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steve8855

Why culture Phytoplancton and rotifers

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Hello I was wondering If anyone cultures Phytoplancton and Rotifers?

Also what eats them or i guess what value would they add to my tank?

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Comments

  1. melev's Avatar
    It's a method of providing live foods to your tank to feed the tiny pods, which then can be eaten by your fish. Rotifers are often used to feed something to newly hatched fish larvae, and phytoplankton keeps the rotifers alive. It's the circle of life.
  2. steve8855's Avatar
    wo would corals feed off the two and also would it help increase my copepod population?
  3. Midnight's Avatar
    Have there been any RA articles on the growing or feeding of phyto and rotifers. I searched but did not find any results.
  4. Mustang's Avatar
    Here is a link to one for phyto that marc had done way back. But correct me if i am wrong Marc you no longer feed phyto to your corals.
    http://www.melevsreef.com/phytoplankton.html
  5. melev's Avatar
    Corals can definitely consume smaller food (plankton-size), since their polyps are their mouths are even smaller. The challenge is feeding your tank without overfeeding it. Corals can absorb all the nutrients in the water to grow, but in a closed ecosystem the excess nutrients pollute the water column. If you really want to overfeed to get better results, I would probably try to couple it with a huge water change shortly thereafter to avoid creating a NO3 / PO4 soup that fuels algae growth.

    I've not fed phtyo to my tanks in years. Partially because I was always battling PO4. Now that I've maintained 0 for seven months in a row, I'm somewhat tempted to try it out to see how the reef does.

    In the end, I would expect tiny mouths to consume it, leading to better breeding and offspring. Those micro-pods would be food for my fish, and the fishes' waste would be food that the corals consume.

    No articles have been written up on RA for this topic yet.
  6. DJ in WV's Avatar
    ive been thinking of taking this up myself. if any one here has any good methods id like to hear them
  7. baker.shawn's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by melev

    I've not fed phtyo to my tanks in years. Partially because I was always battling PO4. Now that I've maintained 0 for seven months in a row, I'm somewhat tempted to try it out to see how the reef does.

    No articles have been written up on RA for this topic yet.
    seems to me you're going to have a great opportunity to satisfy a temptation and contribute some great...and apparently badly needed info
  8. steve8855's Avatar
    thanks for the info seems to be both good and bad from feeding phyto and rotifers to a tank
  9. melev's Avatar
    It's not bad. You just have to maintain good water quality. Phyto can help keep the glass clean longer, some have noticed.