Best Snake Oil?

[cpreefguy]

I want to see some good growth out of my corals and Im wondering what the best snake oils are :lol

Ive heard alot of good things about B-Ionic for calcium / alkalinity
and Ive used Marine Snow for the filter feeders and liked it

But is there really any difference between all of those miracle chemicals out there? Which have provided the best results for you MAASTards?

<enter GaryP>

[akm]

Have you tried phytoplankton?

[cpreefguy]

yeah, Ive tried Kent's phytoplex, and DTs with minimal results...

[fishypets]

Sean what corals are you trying to grow? If you want steroids for your reef hook up a CA reactor with Korallith media. If you are wanting a good food for sps I like DT'S oyster eggs. I also dose Saliferts Amino Acids and if you look at all the amazing sps tanks on R.C. so do those guys.

[TexasTodd]

Ditto what Clint said, although you can do fine on your system's size with B-Ionic instead of a CA reactor. CA is still better IMO, but costs a lot too.

DT's IMO/IME are the best way to feed sps WITHOUT raising nutriuent levels too much. ;)

Todd

[fishypets]

Todd,

John (thedude) set up a Korallin 1502 on his 30 gal and said it did wonders for his small tank. IMO no tank is too small for a reactor. You can dial in in to fit you needs and watch you tank explode with growth. No doubt about it my reactor is the best purchace I made for my tank. IMO a must if you want good growth on sps. Hook one up now and thank me later. ;)

[JimD]

Kalk, I have tremendous growth using a combination of B-Ionic and a kalk reactor.

[GaryP]

I want to see some good growth out of my corals and Im wondering what the best snake oils are :lol<enter GaryP>

Are you saying I am some sort of snake oil expert? Personally, the only thing I use is a vitamin/HUFA (Selcon or Zoecon) to soak my frozen food in and I add some Coral Accel to my zooplankton coral foods.

[Thunderkat]

My corals have been doing very well, I don't feed them, just my fish and I do water changes once a week (but have missed a few every now and then due to my schedule). My corals are growing too fast actually, they are spreading all over the dang place.

The three big things I think that have helped my corals are the plenum system that I use, metal halide lights (although that did kill my bubble coral, too much light), and a big refugium loaded with live rock and cheato.

I bought a SPS to see how that would do and it has grown quite a bit since I got it, it is all fat and hairy now, really cool, I kind of like SPS now, didn't realize they were so easy to keep! I think the corals chow down on all the bacteria and critters produced by the large volume of live sand I have.

[JeremyGlen]

I've noticed quite a bit of growth over the last 2 weeks, some close to 1/2", cause I started using Reef Success Calk. My tank is small enough to use it I guess and it seems to work wonders. The only other thing I do is add a little Coral Accel and Marine Snow.