Red sea foundations opinions please never used

[Tankkeepers]

I know this has been asked before

but not as far as I could tell since 2018

So is the red sea foundation kit any good

Have not done anything other then a yearly test up to this point (I know but no need till now for me)

But I'm adding more lps

And the candy cane has reached a critical size for tank mass

So I have to start testing this big 3

Calcium

Magnesium

And alkalinity

And soonest based on tank size and growth I will need mag for sure but that will kill if not tested for

So how well does this work in an auto doser

How well manually I between water changes let's say week 1 water change week 2 does repeat may have to step up as coral gets bigger to any auto doser every day

Anyway right now I'm looking at staying all red sea

Red sea test kit
Red sea color abcd
Red sea energy ab+
Red sea carbon
Red sea ABC foundation kit

I already use red sea coral pro which is why no need to test as I do 40 percent water changers every 2 weeks with a complete change every 2 months

 

[Tankkeepers]

Let me add wife will not let me spend 1000 more on the tank for testing so 300 to 500 dollar ranger for testing and kits is what I'll have for now will be able to get a auto doser etc next year

I'm already blowing half my budget on coral

 

[Tankkeepers]

Also 32 biocube for refence with almost exactly 25 gallons in it of actual water just alittle more then 25 so like 25.7

 

[Tankkeepers]

Also if it cant be hidden in tank or in cabinet I can't have it

 

[shakacuz]

red sea testing kit is reasonable and consistent. i still use mine from time to time, but prefer the hanna checkers.

hanna ULR phosphorus or phosphate, nyos or hanna HR nitrate, hanna alk, aqua forest magnesium, salifert or red sea calcium is what i see often from many reefers here.

 

[Tankkeepers]

red sea testing kit is reasonable and consistent. i still use mine from time to time, but prefer the hanna checkers.

hanna ULR phosphorus or phosphate, nyos or hanna HR nitrate, hanna alk, aqua forest magnesium, salifert or red sea calcium is what i see often from many reefers here.

Hanna out of price range for now I think but is ultimately the alk checker goal as I do see it most often

Never heard of aqua forest before

salifert was already looking at these test kits instead of

Not worried about nitrate or phosphates as I can see what's what with those

But the rest you don't see untill it's bad enoff that it is probly to late and I won't get there

My original plan was a few small lps a gorgonian and softys

But then I thought ok let's see if the light is really any good so I bought 4 diffrent monties as monties are pretty laid back

Out of 4 a year ago the forest fire has grown alot

The Stella tubs did not grow much

The cap blew up

Lost the last one and honestly can't remember what it was it was a non plater tho just encrusting

They have done so well I'm going sps and LPS letting the sps and LPS kill the soft coral over time except the clove polyps gorgonian and shrooms which will stay

The original tank design water changes alone would of been enoff to replace everything

This was intentional but in a year the softys overgrew the tank and I got board hobestly

But since I'm going with more LPS(adding frog spawn) letting the LPS get much bigger then I originally intended to and will have alot of sps once tank is grown in

I HAVE TO START TESTING

And more then likely add mag I'm guessing it's around 1250 right now so on the low end

I can clearly see a boost in growth directly following the water change every 2 weeks that lasts 4 days then slows down to almost nothing so I'm running out of traces just don't know which ones

Guessing calcium and mag mabey iodine

Tap water well has alot of both cal and mag which is why I use rodi for changes but tap for water evaporation fills

It also has night phosphates in it which is why I can't use it for water changes and is where my phosphates come from to balance the nitrate I add via food been doing this 12 years so I know my well water very well

Not iron for sure As well has way to much iron in it so high long term human exposure drinking it can lead to iron poisoning no iodine in the well water tho and no nirtates

 

[Tankkeepers]

I moved them all up at least 3 inches(cap moved half the tank up)

Stella tubs now growing fast
Digi blowing up
Cap grows daily
New grafted pink and yellow is almost healed and growing after only 2 weeks

Also color has brighter alot

Forest fire lost all the green tho and it was replaced with the purple from the Stella tubs

Kinda pretty

Vivid purple cap

German blue digi

Classic green with purple tip frog spawn

And possibly a clam to still be added

(need more study on this right now it's a no as I think the tanks to small to feed one honestly need to make sure that light really is enoff once they get bigger and how well of a nutrient sink they really are)

Along with a cleaner shrimp

 

[Simon_M]

Red Sea Foundation powder is easy to use and understand. The cost of the powder is much lower than premixed with water e.g. £77 for 3x 1 litre “stock” premixed vs £99 for 3x 1kg powder.

