Dosing Amino Acids

[dodgy67]

Have been reading various blogs about dosing additional Amino Acids are benificial to corals, have purchased a bottle of Amino 1000 from a health food shop

L-Alanine 89mg L-Arganine 78mg L-Aspartic Acid 60mg
L-Glutamic Acid 100mg L-Glycine 214mg L-Histidine 8.6mg
L-Hydroxdyline 10mg L-Hydroxproline 119mg L-Isoleucine 15mg
L-Leucine 33mg L-Lysine 35mg L-Methionine 7mg
L-Proline 124mg L-Serine 36mg L-Threonine 21mg
L-Tyrosine 5mg L-Valine 22mg

Have disolved a 1000mg tablet into 1 gall of RODI, What are your views on dosing these Amino acids, intend to start off on a low dosage, would anyone have an idea how much to dose daily, currently dosing Caccium Chloride 165ml Bicarbonate of Soda 230ml and Magnesium Chloride and Epsom Salts 5mg,

Two tanks joined with common sump total about 100 gallons

Thanks in advance for any advice

[Tripod1404]

Amino acid dosing improves coral coloration if you are running a ULN tank. There are bunch of commercial amino acid supplements out there that improve coral healthy and coral under certain circumstances (again mostly ULN tanks). I think they sell is more or less what you are intending to prepare.

Just keep an eye on your nitrate levels.

[dodgy67]

My tank is ULN was thinking of starting off with 5-10ml per day

[bertoni]

That dose probably will be fine, but you will need to have some sort of preservative in the amino acids to keep them from being consumed by bacteria. Some Kalk might work. I would start with a low dose and observe the corals. Every tank is different, and guessing how much amino acid any system might need is largely impossible.

[cincyjim]

Is there any relation in using amino acids and RTN or STN?

[bertoni]

I haven't heard of any yet, but you might want to ask in the coral forums.

[hkgar]

If you are running a ulnv tank what are your alk levels. You should be staying under 8.0 dKH.

Here is a good read (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2253547).

[cincyjim]

Thanks for the link. My dkH is 9.10, sometimes a little higher. I wouldn't say I have a uln tank as I do feed the fish on the heavier side and I use Marine Snow and Reef Chili once each week (Tuesday is Marine Snow and Friday is Reef Chili). It just seemed that a couple of days after I used the amino acids RTN would show up. I lost 7 total colonies to RTN. The only coral that got RTN and did not die was the one that came on the TBS rock. I'm not sure if that was luck or otherwise. I haven't used the amino acid in about a month and so far so good.

[Tripod1404]

Thanks for the link. My dkH is 9.10, sometimes a little higher. I wouldn't say I have a uln tank as I do feed the fish on the heavier side and I use Marine Snow and Reef Chili once each week (Tuesday is Marine Snow and Friday is Reef Chili). It just seemed that a couple of days after I used the amino acids RTN would show up. I lost 7 total colonies to RTN. The only coral that got RTN and did not die was the one that came on the TBS rock. I'm not sure if that was luck or otherwise. I haven't used the amino acid in about a month and so far so good.

Your problem might be high alkalinity combined with low nutrients. SPS corals either prefer high alk with some NO3 and PO4, or trace NO3 and PO4 with natural sea water levels of alk (6.5-7 dKH). High alk and ULN can stress them and cause bacterial infections and/or bleaching.

[cincyjim]

I can back down some on my Alk dosing. My phosphate is .02, no nitrates... reading that is but I'm sure I have some. Thanks for the input.