amino acids

[reef4life!!!]

So i am looking to add some supplements to increase my coral's health and growth-color.Originally i was thinking of buying the aquaforest amino and vitality but the shops in my country don't really use theese products so they couldn't provide me info about them but they gave me some alternatives such as korallen-zucht amino,AB+ and some polyplab stuff.What do you guys suggest to buy? I've read that the AB+ is good but is mainly for sps corals and that's why i left this option(if someone have better information about this product feel free to share it)


***I have about 10 lps and around 30-35 different zoas but i will slowly start buying some more lps so the tank will be mainly lps and zoas and later maybe some easy sps corals(seriatopora,digitata etc.)

 

[T-J]

Iodine supplements can help with the coloring of LPS (especially reds). I have a mixed reef and use AB+ (lighter dosing due to phosphates) and Brightwell Amino.

 

[reef4life!!!]

Iodine supplements can help with the coloring of LPS (especially reds). I have a mixed reef and use AB+ (lighter dosing due to phosphates) and Brightwell Amino.

have you seen more growth and color with the AB+ and the brightwell amino?

 

[muzikalmatt]

I just got started with the Reef Moonshiner's method and I like the overall philosophy of this approach quite a bit. Where as most "trace element" programs lump several (or all) trace elements together into one or more supplements, the moonshiners method isolates and addresses the level of each individual element. I think this makes the most sense as with other methods you may be overdosing one element while underdosing another given that the elements are mixed together. I also like that it utilizes actual testing rather than guesswork for the most part through frequent ICP testing.

There are a few downsides though. It's probably one of the most expensive methods as it requires frequent ATI ICP testing and you have to purchase the elements up front. In addition, it requires daily hand dosing of certain elements due to the small amounts you're required to dose (at least for my size tank). Larger tank owners could probably setup dosers for everything if they wanted to.

There are ways to mitigate the up front cost though. For example, after my first ICP test I just purchased the elements that were the most off from their target levels. I had several that were very close to the optimum level but said I needed to dose, so I decided to forego those this round and just purchase the daily elements and the ones needing the largest adjustments. I'll probably pick up the other elements after my next round of testing. All in I spent about $125 bucks on elements up front this round and it was about $50 for the ICP test.

Again I just started this method so I can't speak to the results yet, but there's a great community on Facebook that can answer your questions (including the creator of the method) and I know there are many people here on the forums that use this method as well and have done so with great results.

 

[coralfishreef]

Acropower for amino acids.

Spot feeding reef roids, reef chili, or similar fuels Zoanthid and Goniopora growth and increases phosphates. Have to be careful and test often until a pattern is established. TM has similar products - Zooton, Phyton.

I’ve also noticed positive response to Polyp labs Polyp booster.

 

[ZoWhat]

So i am looking to add some supplements to increase my coral's health and growth-color.

.... which is the type of dangerous thinking that 90% of the time you do more harm than good

I stick with WCs every 15 days in the month. The only thing I dose is stuff from TM to manage no3 po4 levels in the AM...and phyto in the PM.

 

[T-J]

have you seen more growth and color with the AB+ and the brightwell amino?

Hard to say since I've been using it for so long. I will say that my colors are very bright, and growth seems to be pretty good.
I've also had great success when adding new corals. I just temp acclimate and drop them in. I think aminos is all part of having great water quality.

 

[Lyss]

.... which is the type of dangerous thinking that 90% of the time you do more harm than good

I stick with WCs every 15 days in the month. The only thing I dose is stuff from TM to manage no3 po4 levels in the AM...and phyto in the PM.

I tend to agree with this. I gave myself the gift of a lovely green cyano outbreak all over my sand by dosing aminos, and have since backed off.

I dose AFR and phyto daily, and pns probio weekly. Then target feed reef roids or benepets once in a while. A few times a week I feed the tank frozen and I’ll give some of the lps pieces of mysis.

 

[reef4life!!!]

Again I just started this method so I can't speak to the results yet, but there's a great community on Facebook that can answer your questions (including the creator of the method) and I know there are many people here on the forums that use this method as well and have done so with great results.

Yeah your method is kinda expensive for me so i think i will leave it alone...thanks for the answer though

 

[reef4life!!!]

Acropower for amino acids.

Spot feeding reef roids, reef chili, or similar fuels Zoanthid and Goniopora growth and increases phosphates. Have to be careful and test often until a pattern is established. TM has similar products - Zooton, Phyton.

