Feeding plankton to tank

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jamal-188

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I have a bunch of feather dusters that came on my LR and was reading that the eat plankton. Will my LFS sell this, I thinkI read where somebody turned off there skimmer for an hour and added a teaspoon every few days?
 
Your LFS may sell it. It is called DT'S phyto plankton. It is by far the best. If you cannot find it locally send me a PM and I'll take care of you!
 
Sounds good! Thanks. I just also read that serpent stars may eat these?
 
You can get DT's Phytoplankton, it is concentrated but also a bit costly. Or:

I buy mine off of ebay (search for phytoplankton).

This weekend I'm gonna pick up 2 10 gallon tanks, one for raising artemia and one for propogating Zooplankton. Then I won't have to buy zooplankton anymore.

Anyway the Artemia (brine shrimp) are teeny filter feeders and like to eat zooplankton so wih the tanks together I will just scoop over a measured amount to the Artemia when they need it.

Anyway I digress.

When I started adding Phytoplankton to my SW tanks I noticed a positive difference in the anemones and corals and stuff, as expected. 8)
 
I use Bio Plankton from liquidlifeusa.com My corals love it, you can actually see my one coral extend it's tenticals about a minute after I put some in...

Mine comes in a squirt bottle and I mix in one squirt every other day to slowly build the ammount of plankton.
 
FYI DT's phytoplankton is live plant plankton and need to be refrigerated. I use Kent's plankton products with pretty good results. They have several different kinds in different particle sizes for different organisms. Microvert, phytoplex, zooplex(zooplankton), are the three I remember offhand. They don't need chilled.
 
Sneaker said:
I use Bio Plankton from liquidlifeusa.com My corals love it, you can actually see my one coral extend it's tenticals about a minute after I put some in...

Mine comes in a squirt bottle and I mix in one squirt every other day to slowly build the ammount of plankton.
Agreed, the Bio Plankton is very good IMO. I have only been using it a short time but am already pleased with the results after switching from DT's. It's a concentrated product that you mix with tank water before introduction. It also does not have the drawback of getting a fouled bottle that's gone off and fighting with the store that sold it... :wink: i would not really recommend it from an on-line source though as it must be kept frozen.

Cheers
Steve
 
I my lfs has been out of DT for a few months so I have been using Marine Snow. Is this a comparable product??
 
Marine Snow was found to be basically water. It is pretty useless IMO. Liquid life is awedome but the overnight shipping is exspensive!
 
Gee isnt that nice :x ... I just checked the bottle and Ive been paying 17.99 a bottle for it... Julian strikes again... He owns the company that makes it.
 
Well I can't belive my LFS doesn't carry any frozen Plankton :evil: They have everything else possible incudling 8 freezer doors of other frozen food. I saw the products by Kent, should I just go with that for now or buy some off ebay or what?
 
Just found some DT's at Hidden Reef. How often should I feed this to my tank, only have a couple small feather dusters and 1 coral.
 
Live phytoplankton and the like serves two purposes. It will feed some corals/general filter feeders as well as feeding the fauna that can indirectly feed the corals as well, copepods, mysid shrimp and such.

The recommended dosage is 5 ml per 15 gal of tank water 2x/week but I think you would be fine with ½ that amount. 5 teaspoons twice a week should do it, mabye even less. Keep a look out for increased amounts of film and other nuisance algaes. If you see a dramatic increase, cut back until you see the algaes subside. DT's is a greaat product but it can also make a tank nutrient rich if using more than is needed.

Cheers
Steve
 
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