Snake oil - bottled additives

[Formulator]

There are sooo many products these days that claim everything from magically stable nutrients to algae eradication. Unfortunately the folks who end up using these products are often newer reefers that end up doing more harm than good.

I am a big proponent of “less is more” and the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid). I don’t think a majority of these bottled products do anything other than add complexity, and often the need for more bottles of stuff. Ex. No-pox often results in the need to buy nitrate and phosphate supplements to keep from zeroing out.

So, other than Alk, Ca, Mg, and maybe carbon, what are you putting in your tank and why?

 

[VintageReefer]

Manganese - daily - I’ve seen trouble gonipora improve after a week of manganese supplement. I use moonshiners

Restor - a mix of amino acids supposedly to help lps. Not sure if it actually helps. But if I have lps with irritation from sand or coral warfare I use it for a week because…I don’t really have other options and I’ve seen things improve. Would they have improved on their own? Who knows

My biggest “on the fence is it snake oil” is reef energy ab+. People swear by it. I’ve used it on and off for years. Can’t say I’ve ever noticed anything from it except water turning neon yellow for a few hours. I always swear I won’t buy it again and after a few months I buy a bottle and start to use it. But I don’t see any changes

 

[Reefer Matt]

I started dosing phosphate in my sps tanks because something is consuming it, and it bottoms out. It may be the coral.

 

[Formulator]

Manganese - daily - I’ve seen trouble gonipora improve after a week of manganese supplement. I use moonshiners

Restor - a mix of amino acids supposedly to help lps. Not sure if it actually helps. But if I have lps with irritation from sand or coral warfare I use it for a week because…I don’t really have other options and I’ve seen things improve. Would they have improved on their own? Who knows

My biggest “on the fence is it snake oil” is reef energy ab+. People swear by it. I’ve used it on and off for years. Can’t say I’ve ever noticed anything from it except water turning neon yellow for a few hours. I always swear I won’t buy it again and after a few months I buy a bottle and start to use it. But I don’t see any changes

I’m on moonshiners as well and really like the simple elegance of the whole program. I’d consider that part of “essentials” on a limited/no water change system.

 

[Formulator]

Can’t say I’ve ever noticed anything from it except water turning neon yellow for a few hours.

But it does look pretty cool when you pour it in!

 

[VintageReefer]

I’m on moonshiners as well and really like the simple elegance of the whole program. I’d consider that part of “essentials” on a limited/no water change system.

I’ve probably changed out 15g of saltwater total in the last 10 years. And that’s a technicality. I’m counting water I drain for acclimation purposes that I need to replace with new sw

I only recently started manganese. I’m intrigued by moonshiners. Just ordered a ato icp to see how all for reef has been handling its portion of my methods over the last few years.

 

[VintageReefer]

But it does look pretty cool when you pour it in!

I agree 100%

 

[crazyfishmom]

I use AFR, hydrogen peroxide, restor, manganese, and MB7. Once a month I add live phytoplankton. One of my tanks is less than 3 months old and growing acros like nobody’s business. Something is working. Oh! And I don’t do water changes.

 

[Formulator]

I’ve probably changed out 15g of saltwater total in the last 10 years. And that’s a technicality. I’m counting water I drain for acclimation purposes that I need to replace with new sw

I only recently started manganese. I’m intrigued by moonshiners. Just ordered a ato icp to see how all for reef has been handling its portion of my methods over the last few years.

Those colors!

I would be extremely interested in seeing your ICP results! I hope you post them. I think your tank would be an excellent case-study for trace element consumption.

 

[VintageReefer]

Those colors!

I would be extremely interested in seeing your ICP results! I hope you post them. I think your tank would be an excellent case-study for trace element consumption.

I will post them
I keep my tank thread up to date

 

[crazyfishmom]

I will post them
I keep my tank thread up to date

Which service are you using? I’ve only ever done one and it was through the company that just went out of business.

 

[Formulator]

Which service are you using? I’ve only ever done one and it was through the company that just went out of business.

I think he mentioned ATI. I use Oceamo. Its an Austrian lab, but the most robust in my opinion. They have shared their method validation and several sets of repeatability and reproducibility data on here.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I think he mentioned ATI. I use Oceamo. Its an Austrian lab, but the most robust in my opinion. They have shared their method validation and several sets of repeatability and reproducibility data on here.

What’s the usual turnaround time?

 

[VintageReefer]

I’m only getting icp test for 2 reasons
1) mainly curiosity and to see if I need to make any additional supplementation or it all for reef is handling the job after all these years. Manganese is depleted fast and I can’t rely on AFR to keep up with my gonis so I want to know if the amount in dosing manually is enough to keep me in a positive number

2) I used to keep sps reefs and want to get back into it, it with a few high end pieces, and I’d like to be cautious and check for any red flags before spending the money on them

I’ve “tested the waters” <get it? Hehehe> with a few beginner sps just to see how they do, and results are positive

I just took these pics now to put in this post

Nothing crazy but wanted to make sure nothing melted or peeled or rtn overnight

 

[VintageReefer]

Which service are you using? I’ve only ever done one and it was through the company that just went out of business.

I heard that company ain’t so great

From advice on here I’m using ATI and I like that they also include a test for your rodi. Since I don’t use rodi I’m going to mail them my tap water and see what comes back lol

(I do have a whole home water Filtration system, sediment filter and 4’ carbon media tank - stage 1 and 2 of a typical rodi)

Curious what those results will be

 

[VintageReefer]

I think he mentioned ATI. I use Oceamo. Its an Austrian lab, but the most robust in my opinion. They have shared their method validation and several sets of repeatability and reproducibility data on here.

Oceamo I feel is top of the line from my research but I heard ATI is also extremely good.

You mail your samples to California and then they mail them to a lab in Germany for testing. I liked that they also test a freshwater sample

 

[crazyfishmom]

Lol I should go back to working in a materials science lab to have access to a mass spectrometer. Too bad I discovered reefing 10 years too late. I had a friend that used to run NMR on certain controlled substances he liked. This is much tamer!

 

[Formulator]

What’s the usual turnaround time?

Surprisingly fast. Less than 2 weeks actually. Reef Moonshiners facilitates the international shipping so it doesn’t get caught up in customs. You ship to them in the US and they send it to Austria, I’m guessing with some pre-arranged export that gets right on a plane.

 

[Formulator]

Lol I should go back to working in a materials science lab to have access to a mass spectrometer. Too bad I discovered reefing 10 years too late. I had a friend that used to run NMR on certain controlled substances he liked. This is much tamer!

Funny, there is an ICP-MS setup in the lab upstairs from mine. I’ve thought about it, but not worth the risk. I don’t think they would like my aquarium water in an instrument used for pharmaceutical analysis…

 

[crazyfishmom]

Surprisingly fast. Less than 2 weeks actually. Reef Moonshiners facilitates the international shipping so it doesn’t get caught up in customs. You ship to them in the US and they send it to Austria, I’m guessing with some pre-arranged export that gets right on a plane.

Awesome thank you. I’ll go through reef moonshiners then.