Additives that actually help corals.

[reefermadness]

Really....there are very few products I trust are worth it and personally I use none and get fairly good success (dont you think?)
[IMG][/IMG]

[reefwars]

vit c dose.


i just aquaired a bunch of frags i sold someone back over this year and they were in a ulns....

well i showed a few people the color differences in the pieces i sold and the pieces i kept for myself.....its night and day when they are side by side


the stuff from the ulns looks like its working hard to get even a bit of color while the stuff in my tank is vibrant(not talking about sps too eary in the game for me to tell with sps) ...i thought it was suppose to be the other way around??


im actually going to make a friend a bunch of frags and stick them in his sps dominant tank and compare colors in the future for ****s and giggles

[FragIt Dan]

I agree with the 'Salt' comments... there is little substitute for a good salt and regular (weekly maybe) water changes. Alternatively, less frequent water changes (perhaps monthly) can result in some of the elements in your tank to become depleted.
When I am keeping up with my my water changes the only thing I add is food (other than Ca and carbonates) and have liked Zeovit's Coral Vitalizer, but it is a bit pricey for me. Recently I have gotten into Reef Snow from Brightwell Aquatics (BA) and am happy with both the product and price.
When I am doing water changes less than weekly I dose KoralColor, also from BA, although most of the other trace element supplements out there will likely be just as good. Also, when my blues/purples are fading, I dose Potassium (K) and notice a big difference after a few days of dosing (the brand probably matters little for this). I have also been messing around with Boron (branded as BoroChrom, also from BA ), and found it really helps with my reds in several, but interestingly not all, of my sps/lps. It is not that expensive and you only add one or two mls a couple of times a week, so a $15 bottle lasts forever.
But, as I said, I don't use any of that stuff when I am doing regular water changes


Dan

[albert_dao]

... Okay guys, c'mon here. This is so heavily biased and misinformed.

There are plenty of additives out there that work plenty fine. Just because your corals are colorful doesn't mean they can't be MORE colorful, or colorful in different shades. Same goes for growth, polyp extension, and longterm success (especially in the case of certain Goniopora and Cespitularia.

It's so frustrating seeing people assuming that their work is complete and that no amount of tinkering or experimentation will do anything to make it "better".

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

... Okay guys, c'mon here. This is so heavily biased and misinformed.

There are plenty of additives out there that work plenty fine. Just because your corals are colorful doesn't mean they can't be MORE colorful, or colorful in different shades. Same goes for growth, polyp extension, and longterm success (especially in the case of certain Goniopora and Cespitularia.

It's so frustrating seeing people assuming that their work is complete and that no amount of tinkering or experimentation will do anything to make it "better".

yeah happens alot of reefcentral the first topic of food or additives comes up and a bunch of sps guys come on and say look at my full tank grew with nothing but goodlights flow and water.

i def believe there are alot of products that help both in growth and color.

[lockrookie]

Just because the can says male enhansment doesn't mean it will work... I think what the op is looking for is what ppl use that has made improvement without them wasting their money on miracle potions so to speak. I may try vitc myself


Sent from my porcelain aquarium

[reefwars]

no sense adding anything unless you know why your adding it...adding anything blindly or just for the hell is risky.

find out what you want to achieve and base your search off that)

[reefermadness]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

... Okay guys, c'mon here. This is so heavily biased and misinformed.

There are plenty of additives out there that work plenty fine. Just because your corals are colorful doesn't mean they can't be MORE colorful, or colorful in different shades. Same goes for growth, polyp extension, and longterm success (especially in the case of certain Goniopora and Cespitularia.

It's so frustrating seeing people assuming that their work is complete and that no amount of tinkering or experimentation will do anything to make it "better".

I've had poor colours dosing nothing......and tried quite a few additives with little results as well. Now I have very good colours (once I gained the experience) with out dosing anything. How is this biased or misinformed?

Im not saying none of them work....some of them probably do work but dont need them to achieve great colours. Could my colours be better.....honestly I dont see a product that would make enough difference for me to bother....and its may even be risky to my success.

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

I've had poor colours dosing nothing......and tried quite a few additives with little results as well. Now I have very good colours (once I gained the experience) with out dosing anything. How is this biased or misinformed?

Im not saying none of them work....some of them probably do work but dont need them to achieve great colours. Could my colours be better.....honestly I dont see a product that would make enough difference for me to bother....and its may even be risky to my success.

Look, your tank is nice. But I wouldn't label your success the logical conclusion of SPS reef keeping and color refining. Allow me to show you an example of color refining using additives:







Sorry about the blurry cellphone pictures.

Top image is your typical purple valida.

Bottom image is after it has been played with using several additives.

I'm not talking about merely keeping animals alive. One should be competent in that regard PRIOR to attempting any sort of additive dosing. What I'm talking about is enhancement/modification of the corals.

Just because you're proficient at something, that doesn't mean there isn't an entirely different way of looking at where success begins and ends. I'm not here to argue about the NEED to use additives, I'm saying they have their time and place should you have the patience, discipline and observational skills necessary to utilize them. I call you biased because you look at your results and assume that's all there is to it. That is incorrect.

[albert_dao]

Let's make this a little more obvious:

Side by side: