Selcon, Vita Chem and other Additives

[reidcrandall]

I've been using Selcon and Vita Chem in both my QT and display tanks for a long time. But every time I soak food in there, dump it in the water and see that cloud expand from the food, I always wonder...

HOW MUCH of those additives are actually soaked into the food well enough to make it to the fish...

Maybe we'll never know.

 

[reidcrandall]

Am I the only one?

 

[DevilBoy]

I also use vita chem. Mine does the same thing, but you can also dose vita chem weekly to the tank. So i think either one way or the other the live stock some will benefit from it either soaking in the food or going into the water column

 

[ROBONE20]

I use VitaChem with my frozen food and let it soak for 5 minutes in a cup. I use a turkey baster to dispense into the tank and any left over VitaChem will get squirted into into the tank with the food. The fish can also absorb the remaining VitaChem once its in the DT. To answer your question...I guess you'll have to soak it for a long time and you'll get a better chance at knowing the food absorbed it.

 

[Big E]

Imo, it's one of the biggest scams in this hobby. I tried Selcon & Vita Chem years ago & was never impressed. Like you mention, most leaches into the water.

I have fish right now that are 17,10,9 & 6 years old that have never had their food soaked in any of those additives. The foods available now have plenty of what fish require in their diets. I also use fresh seafood a lot.

As far as it's benefit to corals I've grown frags to 15-20" colonies without it.

 

[reidcrandall]

I always soak for at least five minutes, and I think that the benefit is probably greater when you first have fish in QT, esp. if you've ordered online, so that you can start fattening them up. I've done the baster thing as well.

But if what is dosed to the water is absorbed through the gills, how much is skimmed out before that happens. Also, it's pretty diluted in my 120, so how much can it really do as tank sized increases?

 

[lman]

I began adding selcon to pelleted food when I noticed that my powder blue tang had ich (about 12 months ago). The selcon seems to work and I add it to my pelleted food (also feed mysis and other froozen foods). I believe it works, but don't want to chance not adding.

 

[MrTuskfish]

I've used them a long time and am a big advocate. The type of food will really determine how much gets into the water; I like to use it with freeze dried food about 2X weekly. I very seldom feed flake or pellets and the freese dried stuff really seems to absorb Selcon. Nori, torn into pieces and soaked a fed seconds works too.
This is one of those areas that is hard to document; but I've heard enough testimony from folks I consider 'experts', that I use the vitamins---even though I can't prove they work.....I'm convinced they do.

 

[jjk_reef00]

To me it seems to enhance certain colors of some fish. 'Blue' lines really pop out of all my fish that have blue on them.