Aquaz Phytoplankton

[Creetin]

Sorry bro, actually quite confused with LPS n SPS. Is mushroom, leather, polys and leather mushroom = SPS?

I just bought a bottle of nanno, but I just scrap a bit, dissolve in a small dish and pour it into the tank. Or, should I cultivate rotifer as what u do insteads? Pls show us some pic of your "rotifer farm" lah.

sorry guys..... didnt notice your replies here till now.....

those are soft corals as mentioned by lightning strike..... u can feed them phyto, u dont need rotifers for that.....

[Creetin]

Hi Creetin!

May I know where and how much u get the first live rotifers to start with? My culture have crashed sometime ago..... My first batch of live rotifers are flown from US (very ex) that's why never restart after crash.....

Hi Kareen, i believe a few places have them. I saw some at Reborn for sale...

[patrick123]

Anyone has idea whether it is wise to feed frozen phytoplankton to LPS and softies tank? How soon will be unconsumed died phyto breakdown and polute the tank?

[woonming]

Anyone has idea whether it is wise to feed frozen phytoplankton to LPS and softies tank? How soon will be unconsumed died phyto breakdown and polute the tank?

No worries about much pollution, unconsumed phytoplankton should be skim out by your skimmer

[patrick123]

I'm sure all of you swear by phytophanton, but did anyone do a comparison between a tank dosing phyto and a tank that doesn't? Is there a significant difference?

[lightningstrike]

I'm sure all of you swear by phytophanton, but did anyone do a comparison between a tank dosing phyto and a tank that doesn't? Is there a significant difference?

one thing i've noticed for sure. when i use to dose live phytoplankton regularly, copepod population was thriving like mad. abt 6 mths after i hv stopped, noticed that there was a significant reduction in the pods population. but it might be due to other reasons too.

[sherman]

I saw there are 3 different colors at Polyart.

Red ,Green and Yellow.

What is the different?

Regards

Sherman

[woonming]

Hi,

Hope this information helps:

Red cap - Supreme Blend

* The mix consists of four microalgae strains "Nannochloropsis, Pavlova, Thalassiosira and Tetraselmis" which provides for a balanced nutritional and cell size feed for most corals.

Green cap - Classic Blend

* Single stains of phyto.

Gold cap - Gold Blend

* The mix consists of three microalgae strains "Isochrysis, Pavlova and Thalassiosira" which is a diet high in HUFA with peak DHA profiles.

Gold Blend caters to a broad feeding range of bivalves like clams, scallops, mussels and oysters.

It is also used as a final enrichment for rotifers and brine shrimp before feeding them to the tank or larvae culture.

Hope this helps,

Ming

[patrick123]

What is the recommended number of time to feed phytoplanton per week?

[Aquaz]

Hi Patrick,

How much and how often totally depends on how you have stock your reef tank, and depending on the corals that you keep you may or may not need more frequent feedings.

(with exceptions like goniopora,alveopora)LPS & SPS will not need phyto feedings- their main diet consist of mainly zooplankton.

Always error on the side of caution when feeding any new product - feed less and work your way up.(this allows the filtration to acclimate)

we recommend 1ml of our concentrate for a 100gal reef with heavy filter feeding load 2-3 times a week. Roughly this means for a 4ft tank, for a 3ft and smaller start with 0.5ml(half a ml)per feeding.

Best Regards

[patrick123]

Thanks. Just bought a bottle of Supreme Blend from Iwarna. Will try it out soon.

Best Regards,

Patrick

[Lester]

Wa....

sound veri good...

have to give it a try man ...

does anyone knows how much polyart is selling ???

[patrick123]

Funny...the bottle I bought from Iwarna says expiry is Feb 05. Does this mean I have to finish the whole bottle by Feb? Just bought it less than 1 month.

[Lester]

hi bro ............

finally got a bottle from polyart today ... Green cap - alpha * Single stains of phyto. @ $X.00 only..

cheers

[chewlaoheng]

for a 30 gallon tank (narrow 3ft), that means at most 0.3-0.4ml each time.

Given the expiry date, seems like always less than 3 months from the LFS, it's unlikely to finish the bottle.... so how? throw or keep going?

pls advice

[Lester]

hmmm... i think can be kept the freezer til a year ...

[Aquaz]

Hi chewlaoheng,

yes, the dosage drops to as low as 0.3ml or 1/2ml for tanks smaller than a full 3ft reef.This is due to the density of the algae cells in billions and why it is a very economical phytoplankton feed.

The expiry date on supreme and gold blends are stated as 3 month from packing date but may be used up to 4 months or beyond (depending on how cold your fridge is) before it starts to go bad. The red and orange cap bottles can tolerate storage temperatures to not lower than -2c.

Only the brown algae strains(Iso,Pavlova and Thalassiosira algae strains will be affected by ice crystals at -2.5c).

You can keep on using it untill you notice a kind of rotten egg smell. That is the end of the lifespan and time to dispose.

The downside of the supreme blend is the limited shelf life without preservatives- we wish not to include preservatives due to the sensitivity of feed usage. (When used for larvae or rotifer cultures you will see the direct effect of preservatives). In a reef tank, some soft corals show visual signs of degeneration or stress from preservative usage.

Best regards

[Aquaz]

Hi Lester,

Only the bottle of pure nanno(green cap) you bought can be frozen. The other blends (gold & supreme) should be refrigerated.

So far only Nannochloropsis and Tetraselmis algae strains can be frozen without affecting the cells.

Research for freezing the other strains we carry are still on-going.

In actual fact, the bottle you have has a 1 year shelf life at full nutritional value(if kept frozen).

