Anyone using Red Sea Trace Colors to feed corals

[Bigfish of La.]

i just viewed the BRS video on using this product and it seem promising to bring out colors in corals.

What has been your experience?

 

[mckinney0171]

i just viewed the BRS video on using this product and it seem promising to bring out colors in corals.

What has been your experience?

I use it. Great products all of them. It has made my corals pop for sure.

 

[biophilia]

I've been using it, but can't say for sure if it has improved coral coloration. My corals have improved in coloration, but I have also been focusing more on tank husbandry in general in that timeframe. If I had to guess, I'd say that Trace Colors is more essential in tanks with a lot of corals and very few/nonexistent water changes. There are lots of tanks out there that don't do trace element dosing and have really amazing colors with just regular water changes alone.

One word of caution: when dosing Trace Colors, make sure to dose into your sump, the back compartment if you have an AIO, or by mixing into a cup of tank water first and slowly adding into the flow of a powerhead. I'd heard stories about dosing directly into the tank and too high a concentration dripped on corals and causing STN, but stupidly ignored them. The first time I dosed, I used the dropper directly in my display and a pink acro right underneath the the dropper STN'd within 12 hours. What I've been doing these days to remedy that is dosing trace colors into my weekly water change water.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I purchased the set and the test kits as i have been doing less and less water changes (400 gallon system)..

I have not used the test kits yet and calculated my dosage based on calcium. I only dose about once every 4-5 days though. I am not knocking those that dose every day but to me, if they were that important and got depleated THAT fast.. everyone would have to be doing large water changes every week and i have seen plenty of SPS tanks without RS colors or water changes.

 

[GoVols]

i just viewed the BRS video on using this product and it seem promising to bring out colors in corals.

What has been your experience?

Yep,
They'll do the job.

You can dose per Red Sea's instructions to your calcium's intake.
The Red Sea "Reef Energy" A & B is a very good product too.

 

[Bigfish of La.]

Yep,
They'll do the job.

You can dose per Red Sea's instructions to your calcium's intake.
The Red Sea "Reef Energy" A & B is a very good product too.

Do you use Reef Energy A&B along with Trace Colors?
What type of schedule do you use for each?

 

[mckinney0171]

Do you use Reef Energy A&B along with Trace Colors?
What type of schedule do you use for each?

I use both. I dose trace colors once a week (saturday usually) and I dose reef energy A & B every evening since I struggle to keep my nitrates and phosphates measurable.

 

[SPR1968]

I use the Reef Energy and also coral colours.

On the coral colours I dose by Calcium uptake and I air on the side of caution and dose around 5ml every 7-10 days. Do they make a difference, i honestly can’t say, but I keep adding them and all is well. I’ve followed the Reef Care Program from the start and it’s served me well. To be honest it wouldn’t surprise me that if you do regular water changes you may not need them but.....

I’ve gone from using Reef Energy every day, to every other day without any sign of changes but I do have a very high bioload so the corals getting plenty of food from elsewhere as well.

They are different products, Reef Energy to feed the corals, and coral colours to add back in trace elements which have been depleted.

 

[GoVols]

Do you use Reef Energy A&B along with Trace Colors?
What type of schedule do you use for each?

Yeah,
I built up to 15ml of both Reef Energy A & B / at five days a week, but now I have Reef Roids into the rotation too.
So, I feed the RE three days a week and the RR's two days a week.

After every water change I do dose Reef Energy to keep the nutrients up.

I ran the Red Sea ABC+ powder with Trace Colors C & D for an year. The ABC+ already has Trace Colors A & B in that product.

Since that time I've moved on to an calcium reactor. After a few months the corals colors seemed to fade (But I'm picky... ;Wacky)
So, I started dosing all four of the Color's Program, but only 1ml of each every few days. It did the job.

I was dosing the KZ Trace Element Complex, but I'm going back to the Red Sea colors. I don't know what's in the KZ Complex and it concerns me.

Like @SPR1968 already said. Dose the trace elements to your cal's intake, but play it on the safe side.