Red Sea Trace Colors experience?

[jackintheboxfish]

Wondering if people have had experience with this Red Sea product?

I’ve been using Part C Iron+ because one of my tanks was low on iron and I did notice an increase in green color across the various frags I have. I’ve talked to a fellow hobbyist who said he’s got a friend that swears by this product, and the hobbyist has seen that personal’s tank which looked awesome.

The dosing instructions for Part C was interesting, perhaps concerning. It’s supposed to be dosed by calcium consumption but it’s in the realm of ppm while natural sea water is in ppb. That means it’s 1000x amount of iron than natural sea water. It’s so high that Red Sea’s iron test kit can pick it up while normally iron is so low in tanks that even ICP-MS has a hard time registering a reliable number.

I have not looked into the other Trace color parts but I’m thinking of trying. So if anyone has experience using them please share

 

[cdemoss01]

I think I've heard good things about this product. Have you done anything yet?

 

[VintageReefer]

Used it for however long the 4 pack kit lasted. Noticed zero effects. Didn’t have any problems to start with. But also nothing became better or worse. Just did zilch for me

 

[jackintheboxfish]

I think I've heard good things about this product. Have you done anything yet?

Yes I have been dosing Trace Color C Iron+. I do notice the green corals have become greener which fits the product's claims. Haven't tried the other ones yet

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I think it is very misleading for companies to claim particular trace elements lead to particular colors. There’s no good evidence for such claims.

 

[helmsreef]

I used trace colors for about 4 years. Never had issues and ICP came back fine other than iodine, but I manually dosed that on top of everything. I did have issues dosing All for reef A and K one time when I ran out of Red sea trace, brought on some cyano but I went back to trace and was fine afterwards.

 

[jackintheboxfish]

I think it is very misleading for companies to claim particular trace elements lead to particular colors. There’s no good evidence for such claims.

Thanks for chiming in Randy :). I did some quick research and found that iron is linked with the production of chlorophyll which is used in photosynthesis in plants and algae:

Symbiont pigments — chlorophyll a/c (green) + carotenoids/peridinin (yellow-brown). Higher healthy zooxanthellae density or chlorophyll content shifts appearance greener/yellower.

I’m not too sure about the other Trace color parts though

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for chiming in Randy :). I did some quick research and found that iron is linked with the production of chlorophyll which is used in photosynthesis in plants and algae:

Symbiont pigments — chlorophyll a/c (green) + carotenoids/peridinin (yellow-brown). Higher healthy zooxanthellae density or chlorophyll content shifts appearance greener/yellower.

I’m not too sure about the other Trace color parts though

Not convincing, IMO. Observationally, lack of trace elements generally leads to things like poor growth and polyp extension, not a simple shift in specific colors to anything except pale and unhealthy looking.

That sort of idea is likely the nugget of truth behind many color claims, and dosing iron can green up macroalgae that is pale, but such effects have not, as far as I know, been clearly shown in corals for any trace element with any specific color.