Has anyone used protein powder as coral food?

[GroktheCube]

I had a crazy idea last night. With all the interest in amino acid dosing, and the challenge of many foods having a low N to P ratio, how viable is protein powder as coral food? I don't mean the GNC stuff loaded with flavors and dyes, but rather "raw" whey, egg, or soy protein powder?

 

[nikunjpatel]

Steve Garret, of garret/s acropolis in california uses GNC amino acids for his clams. I doubt you'd want to use the protein powder in your tank though

 

[FuGu2]

Im thinking its all going to be skimmed out. corals will not take those large intact proteins. Something will have to break them down to amino acids or short chain oligomers. Not sure there are going to be the right bacteria to "eat" those whey, egg or soy protein....

 

[blasterman789]

I tried this in the past for feeding softies and LPS corals.

The problem is that these type of proteins are designed to be digestible in our stomaches which are largely comprised of bacteria.

All the protein does is get rapidly broken down by tank bacteria and cause rapid oxygen drops. Didn't seem to have much benefit for corals. Caused serious stress for fish

For keeping some protein in the water column I've found frozen brine shrimp run through a blender the best source for larger filter feeders and zoanthid colonies. Better growth rates and much cheaper than zoo plankton sources as well.

 

[immortl]

Check out this thread in the Zoa subforum. The whole thread is pretty interesting but the poster starts discussing what and how he feeds in post #22.