MarinePlankton/BioPlankton...

[ntswift]

I got the two pack about a month ago and I have been using it once a week directly into the tank. My question is, can I squirt it in the HOB fuge to supply the fuge with some food also and to keep the big green cloud down in my tank? Just a thought. TIA

P.S. I was also wondering how you guys rate these products?

[macman7010]

Personally unless you are keeping exclusively non-symbiant invertabreas and large clams I dont see the need to supplement with any plankton types. I used to use these products on a regular basis and started having a noticable phosphate and cyanobacteria problem. After some research I learned that Bio-Plankton and most any Plankton and Invert food supplement raises phosphate levels and encourages undesirable algae and cyano growth.

I have stopped using these additives for about 1 year. I do recommend supplementing your fuge with a very light (1/5 dose) of a plankton but that would be it. As long as you have sufficient lighting and a mature tank your animals including inverts should be fine without these supplementes. You have to be careful since many reef tank supplements do very little or nothing at all and yet manufactors claim they work wonders.

As for a rating at feeding your inverts some of the higher end products would score a

6 or 7 out of 10 in my books the sad part is most of them score a 10 out of 10 at raising phosphates and encouraging cyano growth. Just My2cents

[demodiki]

I put my plankton directly into my fuge. It has worked out well for me. My fuge is absolutely crawling with critters. It may be contributing to higher phosphates...but I have to fight that anyway with the frozen foods, flake, etc that I also feed the tank.

Phosphate removers, reactors take care of all of that. To me, the benefits outweigh the risks. That being said...you can't overdo it.

[macman7010]

Originally Posted by demodiki

Phosphate removers, reactors take care of all of that. To me, the benefits outweigh the risks. That being said...you can't overdo it.

Im going to have to disagree with Demodiki on this one. Actually most of the higher end plankton additves such as Kent Marine's Pro Zoo Plankton strongly recommend staying within the recommended dosage limits. You can most certanly overdue it with these products - and if you do overdo it I can assure you that your nitrates, phosphates and other critical water levels will quickly make a huge jump resulting in some serious potential issues.

As for phosphate reactors, pads etc taking care of phosphate issues. While they do help apply a light band-aid to the problem the only real way to control phosphate in the aquarium is with regular water changes and careful water managment. Dumping in excessive photoplankton or Zooplankton supplments is not the way to care for captive corals.

One thing I can recommend if you are going to use these products is using a target feeding device and staying under the recommended dosage limits. Having good quality test kits and keeping up with PWC's will help.

[zuzecawi]

Another issue is that these products have a very definite shelf life... and they aren't exactly advertising the bottle date. If you really need to provide food, live is best. Phytoplankton reactors are pretty easy to make, and there's a lot of people willing to share greenwater cultures and techniques. Rotifer farming is another option... and then there's always nauplii, although their nutritional value sucks after twelve hours. I feed my refugium a tiny bit of frozen food about three times a week and my pod populations are immense. The walls of the tank literally crawl in waves in my fuge, because of the pod population. Keeps my mandarin fat!!!

[ntswift]

Cool thanks for the input. My tank is a 29 gal with about 8 corals and a crocea clam. The main reason for feeding it just once a week is to keep the phosphates down. I just feed one squirt and alternate between the two, bio one week and marine the next. That way there is the variety. I feed the fish formula two flakes and bioblend pellets. I alternate those as well. How often would you guys recommend i feed the bio/marine plankton if at all?