You know, I've been through all this stuff. A syringe pump is the best way to go, for a lot of reasons, for tanks of 180 gallons or less. The more mixing and bubbling and porting of liquids, the more problems you have in many ways.
For those of you who haven't worked with these mixtures before, you need to carefully review the mixture, the dry weight composition of the mixture, and the equivalent amounts, when you start thinking of substituting live phytoplankton. I just hate to see you wasting your time doing things if you haven't got those ideas in your head yet about the absolute dry weight amounts Chuck is infusing, and the importance of continuous infusion to maintain adequate cell counts. Also, please remember that Chuck has passed one year with this method- vary it carefully, it takes awhile to see why it works the way it does.
Danny: you raise an interesting point as to whether this infusion amount is higher than natural levels. On a clarity basis, it probably is a little higher than some crystal-clear areas in which Dendronephthya are seen. Yet, according to Chuck, and in my own tank, water clarity is good, suggesting that the cell count for phytoplankton is grossly not over 50,000 cells/cm3. I assume Red Sea cell counts are in the 5000-50,000 range; and in areas such as Thailand where Dendros are aquacultured, I have receiveed reports of obviously green tinted water.
So, I believe that is is necessary to infuse about 50 gallons equivalent of dense phytoplankton culture per 180 gallons per 24 hours to maintain a natural cell count!This of course means that there is a tremendous removal rate.
It would be interesting to see if this removal rate could be reduced, such as by removing the substrate.
). Reed also advise not to mix Roti-Feast or any of the IA or RN products with saltwater for anything but immediate usage.
