Dosing Amino acid(Acropower) vs KNo3

[S.K.]

Hi
I have been dosing 5ml of Acropower to my system(30gal sps dominant). Nitrates are staying steady at 1 ppm. polyp extensions are ok but colour seems little pale.
Anyway, which will be better dosing AAs or KNo3?

I do know aminos will be turned into nitrates and feed corals. but seems less efficient than dosing direct nitrate. Do sps use aminos directly from water to feed?

I am thinking to raise my nitrate to 5ppm and keep dosing same amount of AAs.

What are your thoughts?


Water prameters are

no3 1ppm
po4 undetectable-0.02
kh8.4

 

[Reeferdood]

IMHO, Acropower is snake oil. I tried it and saw no difference whatsoever on any of my corals. I would raise your nitrates to @ 10-20 and see if you start getting the colors you are looking for. What are you using for lighting and tell us about your complete setup so a clearer picture might be made.

 

[S.K.]

IMHO, Acropower is snake oil. I tried it and saw no difference whatsoever on any of my corals. I would raise your nitrates to @ 10-20 and see if you start getting the colors you are looking for. What are you using for lighting and tell us about your complete setup so a clearer picture might be made.

my setup is really simple
reef octopus 110int skimmer
running reef spec carbon(recommanded dose)
no filter floss
dosing esv 2part and mag
my lighting is 2 ai prime(100 all channel except green 0 and white5) with 4 24Wt5bulbs( all actinic for maximum PUR)


as of today i stopped dosing acropower raising my nitrate slowly. currently about 4-5ppm. sps seems happier. I am thinking to raise the level to about 10ppm as you said.

 

[rhastareefer]

my setup is really simple
reef octopus 110int skimmer
running reef spec carbon(recommanded dose)
no filter floss
dosing esv 2part and mag
my lighting is 2 ai prime(100 all channel except green 0 and white5) with 4 24Wt5bulbs( all actinic for maximum PUR)


as of today i stopped dosing acropower raising my nitrate slowly. currently about 4-5ppm. sps seems happier. I am thinking to raise the level to about 10ppm as you said.

If you're already dosing a product that's supplementing your potassium, why would you dose another product with even more? Loudwolf sodium nitrate works great for me (plus it's phama quality to boot), not saying it's the only option though.

 

[Chris Villalobos]

Dosing Amino Acids is just dosing Organic Nitrogen. If you already have a lot of organic Nitrogen in your tank Amino Acids probably won't help much and may cause Dino or Cyano outbreak. To check how much organics you have in your tank do the Triton N-Doc test. You may be surprised at how much Nitrogen is in your tank water but hidden in organic form.

 

[S.K.]

Dosing Amino Acids is just dosing Organic Nitrogen. If you already have a lot of organic Nitrogen in your tank Amino Acids probably won't help much and may cause Dino or Cyano outbreak. To check how much organics you have in your tank do the Triton N-Doc test. You may be surprised at how much Nitrogen is in your tank water but hidden in organic form.

i have not had any cyno or dino after ugly stage.. nitrate has always been highr than phosphate.
it seems like sps like direct nitrate than aminos

 

[S.K.]

here are some pics

 

[S.K.]

If you're already dosing a product that's supplementing your potassium, why would you dose another product with even more? Loudwolf sodium nitrate works great for me (plus it's phama quality to boot), not saying it's the only option though.

I am dosing kno3 with stump remover. it is impossible to get kno3 or nano3 in canada...
However, i read that it wouldnt really effect potassium level that will do any harm to sps.

 

[Chris Villalobos]

Tank looks great! How many fish?

 

[S.K.]

Tank looks great! How many fish?

5 fishes 1 cleaner shrimp and some cuc about 9 or 10

 

[S.K.]

dosing acropower seemed like dosing just water even when i had 1 ppm nitrate

 

[Chris Villalobos]

dosing acropower seemed like dosing just water even when i had 1 ppm nitrate

My experience with Acro Power was that I caused the first ever Dino outbreak in my 5 year old tank. After doing the Triton N-DOC test I found my organic nitrogen was off the charts already. Basically, amino acids was the last type of nitrogen my tank needed. I have problems with low NO3 so I just dose NaNo3 and I also reduced the lighting over my chaeto to limit my NO3 and PO4 export. My corals are happy and growing.

I think Acro Power has its place but only in tanks that are low in organic nitrogen.

 

[S.K.]

My experience with Acro Power was that I caused the first ever Dino outbreak in my 5 year old tank. After doing the Triton N-DOC test I found my organic nitrogen was off the charts already. Basically, amino acids was the last type of nitrogen my tank needed. I have problems with low NO3 so I just dose NaNo3 and I also reduced the lighting over my chaeto to limit my NO3 and PO4 export. My corals are happy and growing.

I think Acro Power has its place but only in tanks that are low in organic nitrogen.

yes that is same as what i was thinking.. aminos really for real ulns ppl..

 

[S.K.]

well as of now my no3 is at 10ppm po4 at little lower than 0.03ppm. sps seems to like it. better pe on all of sps