Amino Acid & Trace Elements Really Needed?

[bakbay]

I ran out of Acropower 6 months ago and honestly, I’m not seeing any difference with respect to growth / color. Perhaps a contentious subject but I’m curious if others are seeing any difference in your tanks? It’s entirely possible that I feed heavily with 5 tangs and I’m not low on AA? Is there a way to test for AA before I blindly dose?

Trace elements: I run a CaRx so it’s supplying some? The tank is 2.5yo, SPS dominated with a few LPS, and I haven’t done a WC since it was originally set up.

Your thoughts?

 

[archercorals]

Ca reactor is supplying most of what is needed. Water changes theoretically take care of the rest. Trace and aminos are fairly new to the hobbies radar. Many ppl had beautiful tanks prior to this. If you are not in the business of selling frags, I don’t think chasing these things are necessary

 

[hexcolor reef]

I use Red Sea ABCD and coral have shown much improvement to color. As far as growth I don’t dose trace elements for growth, I use liquid amino acids and calcium.

 

[bakbay]

I don’t dose anything anymore - just tested
NO3: 20.7
PO4: 0.10
pH was low since I haven’t replaced the CO2 media, now back to normal.

That Green Slimer grew from an 1” frag in one year and I’ve already cut a few 2” frags to give to friends. The WWC Yellow Tip grew from an 3” frag in the same period.

Curious if folks are seeing a difference between dosing AA or not? Any before & after observations would be appreciated

 

[bakbay]

Additionally, I’ve found that lower Alk (7.5 - 8) yielded better color. I’m now running between 8.5-9 to see if I can get better growth for some stubborn SPS sticks.

 

[archercorals]

Additionally, I’ve found that lower Alk (7.5 - 8) yielded better color. I’m now running between 8.5-9 to see if I can get better growth for some stubborn SPS sticks.

The lower higher alk approache also comes with lower or higher nutrients. It would be lower for better color and higher for faster growth.

 

[X-37B]

I ran out of Acropower 6 months ago and honestly, I’m not seeing any difference with respect to growth / color. Perhaps a contentious subject but I’m curious if others are seeing any difference in your tanks? It’s entirely possible that I feed heavily with 5 tangs and I’m not low on AA? Is there a way to test for AA before I blindly dose?

Trace elements: I run a CaRx so it’s supplying some? The tank is 2.5yo, SPS dominated with a few LPS, and I haven’t done a WC since it was originally set up.

Your thoughts?

Try a 10% WC and evaluate. I ran 18 month no WC on my old 120.
I did one WC and noticed the tank look better, even the wife noticed.
No test for AA.
I do 10% WC a month over 3 systems to remove whatever we cant test for.
I run a carx on my 80g/30g system.

I am going to try acropower for color enhancement.
My system has good color and I run alk 7 no3 <5 po4 < .1.
Only other thing I dose is dsr ez trace daily and strontium weekly.
I only feed the 11 fish in the system not the coral.
Here is 14 months growth on one wild coral I have. Growth is not an issue.