How often do you dose amino acids?

[homer1475]

I'm with @ca1ore , never have, and probably never will.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

1 ml daily at night. I’ve noticed faster growth over the two months I’ve been adding it.

 

[Dan_P]

I just started a similar thing. I added aminos to my AWC barrel.

I’m slightly concerned that bacteria might consume it, before it gets to the tank.

A reasonable concern. Amino acids can be consumed by bacteria which can result in the production of ammonia. I wonder whether the effect on coral is a combination of amino acid consumption and ammonia dosing from bacterial action on the amino acids. There is a small community that thing dosing ammonium chloride is a good thing.

 

[Robin316us]

I have switched to aminos, oyster feast, and phyto. By far the best coral growth and color I’ve seen yet. Reef roids and other products work, I just hate the waste and spike in phosphates. It feeds the clam, coral, and pods so why not.

How often u feed Aminos with Oyster Feast and Phyto? what size is ur tank? Are you heavy stocked ? I’m also thinking about doing the same....

 

[Hydrored]

How often u feed Aminos with Oyster Feast and Phyto? what size is ur tank? Are you heavy stocked ? I’m also thinking about doing the same....

120G tank with 7 fish, clam, corals. Feed half the recommended oyster feast along with my normal mysis feedings in the morning. 15 mins before lights out aminos is dosed. Phyto I usually dose before bed

 

[ca1ore]

Ive only been dosing for two weeks and what I’ve noticed is the polyps are plumper and tentacles extended more.

People who’ve been dozing longer said it absolutely increases growth. There’s also great videos about the benefits from Tidal Gardens and BRS

Color me skeptical. Have any credible experiments been done I wonder.

 

[Robert Binz]

Color me skeptical. Have any credible experiments been done I wonder.

Lol you sound like the people still resisting LEDs

 

[csb123]

A reasonable concern. Amino acids can be consumed by bacteria which can result in the production of ammonia. I wonder whether the effect on coral is a combination of amino acid consumption and ammonia dosing from bacterial action on the amino acids. There is a small community that thing dosing ammonium chloride is a good thing.

DON’T PUT AMINOS IN YOUR AWC!
I did it 3 days ago and got a smelly bacterial bloom. I’m cleaning my barrel now

 

[mitch91175]

Was dosing TLF aminos daily then switched to Red Sea and dosing A/B daily. Do notice good growth and better color of my corals when I switched to Red Sea from TLS. Also better polyp extension.

Will be switching again soon to dosing every element individually in conjunction with aminos (because I can lol).

 

[Robin316us]

120G tank with 7 fish, clam, corals. Feed half the recommended oyster feast along with my normal mysis feedings in the morning. 15 mins before lights out aminos is dosed. Phyto I usually dose before bed

Daily Oyster Feast with Mysis feedings? Is there any reason to dose aminos before the lights are out?

 

[Robert Binz]

Daily Oyster Feast with Mysis feedings? Is there any reason to dose aminos before the lights are out?

I typically dose after lights out because I don’t want to risk the light breaking down any of the aminos

 

[Hydrored]

Daily Oyster Feast with Mysis feedings? Is there any reason to dose aminos before the lights are out?

with having the trident I notice a large uptake in alkalinity right when the lights go out, Also feeding tentacles are out on the LPS. And yes I put the mysis in a cup with some tank water with some oyster feast. My refuge makes it so I can barely keep nitrates and phosphates shown using Red Sea pro and Hannah ulr phosphate. Problem with this hobby is what works for some doesn’t work for others, that schedule works for me and I’ve never been happier with the coloration of my coral

 

[temfinger]

Im dosing 5 drops daily, 65 gallon mixed reef (75 gallon twv)

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I dose 30 drops nightly about ten minutes before lights out, or just after. If I stop my alk consumption goes down the next day. 100 gal of water tank size. I also dose the majority of my alk at night and early morning. Keeps the ph going and my corals responded well to changing to this.

 

[C. Eymann]

Lol you sound like the people still resisting LEDs

Lol, ca1ore has been in this hobby and on this and many other forums for a very long time and he has a stunning tank.

Im parallel in his views on amino dosing, Yes I have dosed aminos, Korallen Zucht, brightwell and aquavirto fuel but other than maybe some better PE (possibly coincidental) I haven't really seen improved coloration or growth rate.

Definitely not necessary, might have some benefits but no real controlled experiments have been carried out that I know of to confirm


I think sometimes the placebo effect plays on us reefers, we get good fuzzy feelings when we add what (WE) think is a form of love/care to our tanks .

Until its proven, most the amino acid supps on the market today are potentially just snake oil and the "results" you are seeing is just the result providing good husbandry.

Who knows?

 

[ca1ore]

Lol you sound like the people still resisting LEDs

Haha, well it did take me almost 25 years to make the LED switch. I’m really just curious on aminos. Lots of people believe lots of things without any actual data or evidence. Bit like the whole soak fish food in vitamin thing. Correlation is not causation.

 

[mitch91175]

Lol, ca1ore has been in this hobby and on this and many other forums for a very long time and he has a stunning tank.

Im parallel in his views on amino dosing, Yes I have dosed aminos, Korallen Zucht, brightwell and aquavirto fuel but other than maybe some better PE (possibly coincidental) I haven't really seen improved coloration or growth rate.

Definitely not necessary, might have some benefits but no real controlled experiments have been carried out that I know of to confirm


I think sometimes the placebo effect plays on us reefers, we get good fuzzy feelings when we add what (WE) think is a form of love/care to our tanks .

