Red Sea's new Reef Energy AB+ is a fail.

Bubbles_B

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Imma need you to sit your non essential behind on the couch and watch Tiger King for the 5th time. ;Hilarious

I have a job, and essential one. I work 12 hours swing shifts, even thru all this nonsense quarantine bull hockey. They are even talking about the possibility of me having to stay at work for 2 weeks straight. That's right, live at work for two weeks.

Half of the month I have to have my wife feed the tank because I'm either at work or sleeping. When someone advertises that I can just set it up on a doser and not worry with it, and then tell me I have to refrigerate it and measure out 20ml every week and somehow get a dosing pump to prime that small amount of liquid in a dosing container that i then have to disinfect ever time I refill it... They used false advertising and failed their customer base.

Lol complaints. Glad you have an essential job. Sorry you have to stay there. Sorry your hun hun has to feed the tank. Sorry your having bad experience. Sorry to hear you struggle. You’re essential to work and essential to your tank. Its hard I know, hard.
 

Kyl

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AB+ is good enough to warrant use on it's own, I just wish they would tone down what is a plague across this hobby in general - heavy, often times questionable marketing.
 

JoshH

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I know theres a lot of pointless bashing in this thread and I'm not talking about the OP. But at the end of the day, if Red Sea stated this product didn't need any form of refrigeration and I highly doubt Reef Builders would highlight that feature if it wasn't what Red Sea was pushing. Then I'd have to agree it's a huge drop of the ball, unfortunately, Red Sea seems to be failing in pretty much every aspect of there business lately so this is just one more thing they've come up short on.

It's a legit concern when a company uses false advertising (And it's nothing short of that) to lead customers to buy a product. Remember when Neptune touted there Trident and then the night before the release they came out and said it needed $100-$200 in maintenance every year and a half. Same deal. Maybe Red Seas just picking up on Neptunes marketing tactics lol

@Robin Haselden do you have room for maybe a mini refrigerator to sneak under your tank? If you drilled some holes in it for dosing lines and stored the regular A & B in that would that work instead?
 
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Waynerock

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I tell you one thing I have learned so much about the flow in my tank by dosing this stuff. It’s nuclear green and love watching it swirl and move around the tank. It has allowed me to make minute adjustments and watch the changes in action. Very cool
Ok back to topic at hand
 

JoshH

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I tell you one thing I have learned so much about the flow in my tank by dosing this stuff. It’s nuclear green and love watching it swirl and move around the tank. It has allowed me to make minute adjustments and watch the changes in action. Very cool
Ok back to topic at hand

That's actually a really nice side benefit, flows always a hard one to figure out inside a tank but it's something incredibly important. As coral grows your flow patterns can change dramatically and dosing this or other similar products by hand can really help keep someone tuned in to what's going on with the flow in there tank.
 

Magellan

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That's actually a really nice side benefit, flows always a hard one to figure out inside a tank but it's something incredibly important. As coral grows your flow patterns can change dramatically and dosing this or other similar products by hand can really help keep someone tuned in to what's going on with the flow in there tank.
I tell you one thing I have learned so much about the flow in my tank by dosing this stuff. It’s nuclear green and love watching it swirl and move around the tank. It has allowed me to make minute adjustments and watch the changes in action. Very cool
Ok back to topic at hand
Always fun! I used broadcasted reef roids when I was tweaking mine.
 

Ryan Avery

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I think we are all very fortunate to have enough disposable income to be able to spend on a reef tank. To complain about having to rinse and fill a container once a week is ridiculous. The old Red Sea energy had to always be in the fridge so it is a improvement. All this automation while nice, is making people really lazy IMO. Why have a tank if you don’t want to work on it
 

Phil D.

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as I stated earlier, it doesn't make my skimmer go nuts for a day. Having been using it now for almost a month, I can see the extra growth in my corals and the fact the polyp extension is more also. The flow patterns is a benefit.
 
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To complain about having to rinse and fill a container once a week is ridiculous.

Not really. It just depends on how the product was marketed. Past and present.

Every hobbyist has unique requirements. The OP has theirs and we all should respect that. Who are we to judge? Trust me I've had a bout of heavy travel crossing both Pacific and Atlantic and had to have people pick up my slack. Having auto feeders and dosing pumps for some critical components is key. Not key, vital.

I for one can understand the need or requirement to lower daily or weekly maintenance tasks such as refilling dosing bottles, auto feeders, and top off containers as an example. Does this mean Red Sea is a bad product? No, probably not. What it does though is limit some prospected buyers.

