Description

Complete Reef Care is a simple but comprehensive 4-part supplement program that ensures optimal coral growth and coloration, that revolves around a single weekly measurement of Calcium, which determines the dosages of all 4 parts.

A successful coral reef aquarium is dependent upon maintaining the appropriate water parameters that provide the stable environment required by the corals. This is achieved by starting with balanced seawater such as using Red Sea or Coral Pro Salt and using complete and balanced supplements, that are formulated to work together for long term use, without changing the ionic balance of the water.

Red Sea’s 4-Part Complete Reef Care is the result of years of research into the physiological demands of SPS, LPS & Soft Corals in the reef aquarium and practical experience with the original 7-Part Reef Care Program on tens of thousands of diverse reef tanks worldwide.

This research has shown that there are 36 Major, Minor and Trace elements that are regularly depleted from the aquarium water and have an active role in coral growth and coloration, as well as other biological activities of the reef environment. In reef systems without refugiums, coral growth is the most dominant biological process that affects the water chemistry, and that the 36 elements, including the Alkalinity components, are used up in a relatively fixed ratio. Since Calcium is the key indicator to coral growth, all the elements can be supplemented according to a measured uptake of calcium.

The Complete Reef Care divides the 36 Major, Minor and Trace elements into four parts to ensure their stability and bioavailability.

• Part #1 contains: Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium & Barium.
• Part #2 contains: KH/Alkalinity components.
• Part #3 contains: Potassium, Boron and the halogens Iodine, Bromine and Fluorine.
• Part #4 contains: Iron, Manganese, Cobalt, Copper, Aluminum, Zinc, Chrome, Nickel plus 18 other bioactive trace elements

• Dosing by Calcium Explained

  Since all of the 36 Major, Minor and Trace elements including the Alkalinity are used up in a relatively fixed ratio it may seem logical that the Complete Reef Care supplements can be dosed based on a measurement of the Alkalinity instead of calcium, however, this does not work.

  Almost all the calcium and most of the other 36 elements are taken up exclusively by the biogeochemical processes of the corals and therefore there is a direct relationship between coral growth and the calcium uptake.

  The carbonate and bicarbonate alkalinity components that are used by the corals to form its skeleton is an important part of the Total Alkalinity of the aquarium water, however, the measured Total Alkalinity also includes the Alkalinity of many other components such as borate, phosphate, fluoride, silicate, sulfate, nitrate, and organic compounds. These other components of total Alkalinity are easily affected by many non-coral related processes such as water changes, foods, supplements, build-up of organics and by-products of bacterial activity. Furthermore, there are other biogeochemical processes such as photosynthesis and nitrification that also consume carbonate alkalinity components.

  Dosing all 4-parts based on the uptake of alkalinity, will also dose the Calcium and other elements that were not depleted by calcification. This will lead to higher concentrations of Ca and other trace elements that will cause precipitation and a drop in alkalinity that will break the delicate chemical balance of the water. On the other hand, corals have the ability to regulate the carbonate alkalinity inside their calcification centers and are able to adapt to slight changes in the Alkalinity of the aquarium water.