I’ve been using the Red Sea 4 part for ~ 2 months or so now. My corals are liking it. I was using just Red Sea Foundation A,B, and C since re entering the hobby after a 22 year or so an absence.
Upon starting the program my corals perked up and I was impressed by that. I based my starting calculations by just doing the math as to how much calcium I was adding previously vs the new program. That conversion worked near perfect calcium wise.
That said I do not find the CA only based dosing as working at all. I find I have to manually dose ~40% more ALK then the program allows which kinda makes sense as the prior RedSea formula assumed a 3:1 ratio of Alk to CA which is about what my tank was using yet the 4 part program is closer to 2:1 ratio of Alk to CA. I also find my MG declining and having to manually dose to bring it back up. The RedSea program itself is very inflexible in that you are not allowed to adapt the program as far as I can find. That is a fatal flaw IMO as every tank is different and I’m not sure if I’ll continue to use. If I do I’ll setup a separate head for ALK so I can automate the extra dosing required and I’ll need to start adding additional MG to my water changes.
I’ve since run an ICP and found my Iodine and Manganese were low. I suspect this is due to me just using Foundation A, B, C for a while before starting the new program. I’ve supplemented both of those to bring that levels up and the corals are really really happy now. So we will see. Program works great. If you’re prepared to manually dose and test more than CA. AND make sure your starting parameters are right. I think I will stick with the program. We shall see
