Feed small clams in separate bowl ?

[EbiTank]

hi people, anyone taking out their smaller clams (2") to feed directly in separate bowls.

read abt it in RC. these guys take tank water and put DT and clam in a bowl for 30 mins, until water becomes clear.

is it necessary to do the above. cos I can never be able to place any shrimps on my 2" clam for direct feeding, always get "blown" away.

[CKS]

what shrimp?

brineshrimp?

Yea.. small clam needs more feeding .. they'r less light demanding too

Those ppl in RC who do that normally would feed DT or other planktonic stuff

[Morgan]

Don't know about taking out to feed, read it on RC too.

I have never done it but my 1" maximas is doing very well.

BTW clams don't feed on brine shrimps, they feed on phytoplankton.

[DragonGoby]

How much do the small 1" clams cost? Really wanted to get a T.gigas, but I've never seen any for sale here.

[Achilles Tang]

is it necessary to do the above. cos I can never be able to place any shrimps on my 2" clam for direct feeding, always get "blown" away.

What?!

You don't feed brine shrimp to clams!!!!

They have gills inside which process phytoplankton!!!

[EbiTank]

sorrie, not BS...tried once to place a cut-up piece of prawn from market on top,

but cannot stay as clam just puff it away. so only use liquid coral food so far.

but using DT and putting in separate container is something new (to me)..

from green water to clear, just like magic !

[Achilles Tang]

Cut up pieces of prawns to feed clams????

Who told you that??!! You'll kill them!!!!!

Pls pls research more before you do anything to your livestock!

[Morgan]

sorrie, not BS...i'm talking abt cut-up pieces of prawns that mum buys from market.

trying to feed them some solid stuff. cannot work. so only use liquid coral food so far.

but using DT and putting in separate container is something new (to me)..

from green water to clear, just like magic !

Is is even worse. If you push it into the clam, sure the clam will die.

Fortunately it does not work and you didn't use force.

[EbiTank]

sorrie guys... ..so back to putting them in a separate bowl - you guys think its a good idea ?

just pm Pacbetta to get some frozen phyto..

[Achilles Tang]

Feeding phyto is a good idea for corals and baby clams... in bowl is up to you.

You can buy frozen phyto like Instant Algae from Reef World but they defrosted it (as it comes in a huge frozen bag) and scoop it into little chili sauce tubs to sell (which degrades nutritional quality) and refreeze to sell. Or you can get yours from Pacbetta... where if i am not wrong, he will mix water (hopefully saltwater) with frozen phyto and then you pour it into your tank. Hmmm.... similarly, pacbetta's frozen phyto has a short shelf life once mixed with water. A couple of days to a week depending on how cold you can keep the liquid phyto.

IMO, it would be better to scrap frozen phyto and stir into a glass of tank water before feeding at lights off. That's what I did with my Instant Algae from RW before I switched to feeding Golden Pearls to finally feeding the real live stuff like phytoplankton and rotifers.

AT

[pacificbetta]

Not true, the "prepared to feed" solution should last 3 mths before spoiling. Nutritional value loss is negligible during this period. The concentrated feed required some deconc proceedure which I suspect most in Singapore are not aware of.

It is not a good ideal to put frozen concentrated algae direct into the feeding tank, I do not understand why Randy suggested that form of application. Cell wall rupture incidence is much higher.

And it is NOT a good idea to take your clams out to feed them in a seperate container containing concentrated feed. Neither is it a good idea to squit concentrated feed direct into clams as advocated by several lfs.

Edwin Lam

[Achilles Tang]

Just out of curiosity.... do you put the frozen algae paste into dechlorinated freshwater (is this what you meant by decontamination), plain freshwater, or in saltwater and with what salinity?

How cold is this solution expected to be kept in to retain at least 90% of its nutritional values over 3 mths? Why not defrost enough to seperate out into smaller packs and give out in such form?