The powder makes 8x the total “stock” solution using Red Sea’s own Reef program e.g. mixed type 2 reef Ratios 1:3:.33. RS also have smaller mixed stock that aren’t good value. So you pay too much for the convenience of buying it pre-mixed with water?

I have a lot of Test Kits, so picked Salifert as they are more economical than Red Sea and easy to use and understand. Their reputation is good too. One thing that makes them easy to use is waiting 3 minutes max vs 9 minutes for some of the R/S ones. Transferring a test result to mixing and dosing doesn't’ depend upon using the same manufacturer‘s products.

Simon

 

[Tankkeepers]

Going to get manually testing now with a mix of kits there a best list on here somewhere I found mix of red sea hanna and salifert

But I talked wife into letting me upgrade the biocube to a robocube (what I'm naming it)

Via a ghl everything

Ion director
Kh director
2 1s
not sure on the 4 or 4e ckntroller yet
etc

Iv looked at every system and ghl looks like it's one of the better units once it's setup properly

Apex was a contender but I like the footprint of ghl and its sleek vs apex is kinda ugly nothing really matches anything else

Can't have another tank but I'm alowed to spend whatever on this 1 tank

 

[Tankkeepers]

Red Sea Foundation powder is easy to use and understand. The cost of the powder is much lower than premixed with water e.g. £77 for 3x 1 litre “stock” premixed vs £99 for 3x 1kg powder.

The powder makes 8x the total “stock” solution using Red Sea’s own Reef program e.g. mixed type 2 reef Ratios 1:3:.33. RS also have smaller mixed stock that aren’t good value. So you pay too much for the convenience of buying it pre-mixed with water?

I have a lot of Test Kits, so picked Salifert as they are more economical than Red Sea and easy to use and understand. Their reputation is good too. One thing that makes them easy to use is waiting 3 minutes max vs 9 minutes for some of the R/S ones. Transferring a test result to mixing and dosing doesn't’ depend upon using the same manufacturer‘s products.

Simon

I'm going liquid becouse iv read alot of people having problems getting the powder to mix properly

And I know I don't have to use red sea stuff

But I figure the additives in the bottle are already what I'm using in the salt and everything loves it so why change

I cre more about coral health then cost honestly

I can only ever have 1 small tank so even it maxed out won't cost more then 100 dollars a month for additives etc and a few hundred every 6 months for basic maintenance plus 50ish in electric

So honestly that's pretty cheap compared to my old system that used 250 dollars a month in electric alone we won't talk about the rest lol

 

[Simon_M]

I mention the powder versions because you mentioned the wife sets a budget and this is a way to achieve the same without breaking the bank. I buy almost everything from one supplier and they recently did a TV style review of the Foundation system - they didn't mention the powders. Either they consider the powders too difficult for new users or they prefer to sell the more expensive version (profitable).

Whilst it's obvious that buying the RS Foundation liquid versions in their starter pack is expensive, it's not so obvious that 1kg of powder makes 1.8 litres, 10 litres and 1.7 litres of stock for ABC. Everyone's setup is different. I have a 180 litre tank and only mix up 250ml of each solution. It means that I can use a RS pipette to dose the DT. No issues with making up the stock solution - one gets warm and the other two benefit from being warmed up. Once the bottles are in solution, I can't see how they will be different as they are added to the tank. I just finished the starter pack of KG/Coraline Grow liquid in the Mature kit and it precipitates when adding to the tank so even liquids can't overcome this.

 

[Jeffcb]

I have had my 250 l running for 20 months.

I have hand dosed the entire Red Sea Program manually and daily using RS MyRecipe Wizzard successfully.

https://www.redseafish.com/myrecipe/ Its a great place to start.

Hand dosing dose get a little old. Luckily I acquired a 4 head ReefDose when released. I use it for A B C and AB+

I have a desktop drink cooler for the AB+

Still hand dose Color ABCD

I use RS test kit except for Hanna P04 ULR

I like RS products. They have worked for me.

 

[Simon_M]

I'm starting with the Red Sea Foundation system - good to know it works for you.

I have a smaller 180 litre tank. My powders are mixed and I keep them in 250ml bottles. I can remove content with a pipette.

I think the plan is to stabilise the levels in the DT and establish what is required to bring it back after four days and then dose 1/4 of this for the next four days and keep adjusting until everything sorts out.

What is to stop me find the amounts to add and then mix them into one bottle and apply it daily. If I know how much is added of each of the three solutions then this ratio stays constant until I next evaluate and reset the ratios?