Red Sea ABCD Colors? Any experience?

[Joeganja]

Just ordered the 4 bottle 500ml and I wanted to know if there's any experience if it works well or any proper input on it.

 

[dbl]

I've been using them for about a year. Per Red Sea, it's dosed as a percentage of calcium uptake, but I don't remember the percentage off the top of my head. I've enjoyed great growth on my mixed reef and I really can't complain about the coral colors either. I can't say for certain it's related to the Red Sea program or not, but I go by the old adage...if it isn't broken, I'm not going to try to fix it. It seems to be working for me in my system even if it's just fools gold!!!

 

[Joeganja]

Anyone else?

 

[Joeganja]

I've been using them for about a year. Per Red Sea, it's dosed as a percentage of calcium uptake, but I don't remember the percentage off the top of my head. I've enjoyed great growth on my mixed reef and I really can't complain about the coral colors either. I can't say for certain it's related to the Red Sea program or not, but I go by the old adage...if it isn't broken, I'm not going to try to fix it. It seems to be working for me in my system even if it's just fools gold!!!

I just really wanna know if my acros would color up?

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I just bought some but have no experience yet. I, too, am interested in hearing about others' experiences.

 

[jsker]

I have been using the ABCD for the past 4 months and I have noticed improvements in my colors. I do have the reef colors test kit and I have been making adjustment to my dosing. I am dosing 5 ml twice a week of the BCD, and just 5ml of the A once a week.
Note; I am using an auto doser now and sense using the doser I have noticed better results instead of dosing manually

I am also using a balling method with a different product and this has also helped with my colors. I am going to switch away from the ABCD to the product line that I am using for the balling method to see what my results will be.
I have used Red Sea products for sometime now, with my old setup with a 10 year break and now with my new system with consistent results, Start slow and check you colors, from what I found you really need to watch the iodine levels. My iron is always low, same as my K. As in regard to D dosing and what I have researched is that you should dose D in equal parts. What I am doing is dosing D in equal amounts as I am Doing BC for the reason that my iodine levels are inline.
Hope the gets you closer to you answer

 

[Joeganja]

I have been using the ABCD for the past 4 months and I have noticed improvements in my colors. I do have the reef colors test kit and I have been making adjustment to my dosing. I am dosing 5 ml twice a week of the BCD, and just 5ml of the A once a week.
Note; I am using an auto doser now and sense using the doser I have noticed better results instead of dosing manually

I am also using a balling method with a different product and this has also helped with my colors. I am going to switch away from the ABCD to the product line that I am using for the balling method to see what my results will be.
I have used Red Sea products for sometime now, with my old setup with a 10 year break and now with my new system with consistent results, Start slow and check you colors, from what I found you really need to watch the iodine levels. My iron is always low, same as my K. As in regard to D dosing and what I have researched is that you should dose D in equal parts. What I am doing is dosing D in equal amounts as I am Doing BC for the reason that my iodine levels are inline.
Hope the gets you closer to you answer

Much more in depth thank you.

 

[Joeganja]

I have been using the ABCD for the past 4 months and I have noticed improvements in my colors. I do have the reef colors test kit and I have been making adjustment to my dosing. I am dosing 5 ml twice a week of the BCD, and just 5ml of the A once a week.
Note; I am using an auto doser now and sense using the doser I have noticed better results instead of dosing manually

I am also using a balling method with a different product and this has also helped with my colors. I am going to switch away from the ABCD to the product line that I am using for the balling method to see what my results will be.
I have used Red Sea products for sometime now, with my old setup with a 10 year break and now with my new system with consistent results, Start slow and check you colors, from what I found you really need to watch the iodine levels. My iron is always low, same as my K. As in regard to D dosing and what I have researched is that you should dose D in equal parts. What I am doing is dosing D in equal amounts as I am Doing BC for the reason that my iodine levels are inline.
Hope the gets you closer to you answer

Now how big is your aquarium? And is it sps or mixed? Heavy or medium load?

 

[jsker]

Now how big is your aquarium? And is it sps or mixed? Heavy or medium load?

72 gal tank, 61 water volume right now. Sps, lps, a few softies with about 40 corals so yes the tank is stocked heavy.

 

[jsker]

I was dealing with a Po4 issues and was making a bunch of water changes. I stripped the BIO load in regards to the fish but the coals were looking great. After some research I figured that one of the reasons I was having browning issues was the lack of trace elements, and yes the lack of balence in my system.
The tank is 13 months old.

 

[McMullen]

Used for almost 4months. Not dosing per protocol, rather 1ml of each every night. My tank is a 140Gal, SPS dominant with several medium and large colonies. I have noticed improvement to colors, deeper more intense blues mostly. For instance my ID pic…taken with iPhone and not touched up….simply used a gel filter for white balance.

FYI, I'm way way way under dosing because I'm not testing, rather going off how the coral responded. I see no reason to increase my dosing, very pleased with colors.

 

[Joeganja]

So what would you guys recommend a 4 year old set up with nitrates near zero and 90 gallon with mixed but now leaning towards mostly sps such as acros I have a whole bunch now

 

[Joeganja]

And do you dose all 4 bottles at the same time or separate times apart?

 

[FL_Reefer]

I've been using it for months, most noticed is all montipora looks slot better. Dose 1/10 of your calcium uptake.

 

[McMullen]

What Fl_reefer said

It's a gamble dosing without testing which is why I under dose. I can also say, my Cheato has exploded in growth since dosing these too, perhaps the iodine. My Phos reads 0 on my Hannah ultra low. So another benefit besides color. Oh, and I'm not using any other removal product.

 

[dbl]

...Dose 1/10 of your calcium uptake.

That's the formula I couldn't remember. I would start with something less than that and see how things progress. You can always increase the dosage if you're not seeing any results. I personally use a dosing pump so the four colors are spread out throughout the day.

 

[jsker]

That's the formula I couldn't remember. I would start with something less than that and see how things progress. You can always increase the dosage if you're not seeing any results. I personally use a dosing pump so the four colors are spread out throughout the day.

+1

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Dose 1/10 of your calcium uptake.

What does this mean exactly? Is that 1/10 of calcium uptake by volume? Or are there some other units I'm not aware of?

 

[dbl]

Others feel free to chime in, but if I'm not mistaken, it's 10% of the amount of calcium you're dosing. So if you're dosing 20ml of calcium per day, you would dose 2ml of each color per day. Red Sea actually has a pretty well done video series about their entire reef care program. It explains their philosophy and programming guidelines. One of the episodes discusses dosing the colors.

EDIT: I added the link to the episode discussing the colors below.

Here is the first episode...you should be able to grab the others from here. Here is the link to episode 5 which talks specifically about the colors.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Well, that's crazy because I'm dosing 180 mL of calcium per day. I don't think my little 100 mL bottles will last very long!