Kent Marine Products

[johndawg]

Anyone have any experience with ChromaMax, ChromaPlex, ZooMax or MicroVert. All 4 are invertebrate foods. Thanks in advance.
John

[Kreeger1]

not yet, Im a big fan of Reeds stuff, the phyto feast ant roti feast. seems to be working in my non photo tank
Erik

[crzy4saltH2O]

dont really care 4 kent products but i think reef nutrition is good i also heard rods?? is good stuff

[johndawg]

Thanks guys. Anyone actually use this stuff?

[CleveYank]

John,

I needed some invert food. Couldn't get anywhere to get marine snow or DT's. So I ventured to low end RMS and found the ChromaMax and ZooMax. Bought them both I think in June or so. Still going strong (IE same 2 bottles)

Basically my feeding works out that I alternate one time daily feeding Dried ESV and every other day something else.
The Chroma and ZooMax have been that something else.

My sps Milli's and acros frags expand like all get out when the lights go out. Things are still growing. My deresa and 6 crocea clams appear to be happy buggers as well. (tank 2/ 90 gal glorified growout)

I like the shelf life. They seem to be bottomless bottles. I like the non-refrigeration aspect. And I Can't tell you how many times I have left a bottle of something reef food or vitamin related not only did it not make it back in the frige but I left it on the top of the hood to cook to boot or along the path backupstairs only to locate it many days(months) later.

Long story short (it always is with me). Something like DT's is no doubt better but, This Stuff might actually work and it's easy. Of course like washing and wearing the same underwear everyday when you go on your favorite fishing trip or the same socks for the big game...it could all just be ritualized voo doo.

Mike

Oh yeah...Socks...Speaking of Socks...Go SOCKS!!!

[funkyman]

CleveYank - I read the product descriptions for Chroma and Zoomax, and they sound similar. Do you dose them both together simultaneously, or alternate products too?

[CleveYank]

I alternate the products too but not quite so strict.

basically I just reach for one of the lil' brown bottles and apply the 5 or 1 drops per 50 gallons depending upon which one I pick up. I circled the 1 or the 5 in fine red perm marker so I know the dosage at a glance.

[MJAnderson]

Originally posted by CleveYank
Of course like washing and wearing the same underwear everyday when you go on your favorite fishing trip or the same socks for the big game...it could all just be ritualized voo doo.

Mike

Oh yeah...Socks...Speaking of Socks...Go SOCKS!!!

I'm so glad you said 'washing and wearing' and not just wearing...

btw...Go SOX!

<----From Boston

[CleveYank]

(i'm just as superstitious as I was when I played baseball, shoot highpower or when I was cycling, but I'm not a slob. Of course I wash them.)


Yes indeed....Go Boston!!!!!!!!!!!!!




All in all, it's been a good year for baseball. ANYONE but the YANKEES are in it. (does sign of the cross and says amen and thank God to that).

[johndawg]

Mike,
Thanks for the feedback. Since I have all 4, I may try a daily rotation.

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Is it possible to mix these products? I'm asking because I think this stuff that can stand room temperature would be a good candidate for using a medical feeding pump to dose.

[johndawg]

Good question. All per 50 gallons:
ChromaMax - 1 drop every other day - mix with 8oz tank water
ZooMax - 5 drops every other day - mix with 8oz tank water
Microvert - 1-3 drops up to 3X a week - directly to water, can be used for target feeding
ChromaPlex - 1-2 tsp several times weekly - directly to water
Based on this, might be hard to manage. Not sure how the feeding pumps work.
John

[Kreeger1]

ok, take a quick step back and look at things. Just because one company says its good for a tank and feeds corals doesn't mean it actually does. Example Marine snow and black powder or really most of the two little fishies stuff.
Another thing, if it doesn't need refrigerated how does it not go bad, Are there ingredients that preserve the stuff? If so thats probably not a good thing at all.

Also look at what other amazing tanks are using...are the Tanks of the month using this stuff.... Can't find one that is. Is this product a buzz on the internet....no ..... Is there any proof were feeding anything more then the skimmer other then my corals look better which could be from many different things.?? If it was a quality product with a ot of people using it or people getting amazing results are using it, it would be all over Reef central, and is not. So I'd save the money and get something that has a track record to work.
Dt's seems to have a good track record. But when feeding nonphotosynthetic corals they don't ingest the it. Not sure why, but I have seen it on video through a mesoscope the polyps taking the food in and then spitting it back out. I have seen the same corals ingest another brand of phyto though. reed's phyto feast. Im using the commercial version of that now, shell fish diet. Works great from my corals. I also feed a homemade blend of oysters, some call it the blue coral method. Basically blend fresh oysters for 5 minutes, add some water to thin it and freeze. Super high protein for the filter feeders and small polyp corals.

