What amino acid supplement for low nutrient system
 

I've got a BB coral prop tank and trying the low nutrient approch.
Zeovit amino acid High concentrate or Prodibio reef booster?

warner marine makes some stuff called ultimate aminos, hell of alot cheaper than the zeovit stuff. I know of a few people that use the stuff and have great results.

Just thought i'd throw it out there for you.

Particulate food will be your best bet for delivering amino acids to your corals.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11382060#post11382060 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MCsaxmaster [/i]
[B]Particulate food will be your best bet for delivering amino acids to your corals. [/B][/QUOTE]

what foods would you suggest?

Actually,

I've had the best results by soaking a pinch of Fauna Marin Ultramin powdered food with some Ultramin S amino acid.

You only need to add AA if you have a low nutrient system.

James

Coral snow by KZ is an effective way to deliver the aminos to the coral....

I use it with very good success

eins

I would agree with that also.

James

So is Zeovite or prodbio B.S.?
I would like to try the coral snow.
Thanks

elos makes a good amino acid

Selcon won't break the bank.

It seems Prodibio Reefboster is not amino, althoug it is coral food. I used it but also use Ultramin-S, what is amino. Some of my acros close polyps as soos as the feel Ultramin-S on water (specially staghorns). But I will try Elos soon.

Never heard but good things about Coral Snow.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11382874#post11382874 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GSMguy [/i]
[B]what foods would you suggest? [/B][/QUOTE]
Here's a couple posts on this same question:
[url]http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=10504981#post10504981[/url]

[url]http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=8620344#post8620344[/url]

Given Mcsaxmaster knows the literature and a heck of a lot more about coral biology than I ever will, I often look to his posts to help differentiate marketing + user's claims from how science suggests things works.

My take?
Yes, aminos can be used to feed corals.
But, corals can also produce most aminos themselves - and given that corals can get fine nutrition from particulate foods [which may feed more coral than aminos which are readily available to algae/bacteria/etc] - I don't believe there to be any demonstrated benefit to dosing food from a bottle vs. from a freezer.

Given aminos often cost significantly more than other foods which supply the same essential nutrients for corals, there's probably quite a number of foods that would feed the corals well.

Others might not agree with my take on this, and we're all free to disagree politely :) But IMO there's been a lot of TOTM's and SPS pioneers who have had perfectly astounding tanks without dosing aminos.

[QUOTE]I don't believe there to be any demonstrated benefit to dosing food from a bottle vs. from a freezer.[/QUOTE]

One benefit would be that amino's don't contain the amount of phosphate that freezer foods do. The amino's are readily accessible to bacteria that use the amino's to make polymers that form aggregates.

These aggregates are better food because it takes phosphate from the water column to make them.

Amino's = less phosphate and more bacteria.

I have seen great results with my CZ AA.

-SAM

It has been sugested that Sps could use up AA. But there is really nothing that states they they do use them up. Last months coral magazine has a great artical on this topic...You will be suprised at what they found out.
I have treid AA and they did nothing for me ...........OR.........my SPS :)

Michael

I have squirted straight amino's directly on corals and seen little results.

When I put amino's in my denitrator I see big results on bacteria, skimate, and aggregates.

I have been mixing amino's and a little sugar together for a while now with good results on biofilm and aggregates. If you consider thick water with little chunks floating around a good thing.

I can confirm that corals eat these chunks and so do fish if they get big enough.

more fish?

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11391654#post11391654 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by trueblackpercula [/i]
[B]It has been sugested that Sps could use up AA. [/B][/QUOTE]

it's been suggested and proven ;) whether or not the corals or bacteria utilize them in our aquarium is unknown.

AA's increase PE for me and enrich colors. when combined with other nitrogen sources and carbon dosing i find increased coloration of sps and reproduction and growth of "dormant" filter feeders. food works very well, but as a300 hinted at AA's allow finer control without the po4 side effects.


jme.

[QUOTE]when combined with other nitrogen sources and carbon dosing i find increased coloration of sps and reproduction and growth of "dormant" filter feeders.[/QUOTE]

I've noticed some strange sponges lately. Also a lot more water borne pods at night...sometimes they flock to the flashlight sometimes not.

I'm still trying to figure out the perfect ratio of C:N:P it's hard when you have a lot of macro algae and don't know exactly how much C is in the water.

I feed some chopped shellfish sometimes if things look bleachy.

Seems like a fine line between bleached and brown...but that's where the color is at.

so is there anything for outstanding coloration and health for sps?
Has anyone tried any of the color enhancing stuff form Zovite?

. KZ Coral Snow is a liquid secondary biological facilitator for KZ AAHC

. Elos Omega Coral Amino Acid

I have seen increased color while using KZ AA.

But then, as always, it could be attributed to many things.. right. The most basic just being time.

Anyways, I will continue to use them as well as a few other high end supplements because I have ran out of other stuff to buy for my tank. ;)

I'm with Mcaxmaster & MiddletownMark on this one. Any particulate food will work. AA's are a waste of money imo.

Five years ago Seachem was one of the few manufacurers of AA's & now every single manufacturer has one. It has nothing to do with how well they work.......it's more about hype and demand & the reef community is getting sucked right in. They even get away with charging alarmingly high prices for the stuff.

I haven't seen anyone post before & after pics of the wonders of AA's & how great the colors have improved. Furthermore, unless you have pastel/pale corals you won't get any value whatsoever out of them.

Corals synthesis the 8 essential aminos on their own......
[url]http://www.biochemj.org/bj/322/bj3220213.htm[/url]

"These eight amino acids are valine, isoleucine, leucine, tyrosine, phenylalanine histidine, methionine and lysine. The ability of cnidarians to synthesize these amino acids could be yet another indicator of a separate evolutionary history of the cnidarians from the rest of the Metazoa."

I would venture to say if these commercial AA products carry any of the 8 aminos listed they are useless, as the corals already produce them on their own.

If I were a rather unscrupulous individual, I could make a lot of money off of reefers willing to throw money at magic bullets. I'm not sure why people are so willing to believe that magic ingredients exist, but suffice it to say that they do not. All that is exist are basic ingredients and good technique.

A lot of fish poop.