Selcon Fish Food Additive, does it also benefit as a coral supplement?

[VSVP bet]

Hey everyone. I have a 125 softie dominated tank, and I use Selcon as a food soak for my fish almost everyday.

Upon researching coral supplements, I noticed products that support coral health and growth contain amino acids and marine lipids, much like Selcon. My question is, does a Selcon food soak also benefit my corals? Would a product like Red Sea Reef Energy (below) be redundant for me, as I use Selcon daily?

Some of the ingredients are different, but wondering if anyone else has pondered this or has any insight. Thanks!

Red Sea Reef Energy
Selcon

 

[Reef Rhino]

I am happy to have the extra Selcon liquid in the water column for the benefit of corals. (But it will effect your skimmer performance, for a short time at least)

I do not believe it is redudant to Reef Energy and I ocassionally use both.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey everyone. I have a 125 softie dominated tank, and I use Selcon as a food soak for my fish almost everyday.

Upon researching coral supplements, I noticed products that support coral health and growth contain amino acids and marine lipids, much like Selcon. My question is, does a Selcon food soak also benefit my corals? Would a product like Red Sea Reef Energy (below) be redundant for me, as I use Selcon daily?

Some of the ingredients are different, but wondering if anyone else has pondered this or has any insight. Thanks!

Red Sea Reef Energy
Selcon

Selcon primarily for fish food to boost immunity system. Vitachem and aminos for coral

 

[VSVP bet]

Selcon primarily for fish food to boost immunity system. Vitachem and aminos for coral

got it, as for aminos, the benefit for coral is essentially providing a supplement? and it helps with polyp extension by triggering a feed response? Did some research and still unclear as to its purpose.

 

[VSVP bet]

I am happy to have the extra Selcon liquid in the water column for the benefit of corals. (But it will effect your skimmer performance, for a short time at least)

I do not believe it is redudant to Reef Energy and I ocassionally use both.

yes my skimmer does the same

 

[vetteguy53081]

got it, as for aminos, the benefit for coral is essentially providing a supplement? and it helps with polyp extension by triggering a feed response? Did some research and still unclear as to its purpose.

Aminos- I like seachem Fuel but brightwell and pohls brands also are good

 

[ReeferA]

I had not seen any change using Redsea after 6 months. It caused brown algae blooms which disappeared after I stopped using it.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I’ve noticed a Polyp Extension on Corals, that normally Extend, when the Lights Ramp down, when feeding frozen food with Selcon. Added to ReefRoids a few times. That’s a bit of a pain to do, as aquariums are in basement and I keep the Selcon upstairs in the Refrigerator.

 

[ninjamyst]

Selcon and aminos are similar to people taking multivitamins. Some say snake oil, other say life saving elixir.

 

[Kodski]

I use both as intended along side each other. I make a DIY frozen food that contains both Selcon and Brightwell AminOmega. In there I also have a slew of other things that both fish and coral can consume for energy.

For coral Amino Acids, I use Aquaforest Amino Mix. I'm not sure if its more concentrated than other brands or what, but I wouldn't think it would be. The reason I mention this, is because of @ReeferA 's post about algae blooms. Aquaforest recommends 1 drop/27 US gal every other day after lights out. I see people dumping mL's of amino's in. Just a few drops in my tank everyday is enough to notice elevated nutrient levels. So it really makes me wonder if dosage, potency/concentration, and other factors like pre-existing water conditions cause different reefer's to have different experiences with amino acids.

Personally, if you already have a high nutrient system, I wouldn't bother with amino acids. I however, ride the 0.00 ppm line with both phosphates and nitrates. I can see a visible difference in the corals when I forget to dose amino's for a day. So In lower nutrient systems I think you'll notice the most difference in corals.

 

[VSVP bet]

I use both as intended along side each other. I make a DIY frozen food that contains both Selcon and Brightwell AminOmega. In there I also have a slew of other things that both fish and coral can consume for energy.

For coral Amino Acids, I use Aquaforest Amino Mix. I'm not sure if its more concentrated than other brands or what, but I wouldn't think it would be. The reason I mention this, is because of @ReeferA 's post about algae blooms. Aquaforest recommends 1 drop/27 US gal every other day after lights out. I see people dumping mL's of amino's in. Just a few drops in my tank everyday is enough to notice elevated nutrient levels. So it really makes me wonder if dosage, potency/concentration, and other factors like pre-existing water conditions cause different reefer's to have different experiences with amino acids.

Personally, if you already have a high nutrient system, I wouldn't bother with amino acids. I however, ride the 0.00 ppm line with both phosphates and nitrates. I can see a visible difference in the corals when I forget to dose amino's for a day. So In lower nutrient systems I think you'll notice the most difference in corals.

i see, my system is high nutrient and all softies. The reason i brought this question up, is ive noticed my PE on my corals has been declining for the past months. Mostly on my Lobophytum Sp. (hand leathers) but not on any of my Sarcophyton (toadstools) nor on my Sinularia or Capnella.

I was searching for an amino supplement to perhaps correct whatever issue is happening. And why i brought up the selcon question as an amino for corals, as i use it frequently.

 

[VSVP bet]

Aminos- I like seachem Fuel but brightwell and pohls brands also are good

I ordered some fuel, thanks for the input.

 

[Kodski]

i see, my system is high nutrient and all softies. The reason i brought this question up, is ive noticed my PE on my corals has been declining for the past months. Mostly on my Lobophytum Sp. (hand leathers) but not on any of my Sarcophyton (toadstools) nor on my Sinularia or Capnella.

I was searching for an amino supplement to perhaps correct whatever issue is happening. And why i brought up the selcon question as an amino for corals, as i use it frequently.

I get where you're coming from, but your "solution" doesn't make any sense. If your corals were doing well or better in the past, something has changed that they are not doing as well. You're saying its not nutrients by saying your system is a high nutrient system. Adding amino acids isn't going to magically solve anything, you need to identify the underlying cause of the change in your corals. If you want to have the same looking corals as what you used to have, then you need to look at parameters, your care habits, anything that you may have changed around when you've noticed the change in corals. Even prior to when you noticed a change, sometimes things take months to accumulate to a point where you visually notice the issue. Which is also why not identifying what the underlying issue is and instead covering it up with something else could potentially lead to a cause/effect that's much worse than lowered PE.

I would say that the only instance where amino acids would be a solution to an issue is if you stopped feeding corals foods, reduced your bio load, or would have low nutrients. Remember, amino acids are just food for the corals in the simplest form. Dosing amino acids is not a whole lot different than feeding more fish food or coral foods like reef chili. So if your problem can't be solved by simply feeding more, amino acids isn't the solution.

 

[VSVP bet]

I get where you're coming from, but your "solution" doesn't make any sense. If your corals were doing well or better in the past, something has changed that they are not doing as well. You're saying its not nutrients by saying your system is a high nutrient system. Adding amino acids isn't going to magically solve anything, you need to identify the underlying cause of the change in your corals. If you want to have the same looking corals as what you used to have, then you need to look at parameters, your care habits, anything that you may have changed around when you've noticed the change in corals. Even prior to when you noticed a change, sometimes things take months to accumulate to a point where you visually notice the issue. Which is also why not identifying what the underlying issue is and instead covering it up with something else could potentially lead to a cause/effect that's much worse than lowered PE.

I would say that the only instance where amino acids would be a solution to an issue is if you stopped feeding corals foods, reduced your bio load, or would have low nutrients. Remember, amino acids are just food for the corals in the simplest form. Dosing amino acids is not a whole lot different than feeding more fish food or coral foods like reef chili. So if your problem can't be solved by simply feeding more, amino acids isn't the solution.

I got a new protein skimmer that has been pulling a lot of sludge, and i am wondering if it is stripping my water of nutrients, what the softies have been eating. I have a heavy bio load, so i always feed a lot, but wonder if nutrients are still too low and am willing to experiment with aminos.

I do monthly water changes, like 30 gallons in a ~200gal system. Nothing has really changed other than the skimmer.

 

[Kodski]

I got a new protein skimmer that has been pulling a lot of sludge, and i am wondering if it is stripping my water of nutrients, what the softies have been eating. I have a heavy bio load, so i always feed a lot, but wonder if nutrients are still too low and am willing to experiment with aminos.

I do monthly water changes, like 30 gallons in a ~200gal system. Nothing has really changed other than the skimmer.

In that case, amino acids might be the solution. However, your nitrates and phosphates would also reflect lower values if you were running low on nutrients.