Reefroids

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steve-s

Well-known member
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My LFS just started carrying this item and since I have never seen it before was wondering if anyone has some feedback, good or bad. I am especially interested if the container lists actual ingredients. Other than this:

Ingredients: Unlike many other "coral foods" on the market, Reef-roids is NOT made with processed fish meals or other ingredients that can rapidly degrade water quality. Reef-roids is a mixture of naturally occurring marine planktons including a specific species of zooplankton that is unique to our product.

The website contains little or no specifics so I will most likely end up contacting them directly.
http://www.polyplab.com/reefroids.html

Cheers
Steve
 
Is it a dried food?

I liked this

Other coral foods often consist of processed fish meals which can easily pollute your water. Every ingredient in Reef-roids is made from unprocessed water stable ingredients. Consequently, the product will not degrade water quality even if fed often

It must be made out of magic zooplankton? I don't see how any planktonic food couldn't potentially degrade water quality.

I also saw a statement about corals demonstrating a feeding response. I believe Anthony Calfo says even sugar put next to a coral will stimulate a feeding response.

Look forward to what they tell you...
 
Hmm... Reefroids... like steroids for your reef? :lol:

Interesting though... I'd like to see what you find. :D

-Josh-:cool:
 
Kinda what I was thinking. Reminded me of that Reefchili "wonder food". :lol:

I will send them an e-mail and see what they have to say.

Cheers
Steve
 
ive tried it they sent me a sample. it dose work,didnt cause any algae blooms.
this food is suppose to help goniporas alive.i have noticed a large growth in my xenia population,also my yellow polyps and zoos like it.
to bad they didnt list there ingrediants. as for sps growth well i havent noticed anything.

vic
 
ANY food/nutrient source added to the tank can basically have the potential to degrade water quality if overused/misused. More complex nutrients break down into simpler compounds and these are what can contribute to algae blooms, poor water quality, ect. The only way that product could make that claim is if the food had no nutritional value IMO. To me, it sounds just like any other phyto or zooplankton mix. It may be very nutritious and great for your corals, but don't let the claim of no water pollution lure you into the trap of overfeeding. I'd recommend using it cautiously until you see how your tank reacts to it...

MikeS
 
Okay, here is the communications thus far with the manufacturer....

I asked
steve-s said:
From your website....

Ingredients: Unlike many other "coral foods" on the market, Reef-roids is NOT made with processed fish meals or other ingredients that can rapidly degrade water quality.

In the above statement you claim it will not degrade water quality. If this is a natural product it will decay and therefore affect water quality. How would this product fair in a system without a skimmer?

Reef-roids is a mixture of naturally occurring marine planktons including a specific species of zooplankton that is unique to our product.

Can you expand on the types of plankton/zooplankton in the product and does it contain any kind of sugars, gluconate, polygluconate, saccharides or preservatives?

Has it been tested for organic or inorganic phosphorus and if so, what where the results?

The reply....
Polyp Labs said:
I'd be glad to answer some of your questions


A) We say that it will not rapidly degrade water quality. You are correct all nutrient input will eventually breakdown if it is not consumed. But because of the ability of the product to stay in the water column for extended periods of time, most of the product will be consumed by a filter feeder before it can break down.

In contrast, almost all other "coral foods" are made from what you could consider "ground-up flake fish food". Any kind of food that is made from this kind of fish meal or "hydrolyzed fish protein" will break down into dissolved organics very quickly. This is a result of the process to produce fish meal.

As a crude analogy, imagine throwing a cooked sphere of steak into some a lake versus throwing in an cooked meatball. Both of them being the same size (Wow this is a REALLY crude analogy!) But... which one do you think would take the longest to break down? The steak will last the longest because the proteins holding it together have not been broken up. The meatball has been chopped up and will break down into it's smaller parts of ground beef.

B) In comparison to any other coral food available, I would highly recommend Reef-roids for a skimmer less aquarium. It is difficult to run your water quality with the product. To put things into perspective, I have accidently knocked over a full canister of Reef-roids into a 90G test aquarium. The canister was sitting on the plastic cross bracing on the tank, and I was distracted by a co-worker and when I turned around, I knocked it in. At first, I panicked (thinking I should siphon as much out and do a massive water change) but I decided to leave it in there and to see what would happen. The water was a reddish haze for the first few days but Over the course of 4 days, the water cleared up and almost all of the product had been removed by the skimmer. (There was still some of the product floating on the edges of the tank). But most surprisingly, there was no algae bloom. None. No inhabitant deaths. And no corals or fish seemed to be affected. I measured nitrates and phosphates with salifert kits and it was literally exactly the same as it was before I knocked it over. 4ppm nitrates and 0 phosphates. (The salifert test kit is not the most precise for phosphate readings but that is all we had in the lab at the time)

B) The product does not contain any preservatives. It is composed of a few types of naturally occuring marine planktons and a zooplankton strain. The exact stain of zooplankton is proprietary to our company but it was selected to be used in our product because of it's incredibly nutritional characteristics. There is no other product on the market that uses this particular strain of zooplankton. There is nothing else in the product. There are no sugars added. Saccharides are a type of sugar and there is certainly none of that added in there. Gluconates and polygluconates are also not used in our product.

