herring_fish
Crazy Designer
I over fed my tank in the early 90's, in an attempt to grow NPS coral and I largely got away with it. There were mostly powders that I experimented with. I put so much in that you couldn't see 5 inches into the tank. In the last few years, people have been having success with more and more varieties of corals with newer and better feeding regiments including automation.
I have an algae turf scrubber(ATS), with new stronger lights so I have been conservative with the feeding. Now it won't grow algae, just a little slime in the tray. Never the less, the nitrates (N) and phosphates (P) are staying low. I cut the lighting in half and still, no algae and no increase of N or P. Next step? Start over feeding.
I figure that if I jump from 3ml of phyto paste, a couple of frozen cubes and a couple of pinches of powdered food to ...say, adding more phyto and a cup of food, what should that food be?
From there, I will keep going up until I get good growth. Then I will take the lighting back up to the max and add more feeding. One nice thing about and ATS is that the food stays in suspension for a long time. At this point, I am thinking that I will have a lot of capacity as far as nutrient removal is concerned. This brings me to what should be in a slurry?
I see a lot of products on the market. Unfortunately, I don't want to read up on all of the information supplied by all of the different companies because a lot of it is just hype. On the other hand, I don't want to make any assumptions that aren't true or over look something that really is important. That is why I am asking you guys and gals. Rather that asking what is the most trusted company or the highest rated ones, I would like to look at what is inside the best products and what works when they are home made.
From what I see, when you boil it down, most of these products fall into just a few categories.
1. I know that lots of corals like phytoplankton so I can buy live phyto , concentrated liquid or powders.
2. Other corals like zoo-plankton so I can feed rotifers and artemia even though it is dead. Of course live plankton would be much better. I understand that many of these corals use a feeding response to capture this food.
3. There are powders with that supper secret sauce that are said to be made of everything from yeast to the magic bullet. They do have different particles sizes that might appeal to different corals.
4.Then there are bacteria liquids and powders and dosing of vodka, vinegar and others carbon sources. Some people think that some corals consume bacteria directly or it contributes to the food chain.
5. Finally, I've been told that grinding fish, shrimp, oysters and other sea food in a blender can be a good part of a balance breakfast. While that would provide a good source of protein, I wonder if different sized polyps would have a feeding response and get any nutrition from it. I would guess that filter feeders would like it but what about carnivorous feeders?
Can I successfully raise a wide variety of non-photosynthetic corals on phyto concentrate, home grown live rotifers, artemia, pods along with liquefied seafood? What else would you suggest that is needed?
I have an algae turf scrubber(ATS), with new stronger lights so I have been conservative with the feeding. Now it won't grow algae, just a little slime in the tray. Never the less, the nitrates (N) and phosphates (P) are staying low. I cut the lighting in half and still, no algae and no increase of N or P. Next step? Start over feeding.
I figure that if I jump from 3ml of phyto paste, a couple of frozen cubes and a couple of pinches of powdered food to ...say, adding more phyto and a cup of food, what should that food be?
From there, I will keep going up until I get good growth. Then I will take the lighting back up to the max and add more feeding. One nice thing about and ATS is that the food stays in suspension for a long time. At this point, I am thinking that I will have a lot of capacity as far as nutrient removal is concerned. This brings me to what should be in a slurry?
I see a lot of products on the market. Unfortunately, I don't want to read up on all of the information supplied by all of the different companies because a lot of it is just hype. On the other hand, I don't want to make any assumptions that aren't true or over look something that really is important. That is why I am asking you guys and gals. Rather that asking what is the most trusted company or the highest rated ones, I would like to look at what is inside the best products and what works when they are home made.
From what I see, when you boil it down, most of these products fall into just a few categories.
1. I know that lots of corals like phytoplankton so I can buy live phyto , concentrated liquid or powders.
2. Other corals like zoo-plankton so I can feed rotifers and artemia even though it is dead. Of course live plankton would be much better. I understand that many of these corals use a feeding response to capture this food.
3. There are powders with that supper secret sauce that are said to be made of everything from yeast to the magic bullet. They do have different particles sizes that might appeal to different corals.
4.Then there are bacteria liquids and powders and dosing of vodka, vinegar and others carbon sources. Some people think that some corals consume bacteria directly or it contributes to the food chain.
5. Finally, I've been told that grinding fish, shrimp, oysters and other sea food in a blender can be a good part of a balance breakfast. While that would provide a good source of protein, I wonder if different sized polyps would have a feeding response and get any nutrition from it. I would guess that filter feeders would like it but what about carnivorous feeders?
Can I successfully raise a wide variety of non-photosynthetic corals on phyto concentrate, home grown live rotifers, artemia, pods along with liquefied seafood? What else would you suggest that is needed?
