Let's talk about the Red Sea coral care program

larryhaynes · Nov 25, 2015

When I mainly want to talk about is the heightened levels that Red Sea recommends and why they recommend these levelss to be so high my alkalinity is testing at 10.6 right now and calcium is right around 460 just curious if anyone else out there using the entire line that Red Sea offers and has anyone had any luck trying to keep levels that high what are the pros and the cons now you have observed? About two months ago I set up my dream to tank, well minus about 300 gallons lol.. And I am dosing the entire Red Sea program I have an SPS aquarium and I'm curious to find out what you guys think I've already put thousands of dollars into my coral and don't want to lose any! Everything is going smoothly the tank is amazing corals are encrusting well all in all I have no complaints so far just kind of concerned about long-term success phosphates are testing at zero nitrates are testing at zero which I am a little concerned about but other than that everything is fine so let's hear your experiences in your successes, or your failures.

dfm34 · Nov 25, 2015

I am thinking of doing this following along to see the results.

dbl · Nov 25, 2015

I've been running the program for about 10 months now. 120g mixed reef. However I'm following the guidelines for a low nutrient system. My particular tank has never done well when my alk becomes elevated, so I didn't attempt the treatment plans geared for the higher alk. I average about 8.0 alk, 420 cal, and 1320 mag.

My SPS are doing great. Good color and growth overall. My zoas are not doing well, but I have no direct reason to point to the program. Other softies are doing great great.

Here's my conclusions for it's worth... If I'm being honest, I think it's an expensive dosing program that in all likelyhood isn't any better or worse than most others. I like it because of its simplicity. I realize it costs me more, but I actually buy the pre-mixed stuff so I can just dump it in the dosing containers. And just like your picture above, I dose the colors right out of the bottle too.

After this glowing review, you might ask why I keep using it. Well, it's working and I've fallen victim to the old adage...if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Please understand these are just my opinions...others may vary.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 25, 2015

larryhaynes said:
When I mainly want to talk about is the heightened levels that Red Sea recommends and why they recommend these levelss to be so high my alkalinity is testing at 10.6 right now and calcium is right around 460 just curious if anyone else out there using the entire line that Red Sea offers and has anyone had any luck trying to keep levels that high what are the pros and the cons now you have observed?

I'll just answer the alkalinity question since I do not use the Red Sea program.

Many, if not most, hard corals will grow faster at higher alkalinity. I usually recommend 7-11 dKH for typical aquaria, but some folks find colors of some SPS corals to be improved when nutrients are lower, and many people have found that SPS get burnt tips in ULNS systems (ultra low nutrient systyems) when alk gets too high. That might be because the skeleton grows faster than the tissue can keep up, so it gets too thin at the tip (just a hypothesis I heard from Charles Delbeek, but it's the only reasonable explanation I've heard).

So for that reason, many SPS folks keep slightly lower alkalinity (say, 8 dKH).

Perhaps the full Red Sea program includes more organic foods (like in the ocean)so the tissue can grow faster and that is why they recommend higher alk.