Feeding Alginates / Non photosynthetic coral feeding

[bluereefs]

I'd love to have a meal prepared by Will for sure

Gelatin and sodium alginate are two completely different things that happen to form gels.

Gelatin is a protein, a polymer of amino acids typically derived from the collagen of food mammal waste--cows, pigs, etc. It is partially hydrolyzed collagen, and gels upon heating and subsequent cooling. Marine collagen is available, at least on industrial scale, and is made from fish packing waste (skins mostly). You can make gelatin from this as well, but again, sourcing for consumers I am not sure of. Since this is protein, it will contain some nitrogen.

Sodium alginate is a polysaccharide, a chain of sugar molecules, derived from seaweeds. It gels when blended in aqueous solution and then brought into contact with a solution containing calcium (CaCl2 and Ca lactate are commonly used). As is is a sugar, there is no nitrogen or phosphate.

While we're on the subject of polymers, agar agar is another polysaccharide derived from seaweed. It differs from alginate in the constituent sugar monomers.

Henry: regarding adding fish oil to the Ca solution--yes, but that is an oil in water, which won't blend without some serious homogenization or the addition of a little lecithin (or both). I don't think you could make a Ca solution in oil without solubilizing the Ca in water first.

Great information Spracklcat
So if I get this right, Sodium alginat dont have nitrogen or phosphate and probably not heavy metals as well, it is very clean and can be used as a source of large biopolymers in our aquariums. But he dont have colagen.

There are two material what forms gel, Gelatin and Sodium alginate, gelatin are made from animals and have collagen what are good for sponges.
I buy today gelatine in grocery store but there are no ingridients list on that product, how I can know or find what is in my gelatine, animal origin, sodium alginate or agar agar? Is gelatin for cake who are mixed with cold water first.
Visual apearance is just like ordinary sugar.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

I'm considering using alginate as a thickener for dosing some of the fauna marin fine foods. I mostly need to have something that will keep the food in suspension so I can effectively dose it with a syringe pump. In just water, all the food sinks to the bottom preventing me from effectively dosing with it.

One thing I'm concerned about, however, is the potential for adding too much alginate. Since it is a polysaccharide, it should have a similar effect as dosing sugar - causing a boon in bacteria growth. Overdosing sugar can have disastrous effects, and it doesn't really take that much to overdose, so we'd want to be careful about how much we feed with alginate.

Does anyone know how much alginate it takes in say 100mL to get the solution to gel?

 

[NaClH2Opgh]

Great information Spracklcat
So if I get this right, Sodium alginat dont have nitrogen or phosphate and probably not heavy metals as well, it is very clean and can be used as a source of large biopolymers in our aquariums. But he dont have colagen.

There are two material what forms gel, Gelatin and Sodium alginate, gelatin are made from animals and have collagen what are good for sponges.
I buy today gelatine in grocery store but there are no ingridients list on that product, how I can know or find what is in my gelatine, animal origin, sodium alginate or agar agar? Is gelatin for cake who are mixed with cold water first.
Visual apearance is just like ordinary sugar.

From everything I have read, gelatin doesn't just contain collagen, it is made from combining different types of animal collagen (cow skin and bones and also pigskin). It also has proteins present. I wonder if it would have the same effect as dosing AA's? My only concern at this point would be any N and P present. I currently have nothing that requires me to dose this but will when I upgrade in a couple months so I will be following along closely.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

From everything I have read, gelatin doesn't just contain collagen, it is made from combining different types of animal collagen (cow skin and bones and also pigskin). It also has proteins present.

I'm not sure if is clear to everyone, but collagen is a protein.

 

[NaClH2Opgh]

From everything I have read, gelatin doesn't just contain collagen, it is made from combining different types of animal collagen (cow skin and bones and also pigskin). It also has proteins present.

I'm not sure if is clear to everyone, but collagen is a protein.

Now it is..:lol: I didn't realize it was an actual protein. I looked at it more like a substance that had various proteins present. Thanks for the clarification...

 

[Jk5]

I assume if you use gelatine you have the proteins (collagen).
If you use alginate you need to add aminoacids in the mix...
I think the commercial product Ultrapac by schuhmacher is formed by the artificial polymer (ultrapac) mixed with some aminoacids and so.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

I know this is an old thread, but has anyone experimented with this further?

Spracklcat, have you gone further with the alginate spheres?

 

[Spracklcat]

Nope, haven't looked at this in a while.