Personally it isn't a product I would use. I like the idea but I tend to stay with other coral foods such as IPSF. However, that wouldn't work for the OP either. So at the end of the day they need to find something that works for them and it may be limited. Thus the excitement this product probably offered initially.

To the OP - sorry. Sounds like a promising product but not viable for you. One option I can think of while not idea is to pick up a couple Voss 300 ML water bottles, glass. Drill the lid to fit a 1/4" Tube Bulkhead Connectors. Inside the Voss bottle you can use 1/4" acrylic tubing and on the top your dosing line. Measure out the weekly dosing limits to meet non refrigeration and then mark it with a label maker or sharpie. Fill them up, date them, and place in refrigerator. Swap out weekly. I think it would be the lessor of two evils for swapping out.

To the rest - instead of bashing the OP try and provide a solution. It is a bit venting on possible product change, misunderstanding, or whatever we want to call it. That is also what we are here for. To be that shoulder - especially in the current world events :D

Peace all - and happy reefing.
 

Magellan

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just to back up Robin here...what it comes down to is that Red Sea falsely advertised their product. That’s his issue, and it’s not debatable at all. This was hyped up for a long time, and it didn’t deliver. Something that needs to be refrigerated “after a week” is almost certainly losing viability over time... I can’t imagine that it’s the same on day 6 as one minute after coming out of the fridge.

Personally, I use the original A+B and like it, and I’m sure I’ll try this out as well. Am I still disappointed in Red Sea? Yes.
 

Plecosam

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They hyped up for months that this new product would not need refrigeration and could be set up on a doser. Now that it is (finally) out, the directions say to refrigerate after opening. This is a fail on Red Sea's part and I am severely disappointed. I will not be buying anymore Red Sea products...


It is a conspiracy from Seachem to get you to not buy Redsea products.
 

Bubbles_B

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I have received my 250ml bottle for my 75 gallon mixed reef/slightly heavy SPS. I am on my third day of dosing 10ml every 24hrs. I chose to dose less to allow my tank to acclimate to the new source of nutrients. So far I have seen more polyp extension from all SPS especially my tenius, my vivid confetti is more fury, but haven't noticed much of a difference in my LPS although the chalice and acans are a bit more plump than before. I will perhaps start a new thread to document the use of this product.
 

Cook

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I did also buy this product on the basis that it did not need to be refrigerated. When I got the bottle, I thought I must have misunderstood the whole no refrigeration thing, but was confused as to why they would have instructions on how to use the bottle as a dosing container. I have dosed my tank manually every morning first thing before I get ready for work though and so far and I have seen a lot of improvement with my SPS over the last 6 weeks of use. Has anyone considered trying something like a wine bottle chiller to extend the 1 week time period?
 

lakai

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Been using this stuff for almost a month and don't see anything spectacular about it.. Going back to acropower.
 
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SashimiTurtle

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Has anyone considered trying something like a wine bottle chiller to extend the 1 week time period?
That gives me an idea... small thermoelectric cooler in the stand to keep the product cool, then hook it up to the dosing pump. The stuff in the line will be unrefrigerated, but as long as you keep the dosing lines short, theoretically it should purge out before the one week unrefrigerated shelf life expires.

Now to just find a cooler small enough that runs on AC.
 

WilliB

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That gives me an idea... small thermoelectric cooler in the stand to keep the product cool, then hook it up to the dosing pump. The stuff in the line will be unrefrigerated, but as long as you keep the dosing lines short, theoretically it should purge out before the one week unrefrigerated shelf life expires.

Now to just find a cooler small enough that runs on AC.
Robin - A lot of smaller liquid cooling items are available for computers... maybe look that direction for smaller / quiet / efficient cooling options that can be scaled to suit any needs. Just a thought. As a side note... I think people should read the instructions before they buy if they have specific requirements... commercials bend the truth... that's what they do.
 

Silver14SS

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That gives me an idea... small thermoelectric cooler in the stand to keep the product cool, then hook it up to the dosing pump. The stuff in the line will be unrefrigerated, but as long as you keep the dosing lines short, theoretically it should purge out before the one week unrefrigerated shelf life expires.

Now to just find a cooler small enough that runs on AC.

Wine bottle chiller?
 

Scribz718

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I have already been through six bottles. Not only have I had significant growth; polyp extension is a lot better. Not many have stated the size of their tank or type of corals. For a 200 gallon tank that is SPS dominant, I dose 35ml a day. The bottle says dose 8ml a day per 25 gallons.
 

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