ATI Essentials have been getting favorable attention for a few years over in Europe, but many on this side of the Atlantic have been left waiting. Now that might change as Marine Depot announced it will start carrying ATI Reef Essentials, what they describe as a complete support system that is easily tuned to the needs of your reef aquarium.
The three-part system featured the main components we’ve come to see in other dosing systems — calcium, magnesium and carbonates. However, the ATI Essentials includes additional trace elements.
Breaking down the ATI Essentials
ATI Essentials features the three main components in two sizes, 500ml and 1000ml that are mixed with water to be pumped into the aquarium using a dosing system. Here is a description of the three parts:
ATI Essentials #1 – Carbonate Sources
ATI Essentials # 1 is a dry powder that includes various carbonate sources.
ATI Essentials #2 – Calcium and Trace Elements
ATI Essentials #2 is a liquid concentrate that contains calcium and other essential trace elements. These include mainly (among others): boron, bromine, cobalt, chromium, fluorine, iron, iodine, potassium, lithium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, rubidium, sulphur, strontium, vanadium, and zinc.
ATI Essentials #3 – Magnesium and Trace Elements
ATI Essentials #3 is a liquid concentrate that contains magnesium and other essential trace elements. These include mainly (among others): boron, bromine, cobalt, chromium, fluorine, iron, iodine, potassium, lithium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, rubidium, sulphur, strontium, vanadium, and zinc.
Getting Started with ATI Essentials
ATI recommends mixing each dry component 9:1 RO/DI to product and then bottled for dosing. To get started, you need to figure out your starting dosing amount based on your KH/alkalinity consumption, and then dose all three in equal amounts.
If you are starting from scratch, ATI recommends these simple guidelines and then adjust based on your parameters:
- New aquariums and/or tanks with few corals: 5 mL of ATI Essentials per 100 L (26.4 gallons)
- Soft corals and anemones: 10 mL of ATI Essentials per 100 L (26.4 gallons)
- A mixed reef with SPS, LPS, and soft corals: 25 mL of ATI Essentials per 100 L (26.4 gallons)
- A SPS dominant tank: 50 mL of ATI Essentials per 100 L (26.4 gallons)
One of the benefits ATI touts in that ATI Essentials is designed to eliminate the need to perform partial water changes to correct water chemistry or compensate for trace elements. Resulting in the overall health and growth of your corals.
A 500ml bottle set of ATI Essentials retails for around $21 and will make 5 liters of mixture and the 1000ml bottle set retails for around $35 and makes up 10 liters.
[via Marine Depot]