My 2 cents
Erik

[aninjaatemyshoe]

They're just basically a peristaltic pump with a vinyl bag gravity feeding the input and a controller that let's you adjust the feed rate rather precisely. You can typically have feeds from 1mL/hr to 300mL/hr. It shouldn't be that difficult to manage if you simply measure out the proportions correctly. I would probably use the Plex stuff instead of the Max stuff simply because they have larger dosing regimens, easier to work with. From the description, it seems that the zooplankton/phytoplankton in these guys are dead and preserved with simple food grade preservative. If this is the case, one should be able to mix the zoo with the phyto without worrying about the zoo completely consuming the phyto. It would definitely be worth a try. If it works, it would be just about the simplest/easiest feeding mechanism I can think of.

A company called Brightwell Aquatics makes a similar series of phytoplankton/zooplankton food that does not need refrigerated. Here is where you can buy it: http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/cat...ath=86_374_376
Does anyone have experience with this one?

[Kreeger1]

The aquarium specialty stuff looks interesting. Im going to order a few different kinds and test them out with the mesoscope on the dendros and see if they eat it.
Good find
Erik

[shawnz28]

For what it's worth, the person who started Brightwell used to work for Kent.

[Kreeger1]

ah. Woder if its a similar formula then. Time to research it.

[aninjaatemyshoe]

I see the concern for the preservatives. I just don't know if it really is one or not. It's probably just sodium benzoate that they're using. It shouldn't do any real damage in the proportions we're talking about (considering that feeding size is just a couple of mL a day for most of these products).

I'm willing to bet that the brightwell aquatics is very similar in form as the kent stuff. They might have made it a bit more nutritous. I think one of the issues with these kinds of products which doesn't appeal to many people is that they are not nearly as nutritous as frozen or live fare. If you're going to feed a product everyday by hand, why does it matter that you're going to pop it back in the fridge or freezer afterwards if the product is much more nutritous. However, for the idea of continous feeding, you could deliver more of a less nutritous fare over a longer period of time and get better results than feeding a ton of high high nutrient stuff at once. It may or may not balance out, I don't know. These things could just be another snake oil.

I really like the oyster thing, I'll definitely have to try it out.

[CleveYank]

tried something RE: Kent products vs. homemade puree.

Yesterday. I used both bottles of the kent food at twice the dosage on the bottles. and I dosed vita-chem and Amino-life at their doses in all 3 of my coral growing/inhabited tanks right in the middle of the day. If the corals are hungry...the polyps come out and things expand. Tank2 or the 90 that has a sun coral in it. ****Only the yellow polyps opened and the orange ones with the yellow tentacles DID not. All other corals looked like they fed but mushrooms stayed open and zoos looked the same.


TODAY.
made puree...like I used to do but have gotten away from it do to lazyness I guess. Puree was 1 whole medium sized uncooked frozen shrimp that I thawed and removed the tail/shell from. 16ml of amino as before and 1 teaspoon of vita-chem as before with 1 cup of freshwater. I blended it until it was a red foamy mess. Divied it up in 40 40 20 % approximate because of bioloads in respective tanks and dumped in that much of this mix into the 3 tanks (90 90 & 75). Walked away.

Came back 15 mintues later. SUN CORAL was out bigger than all heck. Both the Yellow and the Orange. Large frogspawn that has been slow and small to open since 75 tank reset was damn huge and all the mushrooms contracted and all of the zoos closed up tight like they do when they feed.

The Kent food may indeed work. But, the puree had a noticable difference. I have gotten away from making my own food. Bad habits I guess. Anyway. I did not refute Erik's premise about making your own mixes. But I had felt that the Kent stuff would probably be close enough. If this is just a sample of the difference just at feeding time. Then growth etc...there is no comparison I would suspect. Guess I have to get back into the habit of making my own coral foods again. The difference in the short run was staggering.

Based upon the short term and revisiting my coral feeding by puree, Erik's 2 cents is worth a buck on this one.