Phyto feeding

[Joe_P]

Hi Guys,

I'm thinking of feeding phytoon a consistent basis to my SPS Reef (soon to be mixed reef) for the following year.....

jus curious regards the benefits feeding would do for my reef.....

and what would be a safe measure for feeding per gallon of reef and how often....???

Currently with DTs which is soon running out...

and of course with the intention to upgrade the pump feeding my beckett.......

Any comments...??

[Morgan]

I'm doing that but not on a regular basis......

Once my culture come online then it will not be a problem

Intend to keep gorgonians and alveopora

I was pouring about 1/3 bottle of the medium size DT everytime I feed till I run out.

[Joe_P]

I'm doing that but not on a regular basis......

Once my culture come online then it will not be a problem

Intend to keep gorgonians and alveopora

I was pouring about 1/3 bottle of the medium size DT everytime I feed till I run out.

Any improvement to your reef through the phyto feeding???

does the SPS show better health???

[Morgan]

Not noticable......

[FuEl]

Addition of phyto can either help sps directly or indirectly..indirectly as in it feeds the other microfauna, leading them to spawn, and provide your sps with zooplankton also.

[Achilles Tang]

I am a believer in feeding corals... even SPS.

I feed DT's phyto (too lazy to culture my own now, hehe, and DT's good stuff!) into my SPS tank more so for the microlife, gorgonians and filterfeeders. I have regular spawnings of shrimps & crab fry. The amount of tubeworms and sponges growing never fails to amaze me. I have a very healthy population of pods. I use up the largest bottle of DT's in a month.

I feed a zooplankton substitute called Golden Pearls in the smallest micron sizes (to simulate rotifers which I have also stopped culturing) and I see very long and healthy extensions of SPS polyps even during the day. Needless to say, my SPS have grown tremendously, a lot has coloured up and I attribute it partly to the feeding of GPs.

[Octopuffy]

AT, the golden pearls u r talking about. do they sell it in "alive" form anywhere?

[Tanzy]

Golden pearls are not living things. They are a kind of processed food.

[FuEl]

Hmmm..golden pearls..sounds very oriental...it's a chinese product? Remind me of 'zhen zhu fen' lolx

[bum]

i was hoping they would bring it in during Aquarama,

but they didn't

[SharkBait]

Reborn is selling them but i think it mite be cheaper to ship them in yourself.

[Joe_P]

If phyto feeding can get such results, I would be keen too....

Was wondering if I could DIY a phyto reactor that has 2 compartments, one housing phyto and the other rotifers... like some of those featured in RC...

there will be 2 drip tubes from the phyto compatrment... one into main reef and the other into the rotifers compartment...

and a final outlet from the rotifers back into the mains.....

have a constant 24/7 drip of food into the reef...

Only one question.... where can I get fresh supply of SW into the reactor...cos heard that these cultures crash easily .....

[Achilles Tang]

Suggest you try conventional phyto culturing methods as practiced by bawater and myself, before embarking on these so-called 'easy to culture all in one' methods... you quickly realise how important it is to keep seperate cultures to prevent cross-contamination and how important it is to not 'put all your cells in one basket', so to speak.

[Joe_P]

Suggest you try conventional phyto culturing methods as practiced by bawater and myself, before embarking on these so-called 'easy to culture all in one' methods... you quickly realise how important it is to keep seperate cultures to prevent cross-contamination and how important it is to not 'put all your cells in one basket', so to speak.

Never though of phyto culturing at all....

since hearing much about the culture crashes from the reefers here...

prefer to buy them from reefers who have been successful in culturing them so far.....

but really am curious of how this phtyo reactor's suppose to function...

and if its not too difficult, would be interested in a attempt to DIY one....

[AlfaRomeo]

Would attaching a UV at the input to the first chamber/compartment help like this?

Lets say the UV unit has a capacity of 250ml of water. Secure the UV unit vertically and connect a metering pump to the lower end of the unit. Set up the metering pump to pump 200ml every few hours. This will give the UV unit plenty of time to kill everything off in the water that its holding.

The uv unit will overflow into the first chamber which is filled with Phytoplankton and will in turn overflow to the chamber containing the rotifiers. Attach a drip counter in between the first and second chamber to prevent the rotifiers or zooplankton from contaminating the first chamber.

Second Chamber will overflow directly into the tank at the same rate..

Do you think it will work?

[Morgan]

Don't know whether the UV will kill off the copepods before it get into your phyto culture......if it does not kill them, you will not be culturing anything but cyano......and your rotifers will die from starvation.

For your info.....you need more than 1 phyto culture to sustain 1 rotifer culture. Rotifers main purpose is only to eat and reproduce.

Another thing you did not mention is the fertiliser for the phyto....if it is not use up......imagine the amount of nutrient you going to put into your tank ........you will see that your tank will turn a lovely shade of red and it is not coralline

[FuEl]

hmm..i've always wondered how they separate the phyto from the culture soup. No such thing as micron netting for phyto is there? or is there?

[ervine]

I think there is actually...