I’ve also noticed positive response to Polyp labs Polyp booster.

acropower for zoas and lps?

i might give reef roids a try

 

[reef4life!!!]

Hard to say since I've been using it for so long. I will say that my colors are very bright, and growth seems to be pretty good.
I've also had great success when adding new corals. I just temp acclimate and drop them in. I think aminos is all part of having great water quality.

Alright then thanks for the feedback

 

[reef4life!!!]

.... which is the type of dangerous thinking that 90% of the time you do more harm than good

I stick with WCs every 15 days in the month. The only thing I dose is stuff from TM to manage no3 po4 levels in the AM...and phyto in the PM.

well basically i should have said it in the first post that the main reason i am looking to add any coral supplements is because the last 4 months i've been losing some lps corals,parameters are good except from magnesium which sits at 1650(i don't know if this could kill corals) so i thought that my tank could be missing vitamins that's why i want to start supplementing to see if i can increase my corals health.If adding aminos would do more harm than good then yeah i'll pass

 

[reef4life!!!]

I tend to agree with this. I gave myself the gift of a lovely green cyano outbreak all over my sand by dosing aminos, and have since backed off.

I dose AFR and phyto daily, and pns probio weekly. Then target feed reef roids or benepets once in a while. A few times a week I feed the tank frozen and I’ll give some of the lps pieces of mysis.

i've read about the phyto dosing and i was considering this as an option,since i might be addinga small clam soon that will be needing the addition of phyto at the early stages...you saw improvements by using it?

 

[Lyss]

i've read about the phyto dosing and i was considering this as an option,since i might be addinga small clam soon that will be needing the addition of phyto at the early stages...you saw improvements by using it?

Well, I don’t think it’s to say that aminos are bad, more like don’t just add stuff if you don’t know if something is missing or what is missing, which usually does more harm than good. You could do an icp test to find out, and then make a plan of action.

As for live phyto, I dose that for my filter feeders — same with the pns probio. But these products also help me to maintain nice biodiversity in my tank. There are also a few corals that will show a feeding response when live phyto is dosed, but I don’t dose it for the corals.

 

[reef4life!!!]

Well, I don’t think it’s to say that aminos are bad, more like don’t just add stuff if you don’t know if something is missing or what is missing, which usually does more harm than good. You could do an icp test to find out, and then make a plan of action.

As for live phyto, I dose that for my filter feeders — same with the pns probio. But these products also help me to maintain nice biodiversity in my tank. There are also a few corals that will show a feeding response when live phyto is dosed, but I don’t dose it for the corals.

hmm i might have to try an icp test soon then...

oh i thought you were using it for the corals...i mean i would probably have to buy it to feed my baby clam right?so i guess it wouldn't harm the tank the addition of phyto right?

 

[Lyss]

hmm i might have to try an icp test soon then...

oh i thought you were using it for the corals...i mean i would probably have to buy it to feed my baby clam right?so i guess it wouldn't harm the tank the addition of phyto right?

If things seem off I would want to know more about what's going on in my system before I added things to try to remedy it, so the ICP test would help there.

Live phyto is great for filter feeders -- I don't have a clam but my feather dusters and porcelain crabs go nuts for it. It also feeds pods. Good biodiversity is beneficial to everything in the tank, so yes, the live phyto is not harmful. But as with anything you may decide to start adding, including aminos, I would start with low doses and slowly increase the amount over time so your system can get used to it.

 

[reef4life!!!]

If things seem off I would want to know more about what's going on in my system before I added things to try to remedy it, so the ICP test would help there.

Live phyto is great for filter feeders -- I don't have a clam but my feather dusters and porcelain crabs go nuts for it. It also feeds pods. Good biodiversity is beneficial to everything in the tank, so yes, the live phyto is not harmful. But as with anything you may decide to start adding, including aminos, I would start with low doses and slowly increase the amount over time so your system can get used to it.

yep i understand..thanks for the help

 

[coralfishreef]

acropower for zoas and lps?

i might give reef roids a try

Julian Sprung reef2reef interview in which he states that he “sold the product short” by naming it Acropower and marketing it for SPS.


Julian Sprung describing how he feeds corals.

 

[Schraufabagel]

I use Red Sea AB+ right now. Used to use polyp lab reef roids, but it was a lot more work and you have to target feed. I like the ability to broadcast feed better