It is the normal practice to put frozen phyto into a glass of tank water, stir and dissolve it before feeding into the tank. The only cell wall rupture happens is when you put it into a blender. Centrifuging phyto doesn't even rupture cell walls.

But putting frozen phyto into feeding tank and putting frozen phyto into a bottle... what's the difference? What's the cell wall rupture rates like for both?

I believe the act of feeding baby clams seperately is to ensure that the clams take in the phyto as much as they can, coz if they were fed in the main tank, a lot of phyto must be fed causing potential fouling of the water (if you don't have enough corals and other micro life uptaking it and a good skimmer to remove the excess before it rots as frozen phyto is dead cells).

Hope you can enlighten me... first time I heard something like this.

[pacificbetta]

Assuming you defreeze the concentrated alga paste to a set temperature, say ABC deg, and then add it DIRECT to seawater which is kept at the same set temperature. If the dillution process is drastic, osmostic pressure alone will rupture many alga cell walls. Different alga cell walls can withstand different pressures before rupturing. For example, if I remember correctly, nanno walls are more resistant than tetraselmis (sp?).

These information can be found off bio texts, I am sure there is someone here qualified and certified to comment?

I mean

deconc -> deconcentration

not decontaminate

Last time I measured, a deconc solution of nanno kept at 4 deg C lost slightly under 5% of the hufa profile (the selected few that I requested measurements on) after 3 mths. This results are out from a lab. No meaurements for a 10% loss of nutri value.

I believe suddenly squiting a lot of alga material into the clam intake pipe will result in clogging of the "gill intake" for tri clams? Better to dose the clam's surroundings gently. Besides, it never hurts to build up the biosystem of the tank from "bottom" up.

A properly set up tank will have most of the filter feeding materials skimmed off before they start to breakdown in the tank. I believe a proper rating will be that 99.9% of the tank water should be "skimmed" within a 24 hour period which speaks a lot. Of course if you set up your bio filter before your skimmer, you will then be asking for trouble. But the fault lies in the biofilter, not the filter feed in the water.

What that matters will be a lot of filter feeding material will be "lost" before the filter feeders actually eat them. But then that only matters when we are using *some* overpriced manufactured feeds. Does the cost of a $30 solution that can last 3 mths matter when you guys are burning pockets with MHs, chillers, fluorescents etc?

So all these will bring us to where all these aquarium keeping methods evolve to what it is today. The way I see it is a supremo pioneered a technique and announced it to the world. It was tried out by some hobbyists and it worked. They broadcasted their findings and cycle goes on and on. Eventually this method becomes THE way to do things. What that was not broadcasted was the conditions that made this method work best. While I acknoledge that the new technique is probably an improvement over previous versions, it may not neccessary be the best. Perhaps we should look more towards what the industry are doing, more than what the other hobbyists are doing. The industry often get things done better.

[Achilles Tang]

PacB,

Erhm, ok, but you still haven't answered my questions directly yet!

1. Do you put the frozen algae paste into dechlorinated freshwater (is this what you meant by decontamination), plain freshwater, or in saltwater and with what salinity?

2. How cold is this solution expected to be kept in to retain at least 90% of its nutritional values over 3 mths? Why not defrost enough to seperate out into smaller packs and give out in such form?

3. It is the normal practice to put frozen phyto into a glass of tank water, stir and dissolve it before feeding into the tank. The only cell wall rupture happens is when you put it into a blender. Centrifuging phyto doesn't even rupture cell walls.

Ok.. you answered this partly... so would defrosting a small amt of phyto to a certain temperature eg. around 25 degree C, before mixing with the tank water and then administered would prevent cell wall ruptures?

4. But putting frozen phyto into feeding tank and putting frozen phyto into a bottle... what's the difference? What's the cell wall rupture rates like for both? Assuming we settled the temperature issue and that by defrosting we actually may contribute to a x% loss of nutritional quality?

