AB+, or other coral food. Beneficial for nems or just expensive skimmate?

[Seancj]

Do any of you dose AB+, or other 'coral food', into the water column for your anemone specific tanks? If so, I assume you've seen some benefits...growth, color saturation, etc.? I'm starting to consider it for my mag tank. Starting to research wether or not it would be beneficial. Any input would be appreciated!

 

[JoJosReef]

No idea, but following

 

[Spare time]

I have historically as until recently (due to me being away and a macroalgae die off), my nitrates were alwasy between 0-2ppm. Reef energy (which is what everyone called it before all of the sudden calling it ab+ lol) is essentially just pre digested food that can supposedly be taken in by the soft tissue of the coral. This should mean I don't need to target feed or have it capture and reel in the food, but either way, its going to provided nitrogen to my take with little to no phosphate (I say little to no because hypothetically it shouldn't but red sea doesn't fully disclose the ingredients. So if you either have very little fish, low nitrate, or high export of available nitrogen sources (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate), I would say go for it. If you have cyano issues, or high nitrate issues, then maybe not.

 

[TrevorHenryTDH]

I have a 50 Gallon tank long, 30 sump with 80+ BTA’s and a harem. My nutrients stay pretty high and I’m pretty lazy on the water changes so I do dose amino acids. So far so good! Working well for me.

 

[Miami Reef]

Read this thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1510200

From Randy:

A skimmer will not remove most individual amino acids, IMO, but it can certainly remove proteins and whole bacteria and bacterial body fragments that contain a lot of amino acids.

The very most hydrophobic amino acids may be skimmed out a bit, but IMO those are not the ones most likely to be useful in a supplement anyway.

I you are already shutting down the skimmer, then you might as well dose when it is off. Just may sure you are no underaerating the water when the skimmer is off.

 

[Spare time]

I have a 50 Gallon tank long, 30 sump with 80+ BTA’s and a harem. My nutrients stay pretty high and I’m pretty lazy on the water changes so I do dose amino acids. So far so good! Working well for me.

Why would you dose aminos if you have high nitrate levels? Salts do not (typically) contain amino acids.

 

[srobertb]

Do any of you dose AB+, or other 'coral food', into the water column for your anemone specific tanks? If so, I assume you've seen some benefits...growth, color saturation, etc.? I'm starting to consider it for my mag tank. Starting to research wether or not it would be beneficial. Any input would be appreciated!

No…but actually yes.

I have 3 kids.

One eats a healthy diet (and a good amount) of food.

One eats complete garbage.

One just doesn’t eat.

One I don’t worry about because he gets everything he needs. One gets a multivitamin, the other gets daily amounts of probiotics, multivitamins, shakes, fiber powder, etc.

There is no “accelerator” for your tank. All you’re doing is balancing and adding certain things that were previously deficient which has the desired effect.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not of benefit to them but rather feed mysis shrimp or chopped krill. Its like offering a liquid diet.

 

[Spare time]

No…but actually yes.

I have 3 kids.

One eats a healthy diet (and a good amount) of food.

One eats complete garbage.

One just doesn’t eat.

One I don’t worry about because he gets everything he needs. One gets a multivitamin, the other gets daily amounts of probiotics, multivitamins, shakes, fiber powder, etc.

There is no “accelerator” for your tank. All you’re doing is balancing and adding certain things that were previously deficient which has the desired effect.

That is pretty much how I use it since my tank has a heavy demand for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate to where I need to supplement something easy for the corals to grab and eat. Given that all corals should be able to capture and digest it, compared to zooplankton and phytoplankton where corals can be specialized and not be able to capture what is fed, I think its a good choice for a wide variety of corals in a tank

 

[TrevorHenryTDH]

Why would you dose aminos if you have high nitrate levels? Salts do not (typically) contain amino acids.

Watched a YouTube video way back in the day on a harem nem tank and that’s all the guy did lol. So ever since I just took his advice and here we are. Seems to be working for me ‍

 

[djf91]

I have historically as until recently (due to me being away and a macroalgae die off), my nitrates were alwasy between 0-2ppm. Reef energy (which is what everyone called it before all of the sudden calling it ab+ lol) is essentially just pre digested food that can supposedly be taken in by the soft tissue of the coral. This should mean I don't need to target feed or have it capture and reel in the food, but either way, its going to provided nitrogen to my take with little to no phosphate (I say little to no because hypothetically it shouldn't but red sea doesn't fully disclose the ingredients. So if you either have very little fish, low nitrate, or high export of available nitrogen sources (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate), I would say go for it. If you have cyano issues, or high nitrate issues, then maybe not.

What would be a good phosphate containing compliment to ab+, in your opinion?

 

[Spare time]

What would be a good phosphate containing compliment to ab+, in your opinion?

If phosphate is a concern, I'd maybe look at vitachem since it has some ingredients that contain phosphate but not a dramatic amount if my guess is correct. I think it should be similar to reef energy in terms of how it functions (albeit most use it in their fish food). I tend to prefer phosphate to come from fish food or by dosing so that it is easier to control. Spirulina is cheap and can skyrocket phosphate. There are plenty of ways to do it.