Woah A B C premix are dirt cheap compared to what Ive been using. $20 less per bottle and almost twice the volume. Ill be trying this out next month when I run out. Im guessing there's gotta be something missing to justify this price difference. I noticed brightwell had a few extra ingredients. Strontium chloride, borate salts, magnesium chloride and magnesium sulfate. Can anyone recommend anything else to add with premix A B C? I've done the 15-20 water changes for months and found it harder to keep my system stable and corals happy. But thanks for the advice :) Oversized skimmer 180-200 gallon, live rock and chaeto are doing well so far. Aqau forest minerals were mentioned.

Just thought I'd mention it again if I havent already. My corals grew damm well with brightwell 2 part. And super easy to use. Just soo friggen expensive.

I like the Aquaforest dry chems. They sell tracelements that you can also mix in if you'd like. When you mix it up to their directions is it VERY close to Randys Recipe #2 so I use the Reef Calculator when figuring out dosing or make up doses.

When you buy Brightwell you are paying 80% for the name, 20% for the product. You let Brightwell do your calculating for you.

When you add a no name (reef Crest) 2 part solution you are basically adding CaCl and NaHCO3 (Sodium bicarbonate) to your tank. Your hard corals, snails, coraline algae etc are only using CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) at that exact ratio. This leaves pure NaCl behind.

We all know the salt we use is more than just NaCl. Eventually the levels of Nacl can get out of wack. Hence we do water changes to re-stabilize it.

The extra chemicals that most of the higher end 2 part solutions add to your tank are everything in a salt mix except the NaCl. This way the only thing that changes in your tank is your specific gravity gets higher. So you need to monitor your specific gravity every month or so and adjust accordingly.

If you add a NaCl free salt mix (Aquaforest Reef Mineral Salt) to your tank at the correct proportions than you can balance your noname 2 part solution thus keeping your ionic balance in check. How ever to do so you need to be good with math. The reef calculators that are available on the web will help.

I am not a big fan of haphazardly adding things like strontium, iodine and trace elements without understanding exactly what you are doing. Good way to screw up your tank.

For most of us water changes are our way of getting things back in check. If you are not doing regular water changes and you do not fully understand reef chemistry you will eventually fail.

Got it, use a product without NaCl. I'll be extra careful with the math. Your right Frogger, need to do more water changes got way too much invested. I've done a bit of research on people running tanks with little or no water changes. I thought it was possible, that's why I bought a oversized skimmer and wet skimming. Also keep up on carbon and gfo. Also rapid phosphate removers once in a while. I know water changes are a good way of removing and adding better levels of trace elements. I'll up the volume on changes. You mentioned B ionc. At least I have a few options now.

Thanks Myka, but I'm assuming this means more test kits for each trace element?

Ya for sure water changes are always a positive thing. If you don’t want to do water changes I think you are looking more for the Triton method.

These are the same trace elements as any other "balling" method such are Fauna Marin, Tropic Marin, Zeovit, etc. "Balling" simply means "3-part with trace elements". The trace elements are added in certain ratios compared to the macroelements (Ca, KH, Mg) for the most part, and as long as you keep up regular water changes (which flush out any accumulation) then it's not a problem.

The Aquaforest system is excellent in the sense that you can buy the premix (just like your Brightwell) which has all the trace elements premixed into 3 parts. This product is called Component 1+2+3+.

Aquaforest then has the dry chems you can buy, Calcium chloride, Sodium bicarbonate, Magnesium chloride. You can use these as is to make something like Randy's Recipes. These dry chems work out to be around $5 per pound if you buy the 4kg and 5 kg tubs. So this is cheaper than most stores "no name" chems.

OR you can take those bulk Aquaforest chems, and add "Components Strong" to each dosing container which is the trace elements. This then makes a DIY version of the Components 1+2+3+.

You can get dow flake from home hardware. 85% calcium chloride, life time supply for $25. Had to be special ordered though.

I have been using Randy's recipe for about 12-13 years although I recommend using food grade or better.