New to Acropower need tips

[Sabellafella]

The title says all. Do i need to shut my skimmer off or can i keep it on is my main question anything else is a bonus.

Short answer, nope =)

 

[kevantheman35]

Dosing amino acids will absolutely help with tanks running ultra low NO3 and PO4 levels as well as nutrient rich systems. Corals like other live forms create and use amino acids as building blocks, however as with us not all needed amino acids can be created within the corals cells. Some are obtained through consumption/absorption. Sorry for the very simplified quick response but the answer is Yes this is a good supplement to use in all setups. Goodluck

 

[mcarroll]

Short answer, nope =)

I don't wanna say you're wrong cuz I mostly agree, but it's not that simple:
http://www.russelllab.org/aas/hydrophobic.html

Some amino acids would seem likely to be pretty amenable to removal by skimming, at least based on their own characteristics. (Not necessarily the whole picture.)

From the link, the middle row of amino's would seem to be the ones less-likely to be skimmed. The rest, maybe pretty likely.

Sorry for the very simplified quick response but the answer is Yes this is a good supplement to use in all setups.

Same again, I mostly agree, but as you even say, this is a little too simplified. Amino acid dosing can help in tanks that are nitrogen deficient, but I'm not sure anyone has defined the circumstance where amino's would be preferable to nitrate for the nitrogen, or preferable to particulate foods for complete amino acids and other factors.

Which is not a statement against amino's, but just a statement that I think that there can be better options depending on the user and the circumstance.

Amino acids do seem to have some propensity to favor cyanobacteria (suspected due to the attached carbon atoms), so I definitely recommend to anyone starting out on amino acids to start at half or less of the recommended dose and if you step up your dose, do it in small steps and allow at least 3 or 4 weeks between steps to monitor for unfavorable changes.

 

[BAUCE]

Amino's only really help people with ULNS (Ultra Low Nutrient Systems). The Amino Acids are the bare bone proteins necessary for corals to have nutrients to thrive on. If you have nutrients, Amino Acids won't do much if anything.

If your system is running an at no3 & po4 of around, 0/0 to 0.5/.01 you should notice some difference. If however, you are running no3 of 5+ and a po4 of .03+, you shouldn't really notice much of anything.

To put it simply -- Amino Acids are the building blocks of protein (biology stuff here), introducing Amino Acids is basically introducing trace amounts of nitrates to your system. I prefer to keep my no3 at a minimum of 5, upwards of 10.

Lastly -- Amino Power is extremely diluted. You ever pick up a bottle of something and it says to use one or two drops her 25g? Well, AP says to use quite a bit. I forget the actual number, but that means it's got a LOT of water content. If you fit the description of someone needing Amino Acids (ULNS system), I would advise looking into ME Corals, or maybe KZ Aminos. They're significantly more concentrated. But as with all concentrated items, make sure not to dose beyond it's recommendation unless you are extremely familiar with the product.

Hey Rakie, sorry for the old thread bump but do you still feel like this statement is true? I’ve been dosing it in my tank where nitrates are around 5 and phosphates around .08 . I was thinking of increasing the amount of acropower to see if I get better results. This post has me double guessing myself. Thanks for the help.