Dosing aspartic acid

[jc-reef]

Wow...sorry to hear...:sad2::sad1: Hope you dont give up. I have been thinking to try some dosing of the Aspartic Acid in my tank to give it a little kick and I was following this thread which has been very interesting and informative. I was wondering how the longer effects of dosing Aspartic Acid have been since the start of this thread.

 

[DeathWish302]

Sorry to hear about your losses.

This hobby can be very frustrating at times. I hope you don't decide to give up.

Wow...sorry to hear... Hope you dont give up.

Give up.....? What's that?:lol:

I'm taking this opportunity to rebuild my system to better suit my main objective of housing more clowns and a better rockscape. I've also found which SPS I have are bullet-proof. In these times of adversity, I think of my job. I keep going back tomorrow to pound my head on the keyboard so what's a $1000 (estimated) loss in coral.... :bigeyes:

jc-reef: I would definitely try the Aspartic Acid. It did do something in the short time I used it.

 

[jc-reef]

Give up.....? What's that?:lol:

I'm taking this opportunity to rebuild my system to better suit my main objective of housing more clowns and a better rockscape. I've also found which SPS I have are bullet-proof. In these times of adversity, I think of my job. I keep going back tomorrow to pound my head on the keyboard so what's a $1000 (estimated) loss in coral.... :bigeyes:

jc-reef: I would definitely try the Aspartic Acid. It did do something in the short time I used it.

Cool! I actually ordered some the end of last week and came in yest. I need to go back to the threads to figure out how much to dose in my 90g. From what I have read so far, less is more.

Now I have a question DW302. Did you dillute in hot ro/di water and add all at once, OR add the powder directly to the tank (high flow area)??

 

[DeathWish302]

[/B]Now I have a question DW302. Did you dillute in hot ro/di water and add all at once, OR add the powder directly to the tank (high flow area)??

I added the powder to lukewarm water and shook forever! It will eventually dilute, but it's far worse than trying to dissolve that last portion of baking soda when mixing 2-part solution.

HTH

 

[Newreeflady]

The reason the other guy had success with letting it dissolve in the back of his overflow is that "new" water kept washing over it. He is effectively dissolving it in the entire volume of his tank. Also, in his case he is effectively not adding it all at once; it is released (dissolved) slowly.

The microwave method is akin to taking a slow release medication and grinding it up, dissolving it (not easy) and taking it all at once.

Is there any research that says that stable levels of these acids are important? I would be inclined to use the first person's method (put in the solid in a spot where it won't disperse as a solid in the display, but will stay put and dissolve at a slow pace.

 

[jlinzmaier]

When I dose it I put about 1/16th of a tsp in about 800 ml of RO/DI water stir it up and let it sit on something warm overnight. The warm recirc pump on my skimmer works great. In the morning it's always fully dissolved and I don't pull any muscles trying to shake the solution in an attempt to force it to dissolve quickly. It does dissolve with some difficutly but the warming of the water makes a big difference.

Jeremy

 

[HighlandReefer]

These are the only articles I have found related to amino acids and coral. When you dose amino acids you need to be careful and use small amounts IMHO. Too much can cause the symbiotic organisms within coral tissues to grow to fast, which can lead to their expulsion (tissue necrosis).

Biosynthesis of "˜ essential ' amino acids by scleractinian corals
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1218179&blobtype=pdf

Uptake of dissolved free amino acids by the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/211/6/860

 

[Newreeflady]

What are their natural available sources? We are putting this in solution- do they generally get it from diet? Is there any difference in the way this would be processed (uptake from diet vs uptake directly from the water)? My interest is piqued... I'll probably hop on those articles tomorrow.

-A

 

[DeathWish302]

The reason the other guy had success with letting it dissolve in the back of his overflow is that "new" water kept washing over it. He is effectively dissolving it in the entire volume of his tank. Also, in his case he is effectively not adding it all at once; it is released (dissolved) slowly.

Is there any research that says that stable levels of these acids are important? I would be inclined to use the first person's method (put in the solid in a spot where it won't disperse as a solid in the display, but will stay put and dissolve at a slow pace.

The problem with adding the entire dose to the tank in powder form is the possibility of this to not dilute before 'drifting' into the water cloumn and landing on livestock. I view this similar to salt. Would you place salt in your overflow when increasing salinity? Aspartic Acid may not cause harm, but I prefer to only supplement additives that are in solution if at all possible.

As for Aspartic Acid levels, it has been shown in several articles that this AA can promote growth due to the corals not naturally producing this chemical. It is gained by uptake from food sources and I feel corals can take this absorb this dissolved AA from surrounding water as easily as solid food sources.

This is just my opinion from my own observations.

 

[jc-reef]

When I dose it I put about 1/16th of a tsp in about 800 ml of RO/DI water stir it up and let it sit on something warm overnight. The warm recirc pump on my skimmer works great. In the morning it's always fully dissolved and I don't pull any muscles trying to shake the solution in an attempt to force it to dissolve quickly. It does dissolve with some difficutly but the warming of the water makes a big difference.

Jeremy

Jeremy, did you dose all 800ml of final solution at once?
How often?
How large is your water volume?

I am trying to guage what has worked for others.

