Is Feeding Phyto Better for Tank Health?

[Jolieve]

Spykes found this study done by a canadian reefkeeping group. The results of it show advanced coral and coralline growth and huge amounts of biodiversity. The only difference between the two systems is that one was fed with phytoplankton and the other was not.

http://www.reefcrew.com/assets/html/res ... uction.htm

What's your take on this?
J.

 

[Anonymous]

I believe it is a huge benefit. However, overdosing or starting with too much too fast can be a severe liability due to the excess nutrition.

 

[Jolieve]

So what's the best way to get started with feeding phyto and should you culture your own or are there any good "bottled" phytos out there for our use?

J.

 

[Anonymous]

I use instant algae. But that's probably because I use it to grow rotifers and I start dosing it in the tank after I've had a bottle for a few months. I like to use frash phyto for the Clownfish fry for maximum nutrition.

I have an unbelieveable number of fether dusters, literally in the thousands.

I think the best way to start would be just a few drops a day and increase a few drops a week of concentrated phyto. For live phyto maybe a little more because it will stay alive until something eats it.

mechanical filtration and UV are definately detrimental with live phyto though.

 

[WRASSER]

i have been trying to get purple coraline, i cant seem to get it going. i have tried to put spores from rocks and other tanks. i recently been using aragamilk for about two months, nothing. i am trying now a small rock with coraline on it, to see if it will jump from rock to rock. any advice?

 

[romunov]

If the phytoplankton is alive, and the tank is of fair size, you really can't overdose. Turning off skimmer and mechanical filtration in the mean time is of course mandatory.
The only drawback with over feeding is at night, when oxygen demand increases. And of course if for some reason plankton dies in the tank, that can faul the water...

 

[Anonymous]

My impression is that most studies have shown that corals generally don't take up phytoplankton. I'm sure its great for biodiversity of filter feeders etc though.

So many people have heavily skimmed sps tanks with huge coral growth that I'm inclined to think the whole coral feeding thing ala Bourneman is highly overstated.

 

[Anonymous]

I do believe you can OD on live phyto but I've never tried. The stuff is very nutrient rich. I defer to the knowledge of those that have added too much without detrimental effects.

Dan is right (of course) about the coral not directly consuming phyto but I feel that the corals do eat the bugs, or their larvae, that reproduce readily on a diet of phyto. OTOH, it seems counter productive for those using the low nutrient systems approach.

 

[SnowManSnow]

I recommend DT's. IT can be a little hard to find. But it has always been good for my reef tank. I agree with some of the other posts about starting too quickly too.. when I first started dosing I noticed an almost immediate algeal bloom each time I would dose that would be gone the next morning. After a few months though it seemed to die back. I think that the filter feeding organisms grew sufficently to consume adequate ammounts before it turned to waste.

 

[Anonymous]

DTs is prohibitively expensive at our LFS. In have used the frozen slurry from brineshrimp direct- you keep it in the freezer and its very thick. You just put in a few drops and it seems good.