Whose Amino Acids do you use?

Robert Patterso

Robert Patterso

New member
Who uses AA's and what brand or brands do you use. Been using the Brightwell Coral Aminos. Can't say I'm to happy with em. They seem to be watered down and the corals don't seem to react to them. Others I've used would cause a feeding response in the corals and my skimmer would react to them also. Their instructions say to use every day for a week. Other types I've used in the past you could in no way dose every day.
I am looking for a good AA, most bang for my buck.......

Thanks in Advance
 
Not looking for a cure for water quality. Here is what my parameters are.
CA 440
alk 9
Mg 1350-1400
Po4 0 hanna
No3 0 salifert
Sg 1.026 35ppm
water changes are done bi-weekly of 15%
Not sure why you would assume I am having water quality issues...
 
The lack of nutrients is why I was looking for advise on a good aa. Probably just go back to what i've used in the past. Seachem Reefplus
 
I used the Elos omega and was really happy with it. My LFS stopped carrying it, though. My tank is fish less at the moment, so I'm dosing to help my corals, and I agree with you about the Brightwell product. It doesn't seem to help at all.
 
I was trying to help Robert. I didnt assume that you were having water quality problems. Before i tried to help you I did some research and read your previous posts. You have been stating on this board for months that your corals are sick. You and a thousand others on this board continuosly post your tank parameters as "proof" that you water quality is spot on and then you post things like this. I quote your post. "Ok I received my P04 Hanna meter. P04 measures 0.00. Have been dosing vineager and had been running gfo. Have zero nitrates. My corals look terrible. Little or no PE and look dry.
So my thoughts are back off the vineager, took gfo off line yesterday and start feeding alot more and using AA's.
Would like to hear some thoughts and input please......"
Here are my thoughts. You ignore the biggest indicator of water quality that you have. Your corals. If your corals look sick its because they are. No magic bullet is going to fix that until you understand your system and figure out what is stressing your corals. I dont know what your system is set up like but i do know that the symptoms you describe in your posts here are due to poor water quality. Something is missing or more likely something is availble in excess but whatever it is, all the amino acids in the world are only going to distract you from your real issues.
I appologize if my original response to your seemed to be curt or even to "assume" to know what I am talking about. Take a look at the stuff people post in here before you take their advice. Look at their systems and see how their own advise works for them. Try to find a single mature (older than three years) sucessfull sps tank that has been using amino acid suppliments for longer than a year. For every one you find you will find a hundred on here that is hoping the suppliment will fix some water quality issue. Its called snake oil. You dont need it.
 
Dog boy Dave said:
I was trying to help Robert. I didnt assume that you were having water quality problems. Before i tried to help you I did some research and read your previous posts. You have been stating on this board for months that your corals are sick. You and a thousand others on this board continuosly post your tank parameters as "proof" that you water quality is spot on and then you post things like this. I quote your post. "Ok I received my P04 Hanna meter. P04 measures 0.00. Have been dosing vineager and had been running gfo. Have zero nitrates. My corals look terrible. Little or no PE and look dry.
So my thoughts are back off the vineager, took gfo off line yesterday and start feeding alot more and using AA's.
Would like to hear some thoughts and input please......"
Here are my thoughts. You ignore the biggest indicator of water quality that you have. Your corals. If your corals look sick its because they are. No magic bullet is going to fix that until you understand your system and figure out what is stressing your corals. I dont know what your system is set up like but i do know that the symptoms you describe in your posts here are due to poor water quality. Something is missing or more likely something is availble in excess but whatever it is, all the amino acids in the world are only going to distract you from your real issues.
I appologize if my original response to your seemed to be curt or even to "assume" to know what I am talking about. Take a look at the stuff people post in here before you take their advice. Look at their systems and see how their own advise works for them. Try to find a single mature (older than three years) sucessfull sps tank that has been using amino acid suppliments for longer than a year. For every one you find you will find a hundred on here that is hoping the suppliment will fix some water quality issue. Its called snake oil. You dont need it.
Click to expand...

Sorry I wasn't trying to be kurt myself. I am very frustrated with this tank. It has been a battle from the start. I have had successful tanks in the past but this one is kickin my butt. I'm thinking I will be going back to the old school ways of doing things cause that has worked for me in the past. Been in this hobby since the late 80's. I think I just caught up with all this dose this, dose that and your tank will do this.
I have good skimming, an algae turf scrubber, refugium, good lighting, reactors for gfo and gac. Flow is ok. I believe the tank has become to nutrient poor. I don't know what else I could test for. I do a daily maintance of some sort. Dose 2part right at lights out. Feed fish twice daily and corals 1-2 times a week. That is when I would use the aminos, mainly to get a feeding response from the corals just before introducing food.
Again I apologize if I come off with a kurt or bad atitude. Frustration is running deep with this tank and don't mean to take it out on you or anyone else.
 