I am curious enough to want to know more as I used to feed frozen Instant Algae and was very sold on its advantages (but remember, the manufacturers will still tout on advantages of frozen feed over live phytoplankton for marketing purposes). However, I have become a strong believer that live plankton still much better than IA in terms of nutrition, feeding responses, less contamination issues etc but that's another subject all together.

I just want to know if you have found out something that we haven't and for the benefit of the Reef Club, I hope you'll clear my doubts.

Further questions:

5. If you deconc (deconcentrate) cell counts, isn't that strange to do coz we want a very high cell count when we feed (live or frozen)?

6.

A properly set up tank will have most of the filter feeding materials skimmed off before they start to breakdown in the tank. I believe a proper rating will be that 99.9% of the tank water should be "skimmed" within a 24 hour period which speaks a lot. Of course if you set up your bio filter before your skimmer, you will then be asking for trouble. But the fault lies in the biofilter, not the filter feed in the water.

I think dead materials tend to be skimmed faster than live plankton as they will not clump to air bubbles as readily as dead stuff/dissolved organics. So it is a good idea to turn off skimmers for a few hours after feeding plankton so they don't get skimmed out prematurely before they get consumed. What I am unclear about is your comment about bio filter, do you mean mechanical filtration ie. using filter wool?

Regards

AT

[pacificbetta]

Comments inserted after >>

1. Do you put the frozen algae paste into dechlorinated freshwater (is this what you meant by decontamination), plain freshwater, or in saltwater and with what salinity?

>> depends on application. I advocate dripping freshwater into the alga material until I reach the wanted concentration. Water kept at same temperature as alga material prior to mixing.

2. How cold is this solution expected to be kept in to retain at least 90% of its nutritional values over 3 mths?

>> I said I don't know, all I know is if the premixed alga material is kept at 4deg for 3 mths, we get to keep 95% of the ntritional values.

Why not defrost enough to seperate out into smaller packs and give out in such form?

>> Too difficult to measure in small volume. The cell count is too high.

The *only* cell wall rupture happens is when you put it into a blender.

>> Not true according to what my lab claims. Why? I don't know, I am not a cell biologist.

4. But putting frozen phyto into feeding tank and putting frozen phyto into a bottle... what's the difference?

>> I defreeze before doing anything. And once defrozen, I keep them in liquid state.

defrosting we actually may contribute to a x% loss of nutritional quality?

>> To my knowledge, most of the nutritional loss has little to do with the defrosting process. My only foreseeable nutrition loss should be due to cell wall rupture. Even then I intend to defreeze my alga material only once.

However, I have become a strong believer that live plankton still much better than IA in terms of nutrition

>> I am not going to argue that a dead culture will work better than when it is alive. My only concern and limited experience suggest that it is econmocially impossible to mantain live home alga cultures to the same purity/values as commercially available concentrated paste. When we talk purity, we need not confine ourselves to purity of the live material samples (which a home culture cannot match anyway). We talk about the consistency of the live alga values etc.

5. If you deconc (deconcentrate) cell counts, isn't that strange to do coz we want a very high cell count when we feed (live or frozen)?

>> I personally have not seen what reef world used to sell or are selling. But my concentrated alga paste is very thick, so thick that we no longer talk about cell count, cos the impact is no longer there, we can see the difference by the *viscousity* of the "liquid". Even the ready-to-feed solutions that I hand out is much higher in cell density than what can be achieved in cultures.

I hope the above comments are direct enough?

[pacificbetta]

I think dead materials tend to be skimmed faster than live plankton as they will not clump to air bubbles as readily as dead stuff/dissolved organics.

>> True, but with today's super duper skimming a lot of things get creamed when they pass through a skimmer.

So it is a good idea to turn off skimmers for a few hours after feeding plankton so they don't get skimmed out prematurely before they get consumed.

>> Contradicting statement this will seem, why turn off the skimmer if the plankton are not being skimmed off? Unless you are telling me that you are worried about killing them when passing through the powerhead.

