Like us, corals and sessile inverts need vitamins. They can't really go around searching for them, so they need to get it from the water. A good reef salt will have micro vitamins, but if you have a lot of livestock, some elements could be depleted. I've found a vitamin supplement like this pays off.
I don't use it nearly as regularly as the bottle recommends. It's difficult to tell what the right amount is for your tank; it takes experience and intuition. I used to just dump a cap or two in whenever I thought about it. I'm trying to get a bit more scientific. I've started testing my Iodine levels. I've found that my iodine does get depleted rather rapidly after water-changes (with new Id-enriched salt). The rate is different than my Calcium or Magnesium levels, as is to be expected. By using Iodine as in indicator for vitamins in general, I'm trying to nail down just how much of this stuff I should be using. But I definitely recommend using it for healthy corals and sessile inverts!
There's nothing like dosing your aquarium with bright blue liquid that reminds you of windshield wiper cleaner. Coral-vite claims to be a product that provides the trace elements to your tank that coral really need to display their best colors, grow, and maintain good health. It does, but it doesn't do it better than other products and in the long run requires more work than alternatives that provide results just as good and in some cases better.
Using a block of Formula 28 (not listed on Amazon but in nearly every aquarium store in the States) will provide all the base nutrients in Coral-vite and it dissolves as needed in the tank. Simply drop in a block of the white chalk like substance and watch it fizz like an alkaseltzer in the water, slowly disappearing over the next week depending on your tanks specific needs. This is a huge boon; unlike Coral-vite which is a liquid dose, you can't overdo it with Formula 28.
Target feeding your coral with a little Liquid Life Cyclop-eeze Whole Freeze-Dried and a phytoplankton dose (such as those made by Kent Marine) with some meaty bits of your coral: oyster eggs, krill, et cetera will provide even better results than Coral-vite in regard to color and growth rate.
While this isn't a bad product, there are much better when it comes to making sure your coral have all their trace nutrients and minerals and it won't provide better growth. In the end it's not going to destroy your tank, and it comes with very helpful directions on the back of the container that we should all be familiar with in handling the life in our aquarium. I would suggest this for a cheap trick, but it won't serve your longterm needs and can actually be very worrying for a person new to saltwater reefkeeping, it's much easier to use too much and if you don't have the right tests you may not know whether you're actually hurting or helping your tank chemistry.
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tried it with caution, but after 2 weeks (dose/week) my coralline algae exploded, in growth and color. very impressed. zoas and palys also exploded in growth and improved color as well. impressive!
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I have 2 of these bulbs lighting a 55gallon planted tank and I get plenty of growth from my plants. I do 12 hours per day and bulbs last about a year of good spectrum or almost 2 on a non-planted tank.