Thanks in advance.
Jason

 

[jlinzmaier]

Jeremy, did you dose all 800ml of final solution at once?
How often?
How large is your water volume?

I am trying to guage what has worked for others.

Thanks in advance.
Jason

I posted this earlier in this thread.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16937049&postcount=29


That is why I'm curretnly only dosing 1/16th of a tsp on a system almost 3 times larger.

This is a link to an article that Randy has written and his suggestion is to start at a dosing amount of 1/8th tsp aspartic acid per 100 gallons once weekly.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php#15

Good luck!! Take it slow.

Jeremy

 

[Fishamatank]

Interesting. Is this stable enough to be mixed up and sit long term? If I tried something like this I would like to be able to automate it by using a dosing pump and a controller.

 

[chark]

Jeremy,

How is it going since you started back dosing aspartic acid? How long have you been dosing this time? I have a 200 gal system and was thinking of starting. Any other words of advice?

 

[OG Reefs]

Just ordered some Aspartic acid and will start dosing. Hopefully I'll get good results as well.

 

[jlinzmaier]

Jeremy,

How is it going since you started back dosing aspartic acid? How long have you been dosing this time? I have a 200 gal system and was thinking of starting. Any other words of advice?

Well my 420 is doing spectacular but it's so newly set up that it's really tough to tell what is most influencing the health of the inhabitants. My filtration, flow, lighting, and every other aspect of this tank is better than my 180 by miles. I spent the last two years putting this system together and the previous several years planning it. IMO, everything about this new tank is optimal. Even though my 180 was a very nice tank and well maintianed, every aspect of this new tank is 10 times better. Since I'm now feeding more zooplankton and have more fish in the tank I'm going to back off on the aspartic acid dosing for the next several months. I want the tank to mature and settle into it's "zone" then I'll experiment (much more carefully) with dosing of various components. I'm actually quite excited to try a new bacterial culture method I just learned about and dose the tank with high concentrations of bacterioplankton a few times a week to see what sort of response I can induce. Since you are what you eat (LOL), I'd like to also experiment with generating that bacterial culture with high quality nutrients like the aspartic acid. The thought then being that the bacterioplankton that the filter feeders prey on will ingest something that was created with high quality food and the good nutrition will carry over to what eats it. I'm still learning about bacterial culturing so I'm not sure if it's even realistic to try feeding my bacterial culture the aspartic acid or if the "quality nutrition" could carry over as easily as it sounds - just a thought that I'm looking into.

As far as advice:
1) go VERY slow and watch your tanks response to the dosing for weeks after each adjustment
2) more isn't always better

Jeremy

 

[jc-reef]

I posted this earlier in this thread.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16937049&postcount=29


That is why I'm curretnly only dosing 1/16th of a tsp on a system almost 3 times larger.

This is a link to an article that Randy has written and his suggestion is to start at a dosing amount of 1/8th tsp aspartic acid per 100 gallons once weekly.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php#15

Good luck!! Take it slow.

Jeremy

Thanks...I actually did go back after I posted to read this thread again.

Well I just started my first dose last night. I took 1 scoop (blue scoop in magnesium test kit) and added it to 250ml of heated (almost boil) of RO/DI. I stirred and it disolved in a few seconds. I added more room temp RO/DI to the 250ml to aid in cooling and placed in freezer for a few minutes. I then slowly added to my DT.

I have about a net 100 gal total system, so the small blue scoop is less than what Randy's stated recommendation is. I plan on keeping the dose small and creep up to his 1/8 tsp per week recommendation. I may even divide the weekly dose in half and dose twice a week.

I will even take a few pics of some coral sampling during process to document growth rates.

 

[jlinzmaier]

Thanks...I actually did go back after I posted to read this thread again.

Well I just started my first dose last night. I took 1 scoop (blue scoop in magnesium test kit) and added it to 250ml of heated (almost boil) of RO/DI. I stirred and it disolved in a few seconds. I added more room temp RO/DI to the 250ml to aid in cooling and placed in freezer for a few minutes. I then slowly added to my DT.

I have about a net 100 gal total system, so the small blue scoop is less than what Randy's stated recommendation is. I plan on keeping the dose small and creep up to his 1/8 tsp per week recommendation. I may even divide the weekly dose in half and dose twice a week.

I will even take a few pics of some coral sampling during process to document growth rates.

Sounds like a good plan to me. Keep us posted!!

Jeremy

 

[chark]

Thanks Jeremy. I will probably start 1/32 of a teaspoon twice a week.

Would be interested in following your progress on the bacterioplankton. Can you lead me to more information on the process?

Thanks

 

[jlinzmaier]

Thanks Jeremy. I will probably start 1/32 of a teaspoon twice a week.

Would be interested in following your progress on the bacterioplankton. Can you lead me to more information on the process?

Thanks

Here's the thread I started in which Cliff very kindly posted the process that philbo32 had come up with. I'll be posting my experimentation and results there.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1900043

I'm currently having a tough time finding the fertilizer with the correct NPK ratio.

Jeremy

 

[Furo]

I'm dosing about couple month. I have noticed all my corals are very happy in the next day (all SPS's polyps come out) since I always dose at night time when the light is off.