Modern Reef users experience thread

[Oldreefer44]

I will give occasional reviews including cost vs AFR and Balling Light. My initial impression is that costs will be comparable if one is comparing RKS only.

 

[Mmoore0324]

Think there is any benefit to soaking frozen food with Polypop and Complete Reef Food to feed throughout the day?

 

[Bryman]

Starting with dry rock for the first time put me at a significant disadvantage, and I'm just getting through a Dino battle. I started using the Modern Reef BIO components and it's helping quite a lot.

After watching some more videos and doing some research, I decided to go all-in and try the blue RKS plus Polypop and Complete Reef food for my 20 gallon nano. Ordered a 4 head Blenny doser to add to my Hydros collective for the RKS. I am hoping the organic / synthetic components of the holistic RKS system combined with the BIO products will help stabilize and mature my 4 month old nano so I won't have these issues down the road.

 

[slingfox]

Think there is any benefit to soaking frozen food with Polypop and Complete Reef Food to feed throughout the day?

That doesn’t make much sense to me since they would result in much of the Polypop and Reef Food being consumed by the fish rather than the coral. Plus, it is not clear that the fish would like the taste of the things in those products.

 

[Mmoore0324]

That doesn’t make much sense to me since they would result in much of the Polypop and Reef Food being consumed by the fish rather than the coral. Plus, it is not clear that the fish would like the taste of the things in those products.

Yeah, I don't think there would be much benefit, just a thought. In my head, I was thinking if the fish waste could be fortified with the Polypop and Reef Food, that maybe it would be a good way to super charge getting nutrients to the corals. At the end of the day, the dose of Polypop and Reef Food is so small, it probably makes zero difference. For what's worth.. I did try it for a day. The fish didn't seem to mind the taste at all. lol

 

[Wonkabar]

That doesn’t make much sense to me since they would result in much of the Polypop and Reef Food being consumed by the fish rather than the coral. Plus, it is not clear that the fish would like the taste of the things in those products.

Yeah, I don't think there would be much benefit, just a thought. In my head, I was thinking if the fish waste could be fortified with the Polypop and Reef Food, that maybe it would be a good way to super charge getting nutrients to the corals. At the end of the day, the dose of Polypop and Reef Food is so small, it probably makes zero difference. For what's worth.. I did try it for a day. The fish didn't seem to mind the taste at all. lol

I don’t see how this would be beneficial as sling said. I would just follow their directions since they say they thoroughly tested it.

 

[Superlightman]

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:

don't forget that Maria run Fauna Marin long time befor switch to MR and the video was shortly after so we can not say . The results came from MR. But she seemed to be happy with the system. I personnaly ask myself if she is sponsored or not?

 

[Superlightman]

I tried Modern Reef twice in the past and both times I had bad results, with major algae problems. I ended up stopping it. The second time, I had used only half of the products before switching back to Fauna bolus, which gave me much better results in terme of polype and colors and less algua. Maybe in some tanks their Polypop feed encourages bad algae growth? If you check the videos of MR tanks on YouTube, you will see that some of their tanks have plenty of cyano, maybe because of his products??

Two friends also tried it for a year. They did not see the same negative effects that I did, but they also did not see any improvement in color or growth compared to their previous methods. And since it is the most expensive method you can find here in Europe (despite what some people say, just do the math properly, alone the two additionnal products can be more expense than another method), it was not worth it. Polypop and Reefood are very expensive. When you calculate the price per liter, it is scary, and now there is a new product that is even more expensive. If it had given better results, why not, but as it did not, there are cheaper methods that give equivalent results.

 

[Wonkabar]

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:

don't forget that Maria run Fauna Marin long time befor switch to MR and the video was shortly after so we can not say . The results came from MR. But she seemed to be happy with the system. I personnaly ask myself if she is sponsored or not?

I’ve wondered if she is sponsored as well. I’ve found that to be somewhat of an issue in this hobby. All these creators rant and rave about the next best thing only to find out they got the stuff for free in return for a positive review. I do know for a fact that Tusi is very happy with the product, regardless of whether he gets it for free or not.

 

[slingfox]

I tried Modern Reef twice in the past and both times I had bad results, with major algae problems. I ended up stopping it. The second time, I had used only half of the products before switching back to Fauna bolus, which gave me much better results in terme of polype and colors and less algua. Maybe in some tanks their Polypop feed encourages bad algae growth? If you check the videos of MR tanks on YouTube, you will see that some of their tanks have plenty of cyano, maybe because of his products??

Two friends also tried it for a year. They did not see the same negative effects that I did, but they also did not see any improvement in color or growth compared to their previous methods. And since it is the most expensive method you can find here in Europe (despite what some people say, just do the math properly, alone the two additionnal products can be more expense than another method), it was not worth it. Polypop and Reefood are very expensive. When you calculate the price per liter, it is scary, and now there is a new product that is even more expensive. If it had given better results, why not, but as it did not, there are cheaper methods that give equivalent results.