C) The product has been tested for both organic and inorganic phosphorous. It does contain extremely small amounts of both. The values are so low that we needed to use fairly expensive sorption balance test to get readings. These trace amounts will have absolutely no effect on your aquarium water quality. I do not have the numbers on hand but I can ask one of the lab techs tomorrow to see if they kept a record of it. If not I can ask them to re-run the tests for you when we have some time.

If there are any questions I can answer for you, or if you need any other information, please just ask and one of us here will do our best to answer them =)
Your thoughts....?

I have also invited Polyp Labs here to discuss answer additional Q's as they come up.

Cheers
Steve
 
Well its talks well... If it has no perservatives how long will it last before it degrades in the container?? thier has to be something to keep it from rotting no??

red seems like a clue to??


Mike
 
I think the key is in the red yes, a type of decopod. Either freeze dried or frozen but considering the moisture (6%), I'd say freeze dried. No matter the food, I've always been partial to freezer storage anyway.

If it is something close to what is suspected, it would also be a fair amount more economical as well. :cough: :cough: don't be raising the price now... :D

Cheers
Steve
 
I should've examined the ingredient list a little more carefully. Astaxanthin is a carotenoid and while a powerful antioxidant, it is also a pigment. It could account for the orange color unless a xanthophyll.

Cheers
Steve
 
How are they able to maintain good nutritional value from this product if its freeze dried? IIRC,freeze drying food will reduce alot of the nutrients from the food.

Or am I confusing this with something else? I know freeze drying is essentially dehydrating the material, but doesnt it remove good stuff along with the water molecules?

Nick
 
hey guys,

just to quickly answer some questions in here.

Mike: A freeze dried food product if kept in a dry place does not require preservatives. It has a shelf life of about 12 months once opened, but most hobbyists will consume all of the product before 12 months.

Steve: You are right, using a freezer to store any kind of food will make it last longer =) There are actually no decapods in there (like that company that you mention), the red colour is from the natural pigment of some of the planktons that are used in the product. Unlike our product, you may have found that the "other" product is very easy to over feed especially in it's freeze dried form. Astaxanthin is also naturally occuring in some of the planktons that are in the product.

Nick: Freeze drying does slightly decrease the nutritional value of a food product in comparison to it's live form. But it by FAR the best way to retain nutritional value outside of frozen/live forms. Depending on the exact process used, the freeze drying process retains about 85%-90% of the nutrition of the original live organism.

Spray-drying is process (that we do not use) that will decrease nutitional value more than just freeze drying. Perhaps that is what you were thinking about?
 
As to it being a magical barry bond's endorsed zooplankton, we don't claim it to be such =)

But the reef-roids product is probably the best product on the market for feeding goniopora. It was made for that purpose. And users have experienced excellent NEW growth on goniopora. (Including new growth encursting onto LR)

At the same time. the product is very palatable and nutritious to all filter feeders. It is also one of the the only coral foods on the market that is not made from processed meals - making Reef-roids a nutritious coral food that won't spoil your water quality.

We are working on an American distributor shortly and we will be offering free samples to anyone who would like to try it. This will be announced on our website.

I really hope my comments aren't breaking any rules about commerical posts.

Thanks
 
Thanks for the clarification on your product. Its nice to hear from the manufacturer to clarify some details on what they make.

Nick
 
Polyp lab thanks for dropping by and dont worry about breaking any posting rules. Your product was brought up in discussion and its great to see a manufacturer come by and answer some questions.

Mike
 
Lets see how it does. I picked some up yesterday while shopping for chems and such. I will update the thread in a couple of weeks with what ever observations.

Polyp Lab, What would you say the micron size for the product would be approximately?

Cheers
Steve
 
Steve: I hope you enjoy the product! Target feeding corals will give you the best results. (and will make the product last longer). The particles in Reefroids are around 140 microns in size.


Skimershipserer:
We are a Canadian company but we have recently started U.S. distribution. In a little while, it should be available in quite a few places in the States.

In the meantime you will have just get the free sample from us.
 

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