Amino acids + low nutrient systems

[Mr. Microscope]

Hello All,

 

I've noticed that throughout the life of my pico that corals seem to live okay, but never really produce and thrive. I'm afraid that I'm starving them. I am running a 3 gallon pico and have an extremely low nutrient system. I do small water changes daily which add up to a little more than 1 gallon/week. I have no fish an no inverts that require supplemental feeding. So, I never put food in the tank (but I do have refrigerated arctipods and frozen cyclope-eze laying around). I am running chemi-pure elite and chaeto in the fuge.

 

I only have softies and the polyps are too small to feed. I've been thinking about dosing amino acids into the tank for the benefit of my corals. What do you think? Is this a good idea or will it just be an algae booster and negate my attentive water changes?

 

Thanks in advance!

[blasterman]

Take it from personal experience; softies won't thrive in uber low nutrient systems. Zero nitrate means almost zero growth.

 

Adding some meaty micro foods like cyclope-eze or even brine shrimp will correct this really fast. You'll be surprised how fast this stuff decays into nitrate and how fast your softies will start growing again.

 

Just be careful you don't go too fast in the opposite direction.

[almost]

my softies love when i dose reef plus witch is amino acids and it gives the bacteria a carbon source i think i know some ppl dose it instead of vodka. why not feed a lil phytoplankton ?

[reefer916]

If your still keeping up with your daily water changes some aminos won't hurt anything. I dose aminos everyday in my 24 and 95 gallon and with the water changes they pull out any excess food and aminos. I just got a bunch of LE chalice colonies that were dull because the guy didn't do a water change or dose for months. I've had them for about 4 weeks now and they've colored up nicely and are growing like weeds:)

 

I've been using Aquavitro Fuel, but I'll probably switch back to Brightwells Coral Aminos after this bottle's done.