I did the calculation already on Page 2 of this thread comparing MR 4-part to ESV 2-part which is one of the mostly widely used dosing systems here in the US. MR cost is slightly cheaper or inline pricing depending on whether you compare the sales price or MSRP for the products.

I previously did a similar calculation for Nyos’s new dosing system (just released in the US in November 2025) which also had pricing comparable to ESV 2-part. From the cost perspective, MR’s pricing in the US is inline with comparable products even if you ascribe zero value to the traces and aminos in the MR 4-part.

 

[Mmoore0324]

I tried Modern Reef twice in the past and both times I had bad results, with major algae problems. I ended up stopping it. The second time, I had used only half of the products before switching back to Fauna bolus, which gave me much better results in terme of polype and colors and less algua. Maybe in some tanks their Polypop feed encourages bad algae growth? If you check the videos of MR tanks on YouTube, you will see that some of their tanks have plenty of cyano, maybe because of his products??

Two friends also tried it for a year. They did not see the same negative effects that I did, but they also did not see any improvement in color or growth compared to their previous methods. And since it is the most expensive method you can find here in Europe (despite what some people say, just do the math properly, alone the two additionnal products can be more expense than another method), it was not worth it. Polypop and Reefood are very expensive. When you calculate the price per liter, it is scary, and now there is a new product that is even more expensive. If it had given better results, why not, but as it did not, there are cheaper methods that give equivalent results.

What do you think specifically caused the algae? Did you try running without Polypop and/or the Reef Food?

 

[Superlightman]

What do you think specifically caused the algae? Did you try running without Polypop and/or the Reef Food?

Honestly I don't know, what it was but results were so bad that I stopp it and went back to my previous System. Maybe for low nutrient system it can works. I tried it two times to be sure it was not another reason.

 

[Superlightman]

I’ve wondered if she is sponsored as well. I’ve found that to be somewhat of an issue in this hobby. All these creators rant and rave about the next best thing only to find out they got the stuff for free in return for a positive review. I do know for a fact that Tusi is very happy with the product, regardless of whether he gets it for free or not.

for her I don't know ,she seems to be an honest person, but never now...but I know other you tubers that claims to use a system when in real , they use another one.. I also no find ok, that some that,just swithed method for real says the result come from the new method , when the results came from years of using another one.

 

[Wonkabar]

Just packaged up my first icp. FYI you will have to purchase a label to ship it to Florida. No need to do the customs form confirmed by Akil. They are looking into providing labeled in the future.

 

[billyocean]

Just packaged up my first icp. FYI you will have to purchase a label to ship it to Florida. No need to do the customs form confirmed by Akil. They are looking into providing labeled in the future.

You just use usps or another label?

 

[Wonkabar]

Just packaged up my first icp. FYI you will have to purchase a label to ship it to Florida. No need to do the customs form confirmed by Akil. They are looking into providing labeled in the future.

You just use usps or another label?

I used usps because I am also sending out an ati and oceamo test to compare the results between them and they are usps. UPS would have been 4$ cheaper fyi.

 

[Mmoore0324]

Honestly I don't know, what it was but results were so bad that I stopp it and went back to my previous System. Maybe for low nutrient system it can works. I tried it two times to be sure it was not another reason.

How long after you started did you see the issue? I’ve been using the system for 2 weeks now and so far so good. I am definitely seeing more polyp extension. Did you try to run the system without the Polypop and Complete Reef Food? Did you dose the aminos based on calcium like the instructions or based on system volume?

 

[Superlightman]

How long after you started did you see the issue? I’ve been using the system for 2 weeks now and so far so good. I am definitely seeing more polyp extension. Did you try to run the system without the Polypop and Complete Reef Food? Did you dose the aminos based on calcium like the instructions or based on system volume?

after a fews weeks, I dose all same as recommended. I not tried without the two products. Some friends trie it, they not saw adverse effects but also not better results and has it was more expensive they all stopped it.

 

[Superlightman]

How long after you started did you see the issue? I’ve been using the system for 2 weeks now and so far so good. I am definitely seeing more polyp extension. Did you try to run the system without the Polypop and Complete Reef Food? Did you dose the aminos based on calcium like the instructions or based on system volume?

What system did you run before?

 

[Mmoore0324]

What system did you run before?

I ran Fauna Marin balling light on the bolus method. So far I’m loving modern reef. I’ve actually noticed the opposite to what you described. I’ve seen a significant reduction in cyano since dosing Polypop and Reef Food. Can’t 100% correlate to the products but no other changes have been made and my nutrients have stayed about the same from before I started MR.