Need help dosing 'polyp lab colours'

[IKINR33F]

Hi guys, just looking for some help with dosing my tank with 'Polyp Lab colours' along with a tub of 'Reef Roids' i am a first time user and have a 275L Aqua One Marine tank, have been feeding my coral with coral diet and have recelty purchased polyp lab products. I have goniopora, hammers, LPS, SPS, Zenia, Catiphillia jardenini, trachy, scolies and a orange bubble tipped anemone. This alone with a blue tang, purple tang, two black clowns and a red line cleaner shrimp.

- I have tried my first dose of reef roids today mixed with the coral diet i usually feed my fish, i also purchased 'Polyp Lab Colours' which is a amino acid dosing liquid. I was wondering how often i should dose my tank with the recommended amount and how long i should leave my skimmer off?

any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[biggles]

I've used both products. When you dose the roids put it in a cup of tank water and stir it a couple of times over half an hour. Tip the water in slowly so you don't disturb the roids on the cup bottom and then add some more water to the cup and let the main part of the roid dose rest for 10-15 mins. Put a torch on your corals and you'll see crazy PE and then dump all the cup into flow.
Or just dump the whole lot in but the other way is more fun to watch when the particles start hitting all those polyps looking for a feed.

Don't ever use more than the recommended dose of the colors aminos - it is super potent stuff. I would say start at half the recommended dose for the first month and see what your eyes tell you. Watch for a slight increase in algae etc when you start the aminos but ride it out and it should settle back down.

Don't alter anything else too much if you can so you will know if the roids etc are actually making a visible difference. Those two products are more than enough to give you great colors if you feed the fish and keep your water stable.

If ANYTHING weird happens or the algae goes nuts stop both and give us a yell - it will be those if you haven't done anything else.

Good luck and welcome to RC :beer:


If that post isn't worth ROTM i don't know what is ! You guys know i don't normally help anyone at all so that post in comparison is like know it all Matt helping 100 reefers......... just saying....... :reading:

 

[IKINR33F]

hey mate thanks for all the info! however wasn't really too concerned with how to dose my tanks, was more wondering how often i can dose polyp lab colours and how long i should leave my skimmer off?
thanks !

 

[biggles]

Oh sorry mate, i tried dosing 1 drop every second night with a total system volume of 160gal. Within a week i had a very obvious algae/nutrient spike so i dropped back to twice a week which was much better in regards to fallout from the concentrated amino mix.

Unless you are running very low nutrients i would err on the very low side when you start as the product isn't designed for a system already nutrient rich through heavy fish feeding etc. I would suggest diluting some so it's easier to dose lower amounts, it's way too concentrated to use from the bottle unless you have a very large tank.

I still prefer daily dosing rather than lots and then nothing for days and so on so i would try a 1/4 dose twice a week based on your own system water volume. I had a small sample bottle which i used up in a month with no visible results, but as i said it's designed for systems driven quite low where the water borne nutrition needs boosting i believe.