Trace elements dosage. Red Sea trace colors

[Trillaman954]

Does anybody know the instructions? The pamphlet is unclear. Must i test beforehand? I had to stop wc because of Dino’s and since I’m running carbon I've read it can deplete these trace elements.

 

[crazyfishmom]

If you add trace elements while battling Dinos you’ll fuel the Dinos.

 

[Reefahholic]

Only Iron is subjective.

What kind of Dino’s?

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Does anybody know the instructions? The pamphlet is unclear. Must i test beforehand? I had to stop wc because of Dino’s and since I’m running carbon I've read it can deplete these trace elements.

big letters on the box "easy dose by calcium " it's dosed off calcium consumption, which is backwards for me since my calcium is dosed based off my alkalinity but whatever red sea your special!! lol

 

[Reefahholic]

big letters on the box "easy dose by calcium " it's dosed off calcium consumption, which is backwards for me since my calcium is dosed based off my alkalinity but whatever red sea your special!! lol

Doesn’t work well either way. Ratio’s are fixed.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

big letters on the box "easy dose by calcium " it's dosed off calcium consumption, which is backwards for me since my calcium is dosed based off my alkalinity but whatever red sea your special!! lol

Yes, they recommend dosing by calcium. Not a big fan of that, but it’s not hard to figure out. Do you know the ppm of calcium dosed per day, or the alkalinity in dKH?

 

[taricha]

I had to stop wc because of Dino’s and since I’m running carbon I've read it can deplete these trace elements.

to be clear, the "don't do water changes" advice is meant to halt the needed traces that the dinos use for exponential growth.
Dosing traces is literally doing the opposite of the "no water changes" advice.
(I don't find the no-water changes to be necessary. but others have. I'd definitely start back small WCs before I started a trace dosing product.)

 

[Trillaman954]

Yes, they recommend dosing by calcium. Not a big fan of that, but it’s not hard to figure out. Do you know the ppm of calcium dosed per day, or the alkalinity in dKH?

I don't need to add calcium since it's at 460 though. I guess this is too difficult. I'ma return this product.

 

[slogan315]

Calcium and alkalinity (among other things) are consumed daily by corals and inverts. So assuming your calcium is 460 today, what is it tomorrow or in a week? This would be your consumption rate.

Since you can measure major elements like calcium, and can’t easily or reliably measure trace elements, most products try to estimate your dose of trace elements based on alkalinity or calcium uptake.

It assumes trace element usage is proportional to macro element usage. So if your system uses 10ppm calcium, you should dose X amount of the solutions.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I don't need to add calcium since it's at 460 though. I guess this is too difficult. I'ma return this product.

how do you add calcium, magnesium and alkalinity to your system? on what kind of schedule and what amounts relative to your total system water volume?

 

[Doctorgori]

Since you can measure major elements like calcium, and can’t easily or reliably measure trace elements, most products try to estimate your dose of trace elements based on alkalinity or calcium uptake.

yeah that’s what they are doing and I dunno, it’s also 4 more dosing heads…so again vs the AFR regime: I dunno…
OP didn’t ask for a opinion but
I’m doing their program for now but TBH I have some skepticism

 

[slogan315]

yeah that’s what they are doing and I dunno, it’s also 4 more dosing heads…so again vs the AFR regime: I dunno…
OP didn’t ask for a opinion but
I’m doing their program for now but TBH I have some skepticism

i like the results i get, but I don’t automate dosing. If I were to dose on dosers, I think I’d mix the bottles in rodi and make a diluted all in one mix. Then only need one dosing head.

 

[mrpontiac80]

Does anybody know the instructions? The pamphlet is unclear. Must i test beforehand? I had to stop wc because of Dino’s and since I’m running carbon I've read it can deplete these trace elements.

Also, I am just seeing the trace additives. If you are going to use these I really feel like you should have their trace test kit.

Fair warning it’s a time consuming and much more complicated test. 30 min wait times, filters for test and etc.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don't need to add calcium since it's at 460 though. I guess this is too difficult. I'ma return this product.

If you are not adding calcium, that shows the flaw in this dosing method. You can still use it and assume an average calcium usage (I’d use 10 ppm per day as an average) or you can get a product dosed on mL per gallon per day, such as Tropic Marin A and K.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Also, I am just seeing the trace additives. If you are going to use these I really feel like you should have their trace test kit.

Fair warning it’s a time consuming and much more complicated test. 30 min wait times, filters for test and etc.

I don’t think there are many trace elements usefully measured by kit.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

i like the results i get, but I don’t automate dosing. If I were to dose on dosers, I think I’d mix the bottles in rodi and make a diluted all in one mix. Then only need one dosing head.

I’d be wary of mixing things intentionally sold separately.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

If you are not adding calcium, that shows the flaw in this dosing method. You can still use it and assume an average calcium usage (I’d use 10 ppm per day as an average) or you can get a product dosed on mL per gallon per day, such as Tropic Marin A and K.

I think RS uses calcium because while alkalinity and calcium are used together in the coral building process, calcium uptake is not always seen to be used up as quick as alkalinity movement by hobby test kits leading people to think they don't need to add calcium. seeing that they don't need to add calcium maybe they won't add trace colors..

when dosed off calcium instead of alkalinity maybe there will be less overdosing because most people don't see calcium movements unless it's a truly demanding system, and there is a daily demand of alkalinity which is a system that could benefit from their trace elements program.

I think their trace elements program is majorly used by systems that do not need trace elements and redsea is lowering the amounts of overdoing and saving their hardships with the majority.

I actually have been using this colors program for less than a year but I can't say it's doing anything. I can also say I don't dose it to the instructions. I dose it according to my alkalinity demand which is the only thing I use and test frequently.

I like the tropic A K product I use that on another system too, but I use the low side of the instructions for some reason that system gets weird ICP results but I'm not sure about those results either. With A&K I use the lowest measurement per gallon.

they are all great products when used appropriately!

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I’d be wary of mixing things intentionally sold separately.

yes agreed, elements definitely have reactions and cannot be stored together short/long term that's why they are sold separately.

reefmoonshine program promotes that all elements should be seperate which I believe is a good way to look at these elements when making a convenient all in one mix.

 

[mrpontiac80]

I don’t think there are many trace elements usefully measured by kit.

I have no idea how accurate it is, but it does seem to line up with my icp results. The Red Sea trace test kit has 3 tests that cover iron, iodine, and potassium.
I have the products, but only used them for a short time. So kinda going off memory here but the ABC trace additives can be dosed based of the test kit, where part D is strictly off calcium I believe.

Really I bought them because icp tests were regularly coming back with low iodine, low potassium and whatever. I thought this might be a fix. In reality the starter bottle of iodine part A was not even enough to get the test to where it recommended. And I quickly decided that my regular dose of AFR and water changes would be sufficient. I never even dosed part D because it just didn’t seem clear enough to me how much to use and I didn’t want to try to fix what is not broken with my system.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The Red Sea trace test kit has 3 tests that cover iron, iodine, and potassium.

Yes, but that's exactly my point.

Potassium is not a trace element, so that does not fit my comment.

Iron by kit only works for Red Sea because they have a super incredibly high recommended level, and I suspect that is only so it can be detected by their kit that is nowhere near able to detect natural levels.

Iodine is the only trace element I know of where some kits seem useful at natural levels. :)