[Achilles Tang]

[Achilles Tang]

depends on application.  I advocate dripping freshwater into the alga material until I reach the wanted concentration.

How do you determine the wanted concentration ie cell count, using what method of measurement?

So your algae paste is mixed in freshwater and can be kept in good condition for 3 months? How do you justify that the big salinity difference wouldn't affect the (dead) phytoplankton cells?

Water kept at same temperature as alga material prior to mixing.

- 4 degrees water? Err... do you mean defrost paste to room temp, mix with room temp water, then refreeze to 4 degrees?

2. How cold is this solution expected to be kept in to retain at least 90% of its nutritional values over 3 mths?

>> I said I don't know, all I know is if the premixed alga material is kept at 4deg for 3 mths, we get to keep 95% of the ntritional values. 

So the thing we need to be aware of is that premixed algae water will not retain more than 95% of nutritional values (NV) if kept at normal fridge temps. Once we put the algae water into the freezer, it will keep its NV but will be extremely difficult to feed as you have to defrost the frozen water?

Why not defrost enough to seperate out into smaller packs and give out in such form?

>> Too difficult to measure in small volume.  The cell count is too high.

Refer to query 1.

The *only* cell wall rupture happens is when you put it into a blender.

>> Not true according to what my lab claims.  Why?  I don't know, I am not a cell biologist.

I meant that cell wall ruptures done by external mechanical forces eg. very fast stirring etc.

4. But putting frozen phyto into feeding tank and putting frozen phyto into a bottle... what's the difference?

>> I defreeze before doing anything.  And once defrozen, I keep them in liquid state.

Precisely... so... you can put 'defrosted' algae paste direct into tank right?

defrosting we actually may contribute to a x% loss of nutritional quality?

>> To my knowledge, most of the nutritional loss has little to do with the defrosting process.  My only foreseeable nutrition loss should be due to cell wall rupture.  Even then I intend to defreeze my alga material only once.

My interpretation would be similar.

However, I have become a strong believer that live plankton still much better than IA in terms of nutrition

>> I am not going to argue that a dead culture will work better than when it is alive.  My only concern and limited experience suggest that it is econmocially impossible to mantain live home alga cultures to the same purity/values as commercially available concentrated paste.  When we talk purity, we need not confine ourselves to purity of the live material samples (which a home culture cannot match anyway).  We talk about the consistency of the live alga values etc.

I think live algae is far superior to frozen dead algae, logically. I don't see how a live phyto cell cultured at home is very much different from a live phyto cell cultured in a commercial place. The only variables are probably how well fed the plankton is and what the cell count is in a sample. A live algae cell is a live algae cell. A dead algae cell is not the same as a live algae cell.

5. If you deconc (deconcentrate) cell counts, isn't that strange to do coz we want a very high cell count when we feed (live or frozen)?

>> I personally have not seen what reef world used to sell or are selling.  But my concentrated alga paste is very thick, so thick that we no longer talk about cell count, cos the impact is no longer there, we can see the difference by the *viscousity* of the "liquid".  Even the ready-to-feed solutions that I hand out is much higher in cell density than what can be achieved in cultures.

I believe you and RW get from the same sources... ie. Instant Algae from Reed Mariculture. I do agree that concentrated pastes will have a higher cell count than live culture as logically for the same ml of water, there is no way you can squeeze that amount of live cells as pastes have the water removed. (btw, the info is all available at www.instant-algae.com)

So reef world is selling IA paste as it is... whereas you are handing out 'watered down' versions ie. paste water to reefers. I am just curious about the handling, lost of nutritional values and logic for this process as when I was into feeding IA two years ago, I was told to keep the paste frozen as much as possible ALL the time. It's good stuff (well not as good as live pyto! ) but needs to be kept well!

Edwin, don't take it as I am grilling you... I just want to take this on a factual level and hopefully enlighten both of us and everyone around.

