Reefgrow Products

[john.m.cole3]

does anyone have any experience with these additives? I ordered the basic 3 and was wondering if the other 5 elements (manganese, iodide, strontium. potassium, and one more I can't recall) are necessary. thank you!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I do not believe that strontium or iodine are useful additives in a typical reef tank.

Manganese may have been depleted in my tank and may have been a useful additive, although i didn't add it.

Potassium never depleted in my system, but if it does, supplementing it is desirable.

 

[RamsReef]

I do not believe that strontium or iodine are useful additives in a typical reef tank.

Manganese may have been depleted in my tank and may have been a useful additive, although i didn't add it.

Potassium never depleted in my system, but if it does, supplementing it is desirable.

Bananas are an excellent source of potassium.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Bananas are an excellent source of potassium.

So are avacados and potato chips, but I would not recommend feeding any to a reef tank.

 

[twilliard]

I like seeing Randy in a funny mood! Can't be serious ALL of the time

 

[john.m.cole3]

I'll just stick with the big 3. @twilliard I finally broke down and got a doser man. Not as cool as yours, but I hope it works. My paramedic friend was so envious of the PLUM XL3 when I had it.

 

[twilliard]

I'll just stick with the big 3. @twilliard I finally broke down and got a doser man. Not as cool as yours, but I hope it works. My paramedic friend was so envious of the PLUM XL3 when I had it.

What doser did you get?
I never got around to bringing more units in with school going on.

 

[jason2459]

Bananas are an excellent source of potassium.

Moorish Idols like them.

 

[john.m.cole3]

What doser did you get?
I never got around to bringing more units in with school going on.

It's the cheapo jebao one.

 

[hawkinsrgk]

does anyone have any experience with these additives? I ordered the basic 3 and was wondering if the other 5 elements (manganese, iodide, strontium. potassium, and one more I can't recall) are necessary. thank you!

The one that you are missing is bromide

 

[john.m.cole3]

They threw in some freebies

 

[Robthorn]

I have been using reefgrow supplements for somewhere around 1.5 years and I have been running their led's for about the same time. I started using their salt last year the week after Reefapalooza Orlando.
I dose the main 3 daily automatically and once a week I dose bromide, manganese and iron. Not a lot or even close to a single daily recommended dose.
Once in a great while I dose a few ml's of iodide.
No real evidence but what I think I see from manganese is a slight increase in tip color intensity. Strawberry shortcake to me seems to be a good indicator for this.
Bromide appears to make some fleshy corals like acan puff up at least larger than when I do not dose. Ricordea that were slowly shrinking are more puffy and have been multiplying. Seems do to bromide but I am not a scientist and cannot prove it.
Iron can be a growth limiter from some articles I have read so I figured I would try it. I use 2 ml a week and have not experienced any new algea growth so I keep doing it. Not sure I see positive effects but I don't see any negative. My stony corals growth is accelerating since I have been using iron for maybe the last 5 to 6 months but I am testing and maintaining my alk almost daily right now and I have been turning my lights up. Who knows what is doing it?

 

[Robthorn]

I just got an update from this thread. Just for the record I do not use any reefgrow products anymore.

 

[john.m.cole3]

lol, me neither. I went back to BRS additives and red sea salt

 

[Aaronhome27]

Another resurrection for this thread

Why did you quit using reefgrow? I ask because I just started dosing. I used the dosing calculator they have in their site. I have a 24 gallon AIO and I set up doing for 15 gallons worth of water. I had a huge drop in magnesium due to coraline explosion. Enough so that in 3 days since my weekly water change my mag had dropped 150. (my coraline growth is absolutely insane right now). Anyway, I decided to start dosing. Using the calculator it had me dosing at 10ml of the main 3 elements. So I did so. Rwadimg the description for each element as well this was in line. I spaced out the dosing just to give it a chance to all settle in. I **** the skimmer off during this hour long period. When I was looking to buy reefgrow I was able to contact them on Facebook and they told me they could all be dosed at one time but I should dose the buffer last. So I did so over an hour long period. Nearly all my corals closed up within an hour of dosing. I was panicked and retested. Mag alone had shot up nearly 50 where the calculator had shown it would be 2. That's 25x what the calculator said. Calcium and alk also shot up way past the numbers that their site said. I spent 2 days trying to find a way to contact them including a Facebook message. 4 days later and still no response from the company. I wasn't rude but just asked about the dosing rate. Also the calculator is calling for 6.4 ml per day of bromide and 1.6 of manganese. These numbers seen pretty high for a small water volume. I still have coral that haven't opened up. Is this the norm with this stuff? I'd heard a few good things about their products but after this issue and no response to messages (that they read) I'm seriously wondering about this company. I know one thing for sure. The dosing rates are extremely far off. The screen shot is the dosing rates recommended for 15 gallons of water. LPS dominated. Like I said, the mag alone shot up around 50 ppm

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I had a huge drop in magnesium due to coraline explosion. Enough so that in 3 days since my weekly water change my mag had dropped 150. (my coraline growth is absolutely insane right now).

Sorry, that is nothing more than testing error.

The only sink for magnesium is incorporation into calcium carbonate. Thus, to drop magnesium by 150 ppm, you'd have to see an alk drop of many hundreds of dKH and a calcium drop of over a thousand ppm. Not happening in 3 days.

 

[Aaronhome27]

Odd I dosed over the next 3 days to make up the difference and was able to get it back up to the beginning point. So I dosed for nearly 80 difference to get there. So more than likely the coraline has been eating it up. Dkh dropped 1.5 and calcium went from about 5 ppm drop daily to now 15 ppm daily usage.

 

[Aaronhome27]

I'll definitely have to see what tonight's testing shows. I wasn't sure how I'd see such a drop in magnesium and the only thing that would explain it would be the coraline. After dosing heavier mag my corals opened back up. As always I highly value the response Randy.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Odd I dosed over the next 3 days to make up the difference and was able to get it back up to the beginning point. So I dosed for nearly 80 difference to get there. So more than likely the coraline has been eating it up. .

Sorry, no, that just cannot be true. There is some other explanation, such as some or all of the tests being inaccurate.. Magnesium does not just disappear down a rabbit hole into the coralline. It can only combine with alkalinity and calcium.

Real magnesium depletion is on the order of 0-2 ppm per day.

 

[Aaronhome27]

Yeah I'm stumped. I'm using salifert test. Today I test with seachem test. (new test) Right now with dosing 3ml calcium, 7ml mag, and 3 ml alk I actually lost 45 ppm mag, lost 5 ppm Calc, and gaine 0.3 dkh.

Current numbers are

Temp 79.5
Magnesium 1155
Calcium 405
Alkalinity 8.75
Ph 8.3
Phos 0
Nitrate 0

2 days ago at the same time numbers were
Magnesium 1200
Calcium 410
Alkalinity 8.45

Prior to that (4 days) all number but magnesium were steady but magnesium had been at 1330 to 1345 for the 3 previous weeks. Only change was this massive coraline growth I have everywhere in which I didn't have any before. I typically dosed 1 ml of Cal, mag, and alk every other day and it held numbers right where they were. I've got just a handful of coral with LPS dominant. Now my LPS have been growing extremely well though. I do weekly water changes of 10% using a 220 gallon bucket of aquavitro salinity which will last me forever being I do a 2.25 gallon weekly water change. Figured it was best to have a constant salt for the first good while as my tank established.