Cultivating bacteria for feeding corals

[philosophile]

So I'm interested to see if anyone has ever tried cultivating bacteria to feed their corals. I'm not sure where to begin on this. Would the nitrifying bacteria we have in our tanks be suitable food for corals?

I've actually started experimenting on my freshwater tank, to see if I could first cultivate bacteria for them. This turned out to be exceptionally easy to cultivate. A one gallon water jug, with a rigid airline, provide oxygenation. I added to this, some ammonia, fish flake, and some vinegar, and three days later, I have a cloudy bacterial bloom. I kept it in the dark so that it wouldn't turn green. I plan on feeding my daphnia that I raise in the backyard with the bacteria bloom.

I suspect I could just follow the same procedure for SW, except I might need to raise the temperature.
Thoughts?

 

[Peace River]

So I'm interested to see if anyone has ever tried cultivating bacteria to feed their corals. I'm not sure where to begin on this. Would the nitrifying bacteria we have in our tanks be suitable food for corals?

I've actually started experimenting on my freshwater tank, to see if I could first cultivate bacteria for them. This turned out to be exceptionally easy to cultivate. A one gallon water jug, with a rigid airline, provide oxygenation. I added to this, some ammonia, fish flake, and some vinegar, and three days later, I have a cloudy bacterial bloom. I kept it in the dark so that it wouldn't turn green. I plan on feeding my daphnia that I raise in the backyard with the bacteria bloom.

I suspect I could just follow the same procedure for SW, except I might need to raise the temperature.
Thoughts?

You likely have an Infusoria bloom in your FW container. If you choose to continue the research relating to your question then you may want to search for “Infusoria in saltwater”.

On a related note, Daphnia likes green water so you may try to encourage it in at least one outdoor system. Additionally you can feed the live FW daphnia to the SW fish (although not usually worth the bother unless they have been gut loaded). They will live for a short time and many fish will chase them down quickly. The down side is that they only have minimal nutrition and a very short lifespan in SW.

 

[philosophile]

You likely have an Infusoria bloom in your FW container. If you choose to continue the research relating to your question then you may want to search for “Infusoria in saltwater”.

On a related note, Daphnia likes green water so you may try to encourage it in at least one outdoor system. Additionally you can feed the live FW daphnia to the SW fish (although not usually worth the bother unless they have been gut loaded). They will live for a short time and many fish will chase them down quickly. The down side is that they only have minimal nutrition and a very short lifespan in SW.

Yeah my daphnia are doing fine in my outdoor bucket. Even survived the winter with no feedings. I feed them spirulina daily, but wanted to just diversify their diet, and just load them up with spirulina before feeding to the tanks. I feed the daphnia to both my Reef and freshwater tank.

Is there a difference between infusoria and a bacteria bloom? I was under the impression infusoria was mostly things like paramecium rather than bacteria.

 

[Peace River]

Yeah my daphnia are doing fine in my outdoor bucket. Even survived the winter with no feedings. I feed them spirulina daily, but wanted to just diversify their diet, and just load them up with spirulina before feeding to the tanks. I feed the daphnia to both my Reef and freshwater tank.

Is there a difference between infusoria and a bacteria bloom? I was under the impression infusoria was mostly things like paramecium rather than bacteria.

Yes, infusoria and bacteria are different and you are correct. Practically, if you have a bacteria bloom in an outside container that isn't sealed then you usually will have infusoria (which has been used as a catch all term for small organisms in the water). Therefore if you are feeding your daphnia with a bacteria bloom then it would seem that by default you are also feeding the daphnia the infusoria that feeds on the bacteria.

Back to your original question about feeding bacteria to corals, it would seem that they would need something one or two steps up the food chain?

 

[2una]

So I'm interested to see if anyone has ever tried cultivating bacteria to feed their corals. I'm not sure where to begin on this. Would the nitrifying bacteria we have in our tanks be suitable food for corals?

I'd walk with caution as the thing i'm starting to wonder now is that there is no line drawn between cultivating the good or the bad.
I get sps randomly taken out by what i believe is bacteria or pathogen problem, Icp side being fine.

That's a peek inside my denitrator, I don't know if it is the cause or not but i think i am about to try going off carbon dosing & try a algae reactor rather.

 

[philosophile]

Yes, infusoria and bacteria are different and you are correct. Practically, if you have a bacteria bloom in an outside container that isn't sealed then you usually will have infusoria (which has been used as a catch all term for small organisms in the water). Therefore if you are feeding your daphnia with a bacteria bloom then it would seem that by default you are also feeding the daphnia the infusoria that feeds on the bacteria.

Back to your original question about feeding bacteria to corals, it would seem that they would need something one or two steps up the food chain?

Yeah my bacteria culture is indoors in a plastic gallon water jug. So it's just bacteria. I've read that daphnia will eat bacteria, so we'll see how well they do on my cloudy water, for a few days.

As for corals, I've read in a lot of places that corals will eat bacteria, and some even cultivate it on their mucus. So, best case scenario, corals will be stronger and healthier from this extra form of feeding, at the worst, I have extra bacteria that gets skimmed out of my system, and possibly adding to nitrate loads, since that'll be the end results of bacterial metabolism of ammonia. I'm willing to take that risk, as an experiment, I think.

 

[philosophile]

I'd walk with caution as the thing i'm starting to wonder now is that there is no line drawn between cultivating the good or the bad.
I get sps randomly taken out by what i believe is bacteria or pathogen problem, Icp side being fine.

That's a peek inside my denitrator, I don't know if it is the cause or not but i think i am about to try going off carbon dosing & try a algae reactor rather.

I would be cultivating aerobic bacteria exclusively, so I won't run into dangers of that can result from denitrators (sulfuric acids and gases can kill your entire tank.... are you sure you're getting enough flow that you're not producing these compounds in your denitrator? I would suspect that thats what is harming your SPS before I would suspect the bacteria).

But yeah, there is a danger I suppose in cultivating "bad" bacteria, but it won't be all that different from cycling a tank. Generally we don't worry we are going to get "bad" bacteria in our tanks when we start them up. But, something to think about and be cognizant of.

 

[2una]

I would be cultivating aerobic bacteria exclusively, so I won't run into dangers of that can result from denitrators (sulfuric acids and gases can kill your entire tank.... are you sure you're getting enough flow that you're not producing these compounds in your denitrator? I would suspect that thats what is harming your SPS before I would suspect the bacteria).

But yeah, there is a danger I suppose in cultivating "bad" bacteria, but it won't be all that different from cycling a tank. Generally we don't worry we are going to get "bad" bacteria in our tanks when we start them up. But, something to think about and be cognizant of.

No no hydrogen sulphide - if that is ever present you can smell it a mile off