I am sure there is so much misinformation going around and we should do justice to our fellow reefers in learning as much as possible.

Both of us are definitely NOT marine biologists and even learned people like Ron Shimek has made mistakes before.

Bottomline: We all want the best things for our reef tanks!

[pacificbetta]

How do you determine the wanted concentration ie cell count, using what method of measurement?

>> If you start off with concentration A and mix 4x water into the paste, then you get A/5 cell concentration. U get to experiment with what cell count works for you, I got a SOP proceedure worked out tha seems fine, I am sticking to it until another better & scientifically proven method (which probably exists) comes along.

How do you justify that the big salinity difference wouldn't affect the (dead) phytoplankton cells?

>> I don't justify that, I merely read lab results of dilluted solution in both salt and freshwater. I hand on solutions in either salt/fresh water depending on what the reefer wants. Though I suggest using freshwater solution.

- 4 degrees water? Err... do you mean defrost paste to room temp, mix with room temp water, then refreeze to 4 degrees?

>> Sorry, I meant +4 deg water.

Once we put the algae water into the freezer, it will keep its NV but will be extremely difficult to feed as you have to defrost the frozen water?

>> We don't once you add water to the alga conc and try freezing it, you run the risk of cell wall rupture.

I meant that cell wall ruptures done by external mechanical forces eg. very fast stirring etc.

>> I understand what you mean, but if there are suggestions from professionals that a fast dillution will cause cell wall rupture, I will give their word a little more credibility than what I can come out with for myself.

Precisely... so... you can put 'defrosted' algae paste direct into tank right?

>> Technically yes, you can defreeze the the required amount of algae paste, dilute it slowly then pour the dilluted amount into the feeding tank. But maybe you can show me how to measure a 1ml cube equivalent of frozen solid phyto, and better still how to do it efficiently time-wise daily?

I don't see how a live phyto cell cultured at home is very much different from a live phyto cell cultured in a commercial place.

>> Well, I do see the difference.

I was told to keep the paste frozen as much as possible ALL the time.

>> I believe dillution does change the properties a little?

not as good as live pyto!

>> Live phyto under ideal conditions, I agree. Home cultured live ones that remain in the reef tank after a few hrs ...... I will be willing to stick my neck out a little on that.

Edwin, don't take it as I am grilling you...

>> Try harder if you want to grill me.

I just want to take this on a factual level

>> Then shell out the $$$ to attend a proper course. Also, I believed a few of you have communicated with Randy Reed, so maybe you guys can check with him direct on the details of feeding. My point is, I tried live micro alga culture before , and it did not work as well on bettas as the prepared alga. Well maybe corals are different, but I will not bet on it.

[Achilles Tang]

Is reefworld still selling frozen Instant Algae at one small chili sauce tub size at $10?

[Achilles Tang]

hmmm... perhaps the use of smilies could indicate your body language, Edwin.

I never intended to make you seem uncomfortable (did I?)

Culturing betta frys and feeding corals, marine fry, invertebrates & other filter feeders are very different IMO. We can learn a lot from each other with our years of 'experience' and 'knowledge' in our own fields.

I am a believer in feeding real planktonic food (frozen or live) and so this topic is very interesting to me as I want the best for my reef tank. As I said before, I use to feed bottled 'coral food', frozen phyto, moved on to GPs and now finally to live plankton and zooplankton. There are real differences between feeding, tank reaction, growth etc.

I don't intend to take a course on plankton culturing/feeding as you suggested... I research from mostly from the web and also from my Plankton Culture Manual (cheem stuff) and other fry culture materials. I don't have access to labs to dispute or prove certain facts or practices as I am sure most of the info posted online by manufacterers or researchers and in the plankton manual have scientific credibility and makes no sense for me to deviate from tried and proven methods (unless I am intending to prove them wrong).