Phosphates at 0 is not a good thing.... there has to be a certain amount for corals to make skeleton...... but im guessing they absorb the delta thats why youhave it at 0

James
 
Delta is a term used for difference. He's saying that there's still probably a small amount of PO4 in your system (a level required for life), but you're reading 0 ppm because the corals absorb the difference (or delta).

Dog boy Dave has a good point; I'm not saying that you're not thinking along his lines, though. Anyway, I know it's frustrating. Take a breath, because nothing good usually happens slowly (this can be good and bad :p). It could be that your system is too low on N and P, and that's why you would dose AA's to help raise them slightly. Assuming AA's will do that, that would make sense to dose them. I wish I could recommend a good brand, but I really don't know of any.

I hope your frustrations are replaced with the satisfaction of solving your problem. This hobby has caused me to pull out my hair a time or two. :)
 
Thank You Robert for your kind reply. I understand your frustration. Corals are hard. (Sorry)
Anyway, I too, am an old school reefer and I honestly dont understand the current fascination with low nutrient clean tanks. There is no doubt that they can be successful in the same way a high maintenance bonzai might be. However, most people that post on here seem to be having significant issues managing the systems in the long term. I think they tend to underestimate the difficulty of forcing the corals to live under such alien conditions. Anyway, good luck with your corals. I am sending a PM if you would liek to discuss some ideas in detail.
Regards
 
Most people, if they've done their homework right usually get the basics correct: lighting, flow, water params, etc. When it comes to SPS problems this usually isn't the problem unless they are so new to SW that they have no business trying to keep SPS in the first place.

So the most common problems most people see fall into one of the following categories:

  • Pests (red bugs, aefw, etc.)
  • Too many nutrients
  • Not enough nutrients
  • Lack of stability (alk spikes/drops, etc.)

If you're sure you don't have pests, then it's probably one of the last 3. If you're sure things have been stable, then it's down to nutrients. Generally if your corals have poor (no) color and/or very slow growth you don't have enough nutrients. One of the great fallacies of keeping SPS is that you need pure water devoid of N and P.

Now I can't tell you if this is your problem or not (I haven't read through all your posts), but I can say that I doubt AA (or lack of them) are the problem. Think of AA as adjusting the camber on your car. Will it fix a flat tire? No.
 
I dose with Aqua Vitro aminos, that stuff is highly concentrated.
A few drops goes a long way. Think a bottle is around 11 bucks for a standard 16floz.
 
I went from Brightwells to Elos's Coral Amino's. I like the Elos CA's, but they're pretty potent. I had to go from dosing 10 drops a day with Brightwells to 10 drops every 3 days with Elos's because I was noticing some of my sps were starting to lose some color. Now the yellows and oranges are coming out better, but some of my blues are starting to lose color. Go figure:)
 
I am sure the problem with the tank is me. I got wrapped up in this UNLS stuff and it got away from me. Back to school, old school that is.;) Has worked for me in the past and it will again. Just lost my head for a bit and my corals paid the price. Which means I will be payin the price also:headwally: No loses really, they will just have to recover due to me loosing my mind.

Dave, Thank you for your kindness. I will be contacting you soon
 
Take a frag out and put it in a white bowl with some sort of dip in it. Squirt the frag with a turkey baster and look for flatworms or redbugs. If there are no pests and your water changes have been sufficient (20% every two weeks), try feeding your acros enriched rotifers or enriched brine shrimp nauplii at night once a week or so.....one sure way to really get them some amino acids (and lots of other nutrients as well).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

E
Refractometer woes….what would you do?
Replies
12
Views
1K
jrill
J
R
The Role of Magnesium Salts in Coral Reef Health and Restoration
Replies
0
Views
796
runfucamg
R
Z
New lps frags - 1 day not doing well
Replies
16
Views
2K
Reefing102
Reefing102
revclyburn
What brand of salt are you using
Replies
5
Views
2K
AZBigJohn
AZBigJohn
M
Choosing Between Innovative Marine and Waterbox for a 200-Gallon Mixed Reef – Your Input Wanted!
Replies
6
Views
3K
griss
griss
Back
Top