After 1 year , there will be a drop of about 5% in nutrition value. The algae is still good at 2 yrs. (if kept sealed and frozen).

Hope you like the product

Best regards

[Lester]

Hi ...

bought n try the Classic Blend (Nannochloropsis sp.) two week ago .. was veri happy wif the products.. a little green goes along way ..

cheers

[regal angel]

Aquaz,

Just curious, where is AquaZ from?

Is AquaZ Phytoplantkon live? If not why does it turn bad after sometimes even b4 the expiry date.

A lfs mentioned that I can feed seahorses and star fish with them, is it true? How are you compared to DT live phy?

Sorry I am quite new to your product maybe you could help?

[Lester]

hi bro .. some info on the aquaz .....

Classic Blend range of pure algae is available in commonly used strains - Nannochloropsis, Isochrysis, Tetraselmis and Thalassiosira. These can be used for feeding directly to the aquarium or fed to grow rotifers, fishes and shrimp larvae. With the widespread interest of the marine hobby, it is just a matter of time that many will try their hand at breeding these beautiful creatures - it is from this context that we offer single strains of algae with no preservatives specifically for breeding and larval culture.

* If you intend to feed a single strain it is not advisable to use Tetraselmis alone.

Feeding Directions :

As a starting point 1 mL of our paste per 100 gallons of tank volume will be sufficient for a moderate to heavy loaded reef 2 - 3 times weekly. With any new food always start with less and build up the amount to your optimal feeding target.

Alpha Premium™ phytoplankton can be fed directly to the tank but we recommend diluting with minimum 250 mL tank water before feeding. Our paste is extremely concentrated and diluting will allow you to judge the concentration better by the color of the mixture.

Storage & Shelf Life :

Nannochochloropsis can be stored frozen for over a year without significant nutritional loss and noticeable cell damage after being frozen and thawed several times.

For ease of use, the products should be kept in the refrigerator to keep the paste liquid.

*Once the algae has been thawed in the refrigerator the shelf life is 12 weeks.

Size : 30 mL , 500 mL

cheers

[Aquaz]

Aquaz,

Just curious, where is AquaZ from?

Is AquaZ Phytoplantkon live? If not why does it turn bad after sometimes even b4 the expiry date.

Hi regal,

Aquaz is from singapore.

-----

Aquaz Phytoplankton is not live - termed non-viable. It is because of this that the paste can be so dense(cells numbering in the billions). It is used in fisheries and scallop farms around the world because of the economical value- if compared to manpower hours needed to cultivate live algae in the agriculture world, it wins hands down.

Another different aspect is that our phyto contains no preservatives - this limits shelf life but not using preservatives make a whole world of difference when culturing larvae and rotifers. If you get the pure nanno paste, the shelf life can go beyond 1 year frozen. Otherwise when kept in the fridge 3 months. If storage temperatures go beyond 6c then this also shortens lifespan.

The facility producing our phytoplankton was founded in 1995 to farm bivalve shellfish. The original concept was to produce the first commercially available shellfish that was raised on land, not in the ocean, producing a product that would be completely safe from toxins such as red tide algae, bacteria blooms, viruses, sewage run-off, and toxic metals.They developed tank raised shellfish technology for three years and during this same time developed and refined the technology for large-scale grow out of marine microalgae, which is the feed for shellfish.

In 1998 it was determined that there was a more lucrative market in selling the microalgae directly to other hatcheries and shut down all shellfish operations. Today they sell marine microalgae concentrates to 67 countries and is the largest commercial producer of marine microalgae in the world.

Their core technology is a proprietary closed-system photobioreactor design that allows microalgae to be grown in laboratory sterile conditions. This technology is radically different than the open-pond technology used for growing freshwater species of microalgae such as Chlorella, Haematococcus, and Chlamydomonas.

[Aquaz]

A lfs mentioned that I can feed seahorses and star fish with them, is it true? How are you compared to DT live phy?

Sorry I am quite new to your product maybe you could help?

Seahorses and starfish?

The answer is No.

Nearly all except maybe the pigmy seahorse fry will be small enough to take phytoplankton directly (& not the nanno- maybe some bigger strain). To raise seahorses, you need a phyto source to culture rotifers and copepods for the baby seahorse ponies. The ponies will grow on rotifers for the first 1 week and then you will need to introduce bigger foods like copepods and baby brine shrimp.

The combination of phyto strains that we provide have been studied in fry development for food fish production. Certain HUFA and lipid profiles can help brain and body development- but that goes deep into strain profiles and for another day.

Starfish - depending on the various genus that you choose(reef safe or non-reef safe), usually feed on the bacteria film on liverocks and scavange on leftovers. For non reef safe stars, well they may take a liking to your corals and clams, as shellfish are part of their wild diet.

To feed phyto to your tank (doesn't matter which brand) you will be feeding filter feeders and the micro fauna.

Hope it helps

[Lester]

In any case, here are the pictures...on the left is the classic blend, which is wat I use to feed the rotifers......

On the right is the supreme blend, you can use this to gut-load the rotifers before feeding to your tank, this is to ensure the rotifers will be fatter when your corals eat them. It means you are indirectly loading your corals with more vitamins and nutrition compared to just feeding the rotifers straight from the culture station. For instructions, just follow the guidelines in the guide *duh*

PS: i had a hard time capturing the true colors of these bottles. Just remember the classic blend is a bright green, whilst the supreme blend is red...

hi

can my hammer corals be fed with the green cap one ???

Thanks

[Aquaz]

Hi Lester,

Hammer corals are photosynthetic and does not need to be directly fed, but will take small meaty foods that are offered.

regards