I've been using elos for about 5 months then tried red sea........I stopped while on vacation when I had a friend feed my fish. I didn't want to get too tricky with my directions. When I came back I noticed my corals looked brighter and healthier. That was about a month ago. I totally stopped with the amino acids and my tank has never looked better. Polyp extension is much better. I was never the guy who said this stuff is snake oil so I'm not going to preach, but for MY tank I'm learning that the only thing amino acids did for me were making my wallet lighter.