The reason why I wanted to know more about your methods was because I was wondering about the potential loss of nutritional values arising from it. If you could point me to published information supporting your methods, then it will benefit us all to gain knowledge.

Take a look at this info here, it will show that cryopreserved plankton takes a severe drop in nutritional values once removed from the ideal temp of -42C (which the home freezer cannot achieve)... and if defrosted to room temperature, the results are much more affected.

Why don't you do what RW does? Give out frozen IA in small containers to your customers? Then they can omit one step* themselves and retain as much NV as possible upon feeding?

*It will be no different from the steps you took to defrost what you intend to transfer to another container for feeding/storage.

Besides, you won't really know how much more or how much less your customers should be feeding (they can determine for themselves by seeing how much growth is seen or when overfed coz they see cyano/nuisance algae blooms). They can then estimate how much concentrated paste they require for optimum feeding themselves.

My 2 cents.

[pacificbetta]

Culturing betta frys and feeding corals, marine fry, invertebrates & other filter feeders are very different IMO.

>> They are different, but the approach remains the same.

The reason why I wanted to know more about your methods was because I was wondering about the potential loss of nutritional values arising from it.

>> I will let you know when/if my current stock of frozen paste reach one year in age and I start experiencing roll-offs in my rotifer/other live feed production. So far I have absolutely no problems, and I believe some of them will react adversely to hufa deficiency.

Why don't you do what RW does? Give out frozen IA in small containers to your customers? Then they can omit one step* themselves and retain as much NV as possible upon feeding?

>> Because, they are running a business and I live in a HDB flat. And because I still am not convinced of direct feeding from a conc solution. I also do not intend to have my wife screaming at me for having some fragile tubs of green goo lying in the fridge even if it is for the greater good of the aquarium community. And it is not economically feasible (and neither do I have the time) to travel so far to collect one small miserable tub of alga matter every time somebody asks for a trial sample.

*It will be no different from the steps you took to defrost what you intend to transfer to another container for feeding/storage.

>> From what I see, unless you are talking about distributing the alga concentrate in liquid form, your proposal will involve at least one more freezing/defreezing stage.

My current method

Collect from main-storage -> (Extra bag store in fridge freezer for average 1 mth)Defreeze to fridge temp -> Dillute -> Use within 3mths(4 steps, 1 defrosting step)

Collect from main-storage -> Defreeze to fridge storage -> Split up into smaller amount -> Refreeze to fridge freezer -> Use after defreezing (essentially also 4 steps, 2 defrosting steps)

they can determine for themselves

>> I read it dfferently, I don't see the need to leave one more potential trip wire lying around when I can easily circumviate it.

perhaps the use of smilies could indicate your body language

>> I was smiling the first few times I answered the forum on this thread, but I am not smiling now. U have made too many assumptions about my proceedures and compared it with no justification to some experiment conducted and then start assuming things.

[yazid]

I thought clams need light... no extra food needed. IS this off topic?

[bawater]

Nobody answered Ebi? u may separate the clams but only if u can provide the exact conditions as the main Tank,e.g water parameters,Lighting,Temp,water movement (basicly an identical tank)-if u really did this then might as well just have a clam/species tank. If u do separate into a container just for feeding- sooner or later the stress will affect the clam one way or the other.They are already jumpy creatures as it is if u noticed.

Prawns too big, brine shrimp too big- in fact what u r seeing is the juices from the brine shrimp that attracts them(if u can mash up brine shrimp thru a very fine sieve/coffee decant paper filter then all the much better). Light is still their main food source for clams but u need micron size particles for supplemental feeding(probably make up abt 10% of their needs).Not to mention that the food will benefit other organisms in the food chain,take it that u r feeding your whole tank including the fauna.

The species of unicellular algae typically used for the culture of marine invertebrate larvae are as follows (this information is largely lifted from Strathmann 1987,so this could well be outdated):

1.Cricosphaera carterae - gold-brown flagellate with cells in the 10-18 micrometer range. Particularly good food for small prosobranch veligers.

