red sea test kits

[Reef Swimmer]

Who uses the red sea test kits and what do you like about them. Im thinking about switching to them to give my corals more color and to make my tank healthier. I also want to start dosing.

[rrasco]

I use them. They work, but it has been difficult in the last year as the test kit colors have changed with their new kits. This is normally not a problem, except when you buy refills and were not aware the colors changed. Once you get past that though, they work well. Not as direct as Hanna checkers, but RS has done me well. I also hate doing the mag test, but that's just because I hate the procedure.

Dosing is a great idea. I am not sure how people are successful without it (although there are many). I never had much success with coral growth until I started dosing 2-part.

[ramsey]

It's all about consumption. I'm not dosing any calc/alk/mag because I don't need to. I test before I do a water change and after and my parameters stay consistent. I haven't used the RS test kits, so I'm not sure how good they are. I use a Hanna checker for alk and phosphate. calc/mag/nitrate/potassium are all tested with Salifret kits. I love the Salifret test kits. They're easy to use and better than a lot of tests. Oh yeah, they're cheaper too.

Here's a couple of tips. First, get phosphate and nitrate under control before you do anything. The type of tank you want determines what those numbers need to be. If you're doing softies and LPS, they can be slightly elevated. If you're doing SPS, they need to be very low (but I don't recommend 0).

Don't dose alk/calc/mag if you don't need to. Test your water before and after a water change. If the parameters are where you want them to be and stay stable, you don't need to dose. If it drops by the time you're ready for a water change, start dosing small amounts to try and keep it stable. Stability is key, especially with alk. The last thing you want is to dose 2-part and spike your alk levels. If you're going to do a bacteria based system (biopellets, zeovit, vinegar, etc.), it's a good idea to keep alk somewhat low ( < 7 or 8dkh ). I've read a lot of posts of people having issues with higher alk in a bacteria based system (RTN, bleaching). This mostly applies to SPS.

If you're talking about dosing other things, just do your homework. FEEDING (nutrients), stability (temp, alk and salinity), low phosphates and lighting all plays a role in coloration. If you're good on the first three, some corals do better and are more vibrant under lower or higher lighting. Some even change appearance and coloration completely due to light intensity! For general feeding (LPS and softies), I like Coral Frenzy and mysis for larger LPS. For SPS, I like Oyster Fest.