Two part solutions have been a mainstay of the reef aquarium hobby for generations of reef builders, and there are countless variations on providing an ionically ‘balanced’ pair of calcium and buffer additives. Many startup companies have created their own formulations and garnered some degree of local success and after more than five years in business the Reef Pro Complete AB has earned a little bit of a spotlight.
Reef Pro was founded by Gilbert Fernandez in West Palm Beach, Florida and they offer a range of reef aquarium staples including foods for SPS or LPS corals, a methanol-based carbon source for reducing nutrients, but the Reef Pro Complete AB is probably their most compelling product. Reef Pro A is a concentrated calcium solution packed with nearly the entire periodic table of trace elements, and Reef Pro B is a buffer solution for raising alkalinity which also includes a dash of iodine and potassium.
Unlike some established brands which have started shipping dry powders in large containers for hobbyists to mix up themselves, or half full and therefore lower concentrations in order to reduce shipping cost, Reef Pro Complete AB are only sold as full containers so they are mixed to the highest required concentrations using only pharmaceutical grade ingredients à la Warner Marine of years past.
We are immediately skeptical of any new company that pops onto the reef aquarium scene claiming to have the “best” formula for XYZ chemical additive, promising unheard of results but this is not Reef Pro’s tone at all. Reef Pro Complete AB is simply a well formulated two part solution for reef tanks that includes a wide range of trace elements that our corals need in order to grow and thrive and blossom to their full potential.
What we find most compelling about Reef Pro’s approaching to garnering new users is that they actually grow their own corals as part of the business, not in order to tweak any formulas back and forth, or to sell frags, but simply to demonstrate the effectiveness of their product line. We’re not talking the most common LPS and soft corals either, but some of the newer popular strains of Acropora and sticks with lots of possible color combinations that aren’t always very easy to bring out, especially the rainbow of pigments that are found in fast growing axial tips, the polyps and all the way down to the encrusting base.
If you’re already hitting a reasonable concentration of calcium and alkalinity, and providing your corals with periodic trace element supplementation you will likely experience minimal benefits by replacing all that with Reef Pro Complete. But if you find yourself interested in streamlining your dosing regimen or consolidating many different additive solutions into one comprehensive recipe, the results that Gibert achieves with his corals is really impressive and it’s a testament to what is possible with a sensibly formulated two-part solution like Reef Pro Complete. [Reef Pro Store]
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