2.Dunaliella primolecta - green alga with cells in the 4-10 micrometer range. Particularly poor food for most species with the exception of asteroid larvae, possibly because it lacks certain polyunsaturated fatty acids (Peirson 1983).

3.Dunaliella tertiolecta - green alga with cells in the range of 10-15 micrometers. Easy to culture and nutritious, this alga makes a good choice for the culture of many echinoderm larvae, but apparently poor for prosobranchs.

4.Isochrysis galbana - gold-brown alga on the order of 5-8 micrometers which contain large lipid stores. An excellent food for most small planktotrophic species, especially in mixture with Dunaliella, Pavlova, or Thalassiosira. Recommended for mollusc larvae, copepods and rotifers.

5.Pavlova (=Monochrysis) lutheri - gold-brown flagellate approximately 7-10 micrometers. Tends to be a poor food source alone, and may be harmful in dense culture due to the accumulation of algal byproducts. There are better species available, so it is best to avoid this one, unless you are willing to rinse the algae before feeding.

6.Procentrum micans - large dinoflagellate good when mixed with Isochrysis for advanced larval stages or large larvae.

7.Skeletonema costatum - chain diatom, each cell being about 6 micrometers. Fair to good food for crustacean larvae such as barnacles.

8.Tetraselmis (=Paltymonas) suecica - tiny green alga, about 10-12 micrometers, recommended for rotifer culture, or when mixed with Isochrysis for molluscs.

9.Thalassiosira (=Cyclotella) pseudonana - small diatom averaging about 3 micrometers in diameter. A good food for molluscs and early crustaceans. When mixed with Dunaliella also for echinoderms.

10.Thalassiosira weissflogii (=fluviatilis) - large diatom, averaging about 20 or so micrometers in length. An excellent food for juvenile and adult bivalves, and a good food for echinoderms and crustaceans.

u can read all abt the strains here:

Roscoff Culture Collection of Marine Phytoplankton

They maintain about 550 strains of marine phytoplankton with a particular emphasis on picoplankton in particular Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus and picoeucaryotes (Pelagomonas, Bolidomonas, Ostreococcus) so u see- the dinner menu is very big

try some of the paste from pacificbetta & see for yourself the difference. Just Feed sparingly,i got hair algae from the reefworld stuff-but i was also feeding bottled liquids. But its convenient,saves time,saves space,simple & clean and definitely better than the dried or bottled stuff.

The microalgae paste is highly concentrated using a low gravity centrifuge. The paste is so thick that it takes only one milliliter to make 3 liters of culture water (one liter of paste will make 3,000 liters of microalgae culture).The Tetraselmis paste has around 1.7 billion cells per ml. and the Nannochloropsis has 76 billion cells per ml(info from brineshrimpdirect).

As compared to live phyto i measured at 2.9million cells per ml at 7days old.N.value start to drop on the 10th day if not harvested or split. At the moment i'm only using Nannochloropsis(which are abt 6microns)cause Floridafarms are out of stock on the remaining strains.

There are just a handful(i think can count with one hand) of us in SG using live phyto,maybe its down to personal preference. Peace

[pospeh]

I thought clams need light... no extra food needed. IS this off topic?

LOL, I think you are more on topic than the other discussions

Anyway, smaller clams (less than 2 inches) do not have as much host zooxanthellae algae in their tissues which produces the sugar needed to feed the clams, so they need feeding to supplement their energy requirements.

Larger clams do not get much energy from filter feeding due to more zooxanthellae being present in their tissue. I think someone has said that 80% of the requried energy comes from the host algae while 20% from filter feeding. Some percentage also comes from their conversion of nitrates to food energy.

Some people actually feed phytoplanktons to the adult clams, but I dont think that's absolutely necessary as the clams can get all they need from the organisms and fish wastes in an established tank.