Feeding the system with Zooplankton

[Ivan Stoiljkovic]

Hey everyone,
I keep thinking about culturing phyto and rotifers (in 5 gal containers) and dosing them to my sump maybe few times a day or night
I have 3 frag tanks (180G each) connected along 2 fish tanks (220G and 430G)

Do you think that those filter socks will stop rotifers from cycling. how much of a waste would that be
Im using those plastic mesh filter socks.
Also, will that be a good food for both lps and sps?
And I would appreciate any suggestion, I am new to culturing and feeding live.

 

[Daddy-o]

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[Ivan Stoiljkovic]

Thanks for good amount of info.

I do have tigger pods in the refugium, do you think population will explode if I start feeding phyto?
Is there any phyto in my system now since I'm not culturing anything?
What do you think about constant dosing of fresh salt water and constant harvesting with a doser to culture tanks, like 20% daily?
What is the best smallest food for my SPS, rotifers?

 

[Daddy-o]

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[leahfiish]

Following this thread!

 

[WesleyC]

I do have tigger pods in the refugium, do you think population will explode if I start feeding phyto?

No, unless you dose to the point that you can see a tint of green color in your entire water volume.

Is there any phyto in my system now since I'm not culturing anything?

Very likely no. Any microorganism such as pods, and filter feeders, and even some coral would eat them. Your skimmer will also skim them out.

What do you think about constant dosing of fresh salt water and constant harvesting with a doser to culture tanks, like 20% daily?

It is "possible" to do. The detail is a bit difficult. I can explain later.

What is the best smallest food for my SPS, rotifers?

The smallest type of pods such as Parvocalanus crassirostris, but they are not easy to continue to survive in our tank since swim in the water column instead of cling on to the tank wall or rocks. The nauplii of most copepods are small enough as well.


To culture zooplankton, overall, the most important thing you need to consider is food density. Since they are so tiny, they have to find their food to survive. