ps. this thread started with the question if any is dosing an amino acid supplement, so I didn't know we were talking about acropower only.
It sure did, and when I started it that was the question... its been derailed for just plain silliness more than once, so I'm sure it can survive some on topic comments, although I agree, it would be a bit of a confusing spot for the fish food recipe you've already said your not going to post here
You make a valid point with your comments on whether or not supplementation is needed beyond fish food/waste. The AA article noted earlier (in my understanding of it) supports your point also. The thing is though, it also notes that corals/zooathelia have the ability to take up the aminos in the forms that that they are being dosed. Think about that for a minute and what you end up with is a 'clean' fuel source for the corals. One that isn't dependent on other things in the tank processing it before its usable.
As an analogy, human beings can successfully live on grains with some minor supplementation along the way, pretty much in the same way livestock can. The thing is, in order to fuel the amount of processing our huge (compared to the animal kingdom) brains use on a daily basis, we'd have to eat some insane amount of grains/grasses (I used to know the numbers for this, but it is escaping me now) to the point where we would basically do nothing other than eat. We could also successfully survive on raw potatoes (with some minor supplementation along the way).. We wouldn't be nearly as strong, our lives wouldn't last nearly as long, and we wouldn't have the energy (or have had the energy) to fuel the growth in intelligence we have had as a species. What changed things for us, at least when you accept darwins theory, and accept that something happened evolution wise that gave us an edge over other proto-humans, or the apes, was taming fire, and moving from hunter gatherers to farming and raising livestock. What that did was take that thousand pounds of grains (just for the sake of a number) and replace it with smaller amounts of food more readily used by our bodies, such that we weren't working so hard too have just enough nutrients to survive, we had excess, and that allowed us to develop those huge brains, and fuel them. When you eat meat what you are eating is basically grains processed into proteins. When you cook that meat, and eat it with cooked potatoes, what you basically have is something that has already been 'half' digested, such that the proteins in it are more readily available to be used by your body.
How does that all relate to dosing amino's? Well, instead of using your fish to 'cook' food for the corals, what you are doing is giving it to them immediately in a more usable form. The argument against amino's, or the argument of it being snake oil has no doubt in the past likely been valid, but only to the point (in my opinion) that we were unsure as to what amino's could be actively taken up, and also unsure as to what amino's if any were in the bottle, and if any could be held in stasis successfully. Research (especially some of the recent stuff) has shown that they can be taken up in 'raw' form, so, we're more at the point now where we need to begin to throw that part of the argument out, and focus on the second part of figuring out what amino's are worth the time, which combination in which bottle...
So, do we NEED to supplement? Its doubtful as many people have been keeping corals thriving for years without. Can our corals benefit from the supplementation? Can we make them stronger and live longer by providing fuel in a form that is readily processed? Can we provide a 'cleaner' source of food/fuel for them that results in less waste in a closed system, therefore helping to sustain the water parameters they also need to be healthy? It appears at least at this point that supplementing aminos
may just do all those things. Granted we're still early in our understanding of how this supplementation is best achieved, and how much/little we should be supplementing, but its does seem to be getting to the point where while we may never say it is required, we do seem to be forced to accept that it isn't the snake oil so many other products have been.
I didn't have poor color or poor growth when I started all this, at least to what I expect. I wasn't searching for something that would 'fix' a problem for me. What I started with was the idea that as things matured in my tank, I still felt like it was always living on the edge of one mistake or one issue causing massive losses. I don't have any idea if amino's can help with that scenario, but what I do know is that people who are starving or in otherwise poor health can die from a common cold, where as people who are strong and healthy may be able to fight that same cold off without ever showing symptoms. So, if you buy that whole rambling about how/why we don't just eat grains, (and you don't have to buy it, its theory and in some cases opinion as much as fact) then you have to question at least somewhat whether NOT providing amino's lends to that fragility... I don't claim to know the answer, I don't think any of us do.. I am at the point now though where I think I see increased growth and better color even though it wasn't lacking. I'm also at the point now where I see that dosing doesn't seem to have caused the issues that I would expect to have from excess nutrients. So, while this stuff may not really have done anything as far as better growth or color, since that could be something I am imbuing on the tank on my own, its either being taken up, is easily skimmed out, or isn't usable at all by nuisance algae(at least the kind noticeable in my tank)... so as long as it continues to not be overly expensive, and as long as I continue to see that it doesn't seem to fuel algae blooms, I'm on board for dumping it in and hoping that its helping to make things a little less fragile.... which is something I hope I never have the opportunity to try to prove.
(oh the irony after having typed all that drivel and then getting to click the 'post quick reply' button
)
