Marine Snow

[JustinK]

hullo,

Was thinking of buying Marine Snow for my tubeworms and corals, heard that it's pretty good... anyone used before? any opinions on it? and where can i get it ah? P*tm*rt say they out of stock leh... anyone know where else to buy? Thanks!

[Jimaroon]

My opinion: DT live plankton is better. I used Marine Snow before, but find it very dilute.

[Jimaroon]

Recently bought Roti-Rich from Reborn, and find that this is not bad either. I do can recommend it though.

[AlfaRomeo]

yupz, DT is much better as they say MarineSnow is just water and yeast i think.. not much more..Experts can confirm?

[betaFISH]

im currently adding coralLife i dunch noe if its good..but my mushies seem healthy..

[Achilles Tang]

If you want my opinion... for coral food... stick to the real stuff... like phytoplankton... live or frozen is the best.

Bottled stuff.... ahem.... if you do a search in RC or SRC... you'll find out why none of the serious reefers will even touch those stuff. 90% water anyone?

Let's just say we were all newbies once.... but knowledge is key to greater stuff!

[AlfaRomeo]

AT, better than DT? or is DT considered live phyto?

[Achilles Tang]

DT is live phyto. Just chilled so they are in some form of suspended animation.

You can culture your own phyto... it's quite fun to do.. if you have the time and dedication. I stopped coz of my schedule.

The next step up the food chain is zooplankton... and live rotifers are what you can culture after phytoplankton. Or high grade zooplankton substitutes like Golden Pearls (which I imported).

The next step up is larger zooplankton in larger micron sizes... frozen cyclop-eze, baby brine shrimp etc.

[Jimaroon]

Where can I get live rotifers?

[Achilles Tang]

Watercircle.

[Kong]

AT, how to start culturing phyto?

any guide article? and where to get start-up phyto?

[Achilles Tang]

Look into the Plankton Culturing Forum please. Thank you.

[Mellow]

Bottled stuff.... ahem.... if you do a search in RC or SRC... you'll find out why none of the serious reefers will even touch those stuff. 90% water anyone?

erm..but even our body is 70% water...of course marine snow has to consist a considerable amount of water for it to be in that fluid form right? otherwise, it will probably end up jelly-like...just my thoughts

[hippo]

Watercircle.

You can't get it meanwhile from there. They are now use to feed hundreds of baby SH.

[Achilles Tang]

erm..but even our body is 70% water...of course marine snow has to consist a considerable amount of water for it to be in that fluid form right? otherwise, it will probably end up jelly-like...just my thoughts

Would you prefer paying the same amount of money for 90% water? With maybe 10% being of dubious nutrition with unverified contents such as yeast?

Or phytoplankton which is 100% usable & nutritious, high in vitamin B12 and highly unsaturated fatty acid EPA?

To illustrate... you have $10 to splurge on coffee... if coffee is the same price everywhere... would you prefer to get your coffee from Starbucks or McDonalds.

Anyway... its your reef... you can put in rubbish or you can put in good stuff... its just money.... spend it well or spend it foolishly. It doesn't apply just to coral food.

[Mellow]

of course if u ask me, i'll go with the natural food source right from the bottom of the food chain...phyto.

but I thought your 90% water description of marine snow isnt too fair to the product. tell me about it. Doesn't the phytos we use also consist a significant amount of water too? heh...I dun think those phytos are 100% usable....

[Achilles Tang]

Listen to what Ron Shimek says... he has done a lab analysis of all the various foods marketed for the marine aquarium hobby. Let's just say he doesn't have a very high opinion of the bottled 'liquid nutrients' commonly sold.

These are his very own words quoted from a thread in RC...

"But the other liquid additives tested, Marine Snow, and Combisan, respectively had almost no or no food value."

Anyway... if you don't trust me about the value of phytoplankton vs Combisan or Marine Snow... just do your own search on the internet and RC.

I only do what's best for my tank after I have done my research.

[Achilles Tang]

Oh... and the 90% water description is usually for Combisan... with Marine Snow not very far behind.

[corrado]

hi all

i was looking at my DT. the quantitative analysis

is moisture(max) is 97%.

I believe phytos are so blo*dy light. their weight contribution in bottled

is negligible within the limitations of cell separation technology.

that is if you are talking about live culture. they need the mositure

to survive. you will not lose much of the nutrients though.

if you are okay with the deads, those freeze dried phytos are 100% rich with dubious nutrition performance.

there are 2 camps amongst the ang mohs.

the majority go for DT's.

the rest are into culturing.

if there is any using MS, he hasn't heard of RC yet.

a friend in NUS put DTs under scope. heard the concentration

is close as per claimed. the cells even vibrates!

[Achilles Tang]

Yup... phyto is microscopic unicellular algae. They need to be suspended in liquid as a delivery medium when live.

The cell count in DT's is very high so it's more value for money compared to water mixed with pea flour or yeast!

Anyway, comparing DTs to Combisan/Marine snow is like comparing a T-bone steak to soup in a cup instant meal!

[jsoon]

What about Plancto and CoralLife Gold food ? Someone gave me some to try ? Observation is that it gives out "brown subtances" that makes my water cloudy. Comments ?

[lightningstrike]

dt is live, whereas marine snow is not.

[andysho]

i use marine snow... but stop using after i have DT.. all i can marine snow inside contain nothing but water....