It’s quite complicated to use. For a 220g tank, It is going to be expensive to run with the coral feeds alongside. If your tank is only 6 months old, be careful how much of their supplemental coral foods you dose as it may add a lot of nutrients and you may end up battling a bacteria outbreak. I think(but am not sure) that the feeds maybe aimed at SPS tanks.

I did the calculations comparing Modern Reef to ESV 2-part which is what I currently use. Here is the price to raise 100L by one dKH:

ESV 2-part: 12.2 cents if purchased at MSRP or 10.3 cents if purchased at 15% discount

Modern Reef: 12.1 cents if purchased at MSRP or 9.7 cents if purchased at 20% discount

The calculations above were done with MR’s more concentrated 4-part which is 10ml to raise 100L by 2dKH. For ESV I used the calculator on BRS which states 11.8ml to raise 100L by 1 dKH.

The pricing for Modern Reef seems in-line with the most widely used liquid 2-part in the US. I assume this means it is comparable with other liquid dosing systems like Nyos (recently launched in US) and Red Sea (been around a long time but does not seem widely used) but I didn’t do the calcs since I don’t use those.

In terms of complexity, I don’t believe 4-part is materially more complicated than dosing 2-part—you just need more dosers.

Modern Reef’s coral foods related line is a whole different product line and should be analyzed separately.

 

[billyocean]

I did the calculations comparing Modern Reef to ESV 2-part which is what I currently use. Here is the price to raise 100L by one dKH:

ESV 2-part: 12.2 cents if purchased at MSRP or 10.3 cents if purchased at 15% discount

Modern Reef: 12.1 cents if purchased at MSRP or 9.7 cents if purchased at 20% discount

The calculations above were done with MR’s more concentrated 4-part which is 10ml to raise 100L by 2dKH. For ESV I used the calculator on BRS which states 11.8ml to raise 100L by 1 dKH.

The pricing for Modern Reef seems in-line with the most widely used liquid 2-part in the US. I assume this means it is comparable with other liquid dosing systems like Nyos (recently launched in US) and Fed Sea (been around a long time but does not seem widely used) but I didn’t do the calcs since I don’t use those.

In terms of complexity, I don’t believe 4-part is materially more complicated than dosing 2-part—you just need more dosers.

Modern Reef’s coral foods related line is a whole different product line and should be analyzed separately.

Does ESV dose everything that MR does in their 2 part or was what needed to be added to ESV already figured in?

 

[slingfox]

Does ESV dose everything that MR does in their 2 part or was what needed to be added to ESV already figured in?

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.

 

[RoanokeReef]

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.

ESV is only a 2 part, it doesn't contain enough traces without dosing them. The traces ESV does have is for salinity reasons.

 

[slingfox]

ESV is only a 2 part, it doesn't contain enough traces without dosing them. The traces ESV does have is for salinity reasons.

Yes, that is why I dose Captiv8 Iso8 alongside. Not as good as going full Moonshiner’s but much less work! If MR can handle the basics along with trace that would be nice.

 

[Wonkabar]

I have been doing moonshiner's with esv 2 part and sometimes supplimenting with esv magnesium when needed. I stopped dosing shine about a month ago in preparation of the switch to modern reef. Hoping that MR can support trace as well. Just finally got tracking within my ups. Looks like it wont be arriving till middle of next week so I will get the tank switched over for the new year.

 

[billyocean]

Im just thinking in terms of breaking down the dollar per dose vs what you get with each would be different if esv doesnt include all that MF does.

 

[slingfox]

Ill be switching over from 2 part with part C and kalk at night and diy trace elements. Really just kind of experimenting but also have the eye to realize if something isnt right and can make corrections needed...if needed. Theres nothing wrong with what im dosing now but figured why not try a little experiment.

Yes I have a similar mindset. I use ESV 2-part along with dosing of trace via Captiv8 Iso8. I also dose ammonia otherwise my nitrates bottom out. I don’t have any complaints with coloration, growth, or polyp extension. Coloration/pop could be nicer but I believe this is mostly an issue with my lights (I have compared same pieces head-to-head under lights from other systems). My recent ICP-MS came back very clean with only two trace deficiencies which I corrected by via hand dosing those specific elements. If MR improves my SPS-dominant system even marginally, I will likely switch over since it seems similar in cost to other liquid dosing systems and potentially cheaper if you ascribe value to the trace and aminos.

 

[apac]

Modern Reef’s coral foods related line is a whole different product line and should be analyzed separately.

In more than one interview I’ve previously seen with one of the founders, the food supplements are an essential part of the modern reef regime for it to be effective. The ingredients are separate from the main dosing bottles due to an incompatibility of the elements in them. But, I suppose you would say that if you are the person touting it.

 

[slingfox]

In more than one interview I’ve previously seen with one of the founders, the food supplements are an essential part of the modern reef regime for it to be effective. But, I suppose you would say that if you are the person touting it.

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.

I also bought the coral food system but I likely won’t dose those until a 1-2 months in since I want to only use the 4-part system first to see what happens.

Eye candy of an incredible tank running MR: