Whats On This Rock?

[Devilishturtles]

So far, that has been my experience with bottle phytoplanktons as well. Though, Marine Snow has worked pretty well for me, I have to be careful not to overdose. DT's is pretty cool stuff, perhaps I use it in less amounts because it's a lot more expensive, lol.

Good news on the worms popping up, but you still aren't seeing any polyps on the porites?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

MT79 is correct...I used the ***plex stuff and I have tons of algae now, looks like some more cyano popping up. I'm gonna have to trash the ***plex stuff...it just makes a mess.

While I've never used the Kent Marine stuff, I have used the Two Little Fishies dried stuff, and not had any issues. Just taking a guess, but I'm thinking maybe you just overfed - which with any brand will give you water quality issues. It's hard to describe how much to use, and it seems like the instructions on the packages have you use waaaay too much, in my opinion. It's probably safe to say, use about a 1/4 of what you *think* is the right amount and go from there. At least that's how I've approached target feeding after a couple "overdose" incidents of my own!

 

[usmcmarc]

I went and got some DT's today...HOLY SMOKES!! $24 for a bottle. You can bet I will use this VERY sparingly!!!

 

[Lance M.]

I use the Kent plex's for a year and am pleased with them. I just recently switched to the max's that are very concentrated and recommed on bottle to refrigerate. I've also used Marine Snow in the past and they are comparable IMO.

You have to becareful not to overfeed like someone said so you dont have problems with algae. I've lowered the doses and use ChromaMax, PhytoMax, ZooMax, and MicroVert mixed up one day and then the next feeding day I use Marine Snow and the dry ZooPlan and PhytoPlan by Two Fishes. No water quality issues as of yet (just started last week). I feed Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and my pwc is on Sundays. Like I said I measured them out and I use less than the recommened dose (about half).

 

[usmcmarc]

Do you just add it to the water column, or do you target the corals? It seems that with half the dose, there wont be enought to target feed each one. Thats where I get confused.

 

[Lance M.]

I dilute the foods with some tank water in a small plastic container, mix them up, and give my anemones, button polyps, yellow polyps, torch, and bubble coral a squirt of the mixture and then pour the rest into the water column.

 

[usmcmarc]

So..I did as you said...mixed a FEW DROPS of chroma, phyto, & zooplex with a few drops of DT's live phyto (Less than 3ml total) with water from the tank. Turned off all pumps and such. Gave everything a squirt and put the remaining 1/2 tsp worth in the water column.

 

[usmcmarc]

Hooray!!! No algae bloom...looks like your method worked Lance...thanks a million to all.

 

[Lance M.]

No problem, just make sure you check your water params after the next couple times you feed just incase excess nutrients start to build up after each feeding.

I'm not sure how much it recommends on the bottles but the plex's are not as concentrated as the max's (like the PhytoMax says one drop per 30 gallons and the PhytoPlex says 10ml per 50 gallons, which is ~50 drops). So I would find out what the recommended dose is on each seperate one for your tank and do 1/4 of the recommended on the Kent products and 1/2 of the DT's and see how that goes. That's what I did for my recipe.

 

[usmcmarc]

I noticed some air bubbles on the porites and I usually take my squirt feeder and gently blow them off with a squirt of water. So, I did that today and a film blew off the porites. It was covering the whole thing. I gently blew off all of the film with the baster and it floated all around the tank like cobwebs. The fish would eat it and spit it out. I fed all the corals yesterday. Is this a byproduct of feeding? Or maybe a slimetrail from my abalone crawling over it?

 

[usmcmarc]

My porites are fuzzy Looks like they finally got comfortable (after 2 months), and the polyps came out. Might have had something to do with the new lighting.....hmmmmmmm