Until its proven, most the amino acid supps on the market today are potentially just snake oil and the "results" you are seeing is just the result providing good husbandry.

Who knows?

You do have a valid point about better husbandry for sure. I'll beg to differ regarding dosing the elements not making a difference though. For my circumstances with what I'm currently doing with my tank, I do no water changes so my only means of now providing the coral what they need to grow can only primarily come from additives like trace elements, etc. So foods contain some trace, but I also do not over feed the tank to maintain NO3/PO4 like some. I feed what my fish need and allow them to graze like they would in the wild. So I also dose NO3/PO4 to keep enough in the system to do my best to avoid dinos, etc. So far so good.

Yes when you are adding things to your tank, it forces you to pay closer attention to details or you'll just kill everything. When I was doing water changes, I did Red Sea for a short time to go through the 500ml bottles and stopped. Didn't really pay much attention at that time was just checking it out. But now that I'm not doing water changes anymore I definitely need to add trace elements or it'll likely be bye-bye SPS. Just have to make sure that in doing so, I pay close attention to what/how I'm going about the process.

At this point for me, it's more about getting closer to NSW levels for parameters. I cannot say definitively that the Red Sea program/NO3/PO4/Strontium dosing regiment that I am currently doing is solely responsible for the improvements in grow that I'm seeing in my system, but I will say that before doing them, some of my SPS just did not grow at all. Those same SPS are now having to be moved around to allow them growing room.

Reason for stopping water changes for me are I can save a lot of money on RO/DI, waste water, salt, and everything that goes along with doing a water change (and I had AWC running with a Neptune DOS with it's own separate RO/DI unit). Also I no longer have to be concerned about mixing the salt, dealing with water temperature, salinity level in RO/DI, dKH swings from bigger water changes, etc. The amount of savings that I'll gain once I finish my current batch of Red Sea and switch to making my own trace elements from readily available products from Amazon/e-Bay, etc. is going to be insane. So far I've spent about $200 (3-4 boxes of salt) to get most of what I need to make my own trace elements. The amount that I purchased will last me years. Comparing that to the cost of salt and water changes every other week or heck even every month are real tangible savings.

With all that said, it really comes down to how your plan to run "your" reef long-term. Do what works for you and stick to it until it doesn't. You want to dose amino acids, dose amino acids. You do not, do not. Your money and time so do as you please and enjoy it while doing so.

 

[Hydrored]

You do have a valid point about better husbandry for sure. I'll beg to differ regarding dosing the elements not making a difference though. For my circumstances with what I'm currently doing with my tank, I do no water changes so my only means of now providing the coral what they need to grow can only primarily come from additives like trace elements, etc. So foods contain some trace, but I also do not over feed the tank to maintain NO3/PO4 like some. I feed what my fish need and allow them to graze like they would in the wild. So I also dose NO3/PO4 to keep enough in the system to do my best to avoid dinos, etc. So far so good.

Yes when you are adding things to your tank, it forces you to pay closer attention to details or you'll just kill everything. When I was doing water changes, I did Red Sea for a short time to go through the 500ml bottles and stopped. Didn't really pay much attention at that time was just checking it out. But now that I'm not doing water changes anymore I definitely need to add trace elements or it'll likely be bye-bye SPS. Just have to make sure that in doing so, I pay close attention to what/how I'm going about the process.

At this point for me, it's more about getting closer to NSW levels for parameters. I cannot say definitively that the Red Sea program/NO3/PO4/Strontium dosing regiment that I am currently doing is solely responsible for the improvements in grow that I'm seeing in my system, but I will say that before doing them, some of my SPS just did not grow at all. Those same SPS are now having to be moved around to allow them growing room.

Reason for stopping water changes for me are I can save a lot of money on RO/DI, waste water, salt, and everything that goes along with doing a water change (and I had AWC running with a Neptune DOS with it's own separate RO/DI unit). Also I no longer have to be concerned about mixing the salt, dealing with water temperature, salinity level in RO/DI, dKH swings from bigger water changes, etc. The amount of savings that I'll gain once I finish my current batch of Red Sea and switch to making my own trace elements from readily available products from Amazon/e-Bay, etc. is going to be insane. So far I've spent about $200 (3-4 boxes of salt) to get most of what I need to make my own trace elements. The amount that I purchased will last me years. Comparing that to the cost of salt and water changes every other week or heck even every month are real tangible savings.

With all that said, it really comes down to how your plan to run "your" reef long-term. Do what works for you and stick to it until it doesn't. You want to dose amino acids, dose amino acids. You do not, do not. Your money and time so do as you please and enjoy it while doing so.

Great post, couldn’t agree more

 

[ca1ore]

I'll beg to differ regarding dosing the elements not making a difference though. For my circumstances with what I'm currently doing with my tank, I do no water changes so my only means of now providing the coral what they need to grow can only primarily come from additives like trace elements, etc. So foods contain some trace, but I also do not over feed the tank to maintain NO3/PO4 like some. I feed what my fish need and allow them to graze like they would in the wild. So I also dose NO3/PO4 to keep enough in the system to do my best to avoid dinos, etc. So far so good.

Thread is about amino acids specifically though. I’d certainly agree that in the absence of water changes, mineral and trace supplements are necessary. I do minimal water changes, so rely on my CaRx and judicious dosing to keep levels generally right. Aminos just seem like snake oil to me; rather like soaking fish food in vitamins. You are right that people are free to waste their money in any way they wish though LOL.

 

[mitch91175]

Here’s a read about the role Amino Acids play in coral growth of it proves its valid: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1218179/