AcroPower is a new amino acid supplement from Two Little Fishes which is designed to juice coral colors and growth. Stony corals seem to derive special benefit from the addition of various amino acids which are quickly incorporated into the aragonite skeleton. The development of aquarium amino acid additive like AcroPower is partially based on a scientific paper called Biosynthesis of ‘essential’ amino acids by scleractinian corals authored by Drs. Lisa Fitzgerald and Allina Szmant which identified which amino acids could be synthesized by corals to meet all of their needs, only part of their needs, or could not be synthesized by the corals at all.
Simply put, amino acids in corals fall under three categories: those that stony corals can synthesize all of which they require, those which stonies can synthesize in part and those which they cannot synthesize at all. For Amino Acids that are not included in stony corals’ ability to synthesize, these are normally obtained through feeding. However if you’re trying to keep the nutrients low in a high energy SPS tank feeding a ton of food is counter to the goal of having an environment of very low nutrients, and that’s where amino acid supplements like AcroPower come in.
Now we have already professed our unabashed love for Salifert’s Coralline AminoAcids but this product is not widely available, and we just haven’t experienced the same level of accelerated stony coral growth with other AAs as we have with Salifert’s. Hopefully, Julian Sprung’s chemistry R&D department has figured a way to make AcroPower as bomb-diggedy as Coralline AminoAcids or better, and maybe even at a better price since it’s made in USA. Two Little Fishes’ AcroPower supplement should begin to be available in a $20 500ml bottle beginning next week with 250ml and one liter containers coming down the pike in about a month.
We know you like it when your corals color up and grow like gangbusters. That’s why we created AcroPower, our new formula that supplies amino acids that corals need to build their skeletal architecture. Like other cnidaria, corals have a special ability to uptake dissolved amino acids across their entire surface. Closed system aquariums with protein skimming and other ULN (ultra-low nutrient) filtration methods deplete amino acids that are vitally important for coral health. Corals become more colorful within days due to the extension of the growing margins when AcroPower is used.