All-For-Reef, ICP and MORE! How Tropic Marin Helps Control Your Tank!

What's going on reefers? Still in the studio back with Brian from Tropic Marin. Excited to talk more about the products we've got available at TSA. One smack in the middle I think everybody knows at this point is all for but we've got a ton of other components and things coming from Tropic Marin that we want to talk about today. So I'm going to let you take the floor and I know we're going to start on this side of the table. Yeah, we're going to start back at the basics, right? We're going to start from [music] something that Hans Verna Balling created, right? The balling method. So the bowling method allows you to really control [music] u your calcium and alkalinity in your tank and and really fine-tune everything as well as your trace elements. So [music] you go down the line, it is a three-part set, right? You buy them individually, you could buy them in a liquid or a powder. Doing so, you control your calcium, you can control your alkalinity. Part C, the biggest thing is that it's not magnesium. Okay? It's a sodium chloride free salt. So it does have magnesium in it and some trace elements but very minimal. Not enough to sustain a reef tank, not enough to sustain any tank. That's why you have would have to add either biioagnesium which is another available product from us and the A&K elements. If you don't want to get involved in doing all those different things, some people want a oneandone. [music] That's where will come in. Alfar has everything in it. It has your alkaline, your calcium, your magnesium. Has your trace elements, your ANK elements already in there in both the liquid and powder form. [music] Um, obviously economical to get the powder if you have an RODi. [music] This is by far one of our most popular items in the US. So, six scoops, 900 mls of RODi water, and now you have a liter of all three. Wow. Simple enough. And it's nice too that you guys offer the ability for both. the people that want to be a little bit more cost effective, make their own or the people that just want to buy the product and get it onto a doser 100%. So, just a little pro tip when it comes to all. So, all reef the instructions say go off your alkalinity. Some folks, the problem with that is instead of going based off of what your salt is, like we talked [music] about in the last video that we did together, is that some people like a higher alkalinity. That being said, this is not designed for the higher alkalinity. So, what I like to tell people as a pro tip is go off your your calcium number, okay? Right? Get your calcium number, get to that 420, [music] that 440, whatever you desire, and then see where your alkalinity is at. From there, you can actually dose balling D and elevate your alkalinity. So, that's been a good point to help everybody because what you hear is people going, "Well, I do the Alpha Reef to get my alkalinity to 9, but now my calcium [music] is at 610." It is because we're trying to go off of natural seawater. [music] That's so funny because I I genuinely even have thought about that myself personally when I was running all reef was Yeah. I was like, man, how can I get my alkalinity to go a little bit higher without raising everything [music] else in succession? Awesome to hear that pro tip. That's a really good one for everybody watching at home. Uh to take that home, you can just add one of those components of the balling method [music] and then really super juice up that all for 100%. Cuz that's also a common questions I get. Well, Brian, I have a dose pump. It's got two heads or it's got four heads. How do I use those other heads? If I'm going from two-part down to all, right? We'll use the Alfere. And like I said, if you want to make an adjustment, make an adjustment with the B. There's your two dosing pumps. If not, we have other ways that you can use those dosing pump [music] heads, right? And obviously other ways. I'm standing right in front of them. But there's another level to this, [music] right? And as we've progressed throughout the entire aquarium industry, we've gotten smarter and smarter. We've gotten better about knowing the numbers in our tank, knowing the tank in general, and something that I think has become much more prevalent is ICP [music] testing. We see, you know, several different companies are doing the ICP testing, but let's talk about the Tropic Marin ICP analysis and how it works for you guys and then the products that coexists with it. 100%. [music] So, before we get into the actual products, we talk about the importance of ICP. So, my whole career in this industry [music] has always been ICP and not me selling it, but me telling people to use it, helping consumers, helping hobbyists. Well, I have this going on. Have you done an ICP test? I can't help you if we don't have the numbers, right? Where I'm on the phone, you're on a phone. I I'm not seeing it. I'm not a blind expert [music] where I can look at a tank and know what your numbers are, right? Nobody is. So, that's where the importance of ICP came in. What ours differs from everybody else is we have what's called the block. analysis system, [music] right? The block analysis system combines the test and the solutions together, which makes things a lot more convenient for the end user. So, going into it, we have our basic ICP and our ICP plus. The basic tests all of our trace elements, right? And our major elements. You get the sample, you open it up, it's got vials, it's got a syringe with a filter, you fill it up, you take the included padded envelope and the label, fill out your return address, send it off, right? You get it back about 7 to 10 days. It comes back. Once you get your results, you're going to get your results back in two ways. You're going to get them in individual element corrections and or deficiencies. It'll show you everything as well as what we call the block analysis, right? The [music] block solutions and what you're deficient in in that as well. So, in order to understand the block solutions now, we're going to take a step back to all. All right. Just like Hans Vernon Bowling created all and where everything is mixed in a certain ratio where it depletes [music] together so that you can dose it to that ratio. The same thing happened with the the block analysis solutions. Right? So these trace element solutions are designed that they deplete in a specific ratio together so that now we can dose them individually and that's where the five bottles came up. Right? So, you might get block iodine or block zinc on your ICP results and say, "Hey, this is your number, uh, whatever it is, and it'll show you that it's depleted or that it's below where it should be." To make it even more convenient, on our website on the labs.tropicsmarin.com, you have a calculator. So, you put in your system volume, you put in what your level currently is and what your what [music] level you want it to be at, and it'll tell you exactly how much to dose. Um, a really cool part about this is it's a one liter bottle. You can add this to a dosing pump. So, when you get into that daily ritual of how much you need, ease of use, right? It's convenient. We can use it. We don't have to worry about it. We don't have to stand in front of a tank with a droplet like counting drops every day. If you have to go somewhere for a weekend or whatever, we have a trade show. You either have to have somebody come over your house and do this for you or you're going to deplete your tank a little bit more. and now your numbers are off. Or you could just put this on a dosing pump. So that's the benefit of the block analysis solutions and [music] the regular ICP kit. The ICP plus kit does all the same things that the regular ICP does, but it gives you nine additional parameters and nutrient levels as well as the testing of your RO water. Gotcha. Okay. [music] Um kind of a tip that I like to do because people ask, well, how often should I do this? I like to see monthly, right? Get a trend. Y'all have some of the nicest corals in the world. All right. I've seen this farm many times. I drool over it many times with some of your employees give me a tour. I was just here on Monday again looking at the farm. Um, [music] but they are costly, right? Corals are very expensive. Uh, no matter how you look at it, but they're beautiful. [music] So instead of waking up one day and seeing that that coral bleaching or burning or the tips going [music] or just straight up pol bailout something of that nature that we could have caught months before by doing an ICP test. So if somebody's willing to put the investment into the livestock, I'm a firm believer you should put the investment into testing and equipment and additives as well to keep all these things alive to mimic the ocean. Yeah, for sure. I mean, we see it every single day at the retail store. And as everybody knows in the hobby, we're going to see a lot of people on the forums, on different Facebook pages saying, "What's wrong with my tank?" And like you said, what are the numbers? Where's the baseline to be able to figure out a problem? You got to figure out what's going on with the system. And also us here at TSA, we have a lot riding in that farm. Like you said, you saw it. There's a lot going on in there. We have to constantly ICP to make sure we're heading in the right direction. We're not depleting in any shape or form. But I think you're right. I think people should take more of an effort. That's right. All of you guys watching at home, have you tested your reef tank? [music] Just tested it in general. And have you sent an ICP test recently? So, I think that's definitely a big one to kind of a call to action for everyone at home to start that ICP testing. I think ultimately it can really, you know, set you up for the right direction when it comes to your reef tank. [music] And we did think about that, right? We did think about the monthly testing and all that. So, we do have these available in the single, the threepack, and the six-pack. The three-pack and the six-pack of both the regular and the plus versions [music] have a discount built into them. Nice for the user, right? And again, all the postage is paid for. It's easy to use. What I like to recommend is if you can get both, right? Say get a threeack of each, use your plus every other month to check your RORO and in between use the regular. You don't need to check your RO, you know, membrane or your filters every month, [music] but at least knowing what they do because some houses that [music] filter system might last 6 months, some it might last 18 months. It all depends on the water, [music] right? We're here in Florida. They're going through a lot of water treatment cleansing right now. And I know I am burning through a whole load of filters at my home um trying to keep up the RODi unit so that we can keep our water clean. One thing I ultimately really love about Tropic Marin is, you know, you've done the test, right? We've done the test and we're starting to figure out what we need in our tank. And sometimes people get confused now. They know the number, they know the parameter they're trying to fix up and get to the right level, but then they're like, "What product am I supposed to buy next?" You guys do all that extra work for them by having all the things already available within your product line and also within the ICP test, telling them exactly, hey, you should be buying this product. Uh, any last thoughts before we kind of wrap up? Uh, I I did want to say one last one. Allie really is on another level. We talked about it off camera. I was like, I'm not even going to mention it that much. Everybody knows about it, but it's hard not to talk about all. It's such a great product and [music] for me, one of my favorites coming from Tropic Marit. Oh, I appreciate it. Yeah. No, it's definitely one of our best products out there, right? It was innovative when it came out. It still is doing it great. Um, I agree that we it's around. The good thing about our hobby is it's constantly evolving. So, there's a lot of new people watching the videos, subscribing, and and checking out these products that might not have ever heard about this product. It might have be around for eight years, but it might be new to somebody else, and they just realize, "Wow, I can dose one thing instead of three or four." [music] So, yeah, pretty amazing. Well, if you guys are looking to ICP your tank, finally, pick up some Alfrief [music] or get into the balling method, head over to the website now and check out the entire product line from Tropicar at topshelf aquatics.com. If you guys have tuned in all the way till the end, I want to say thank you very much. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell notification so you guys don't miss out on any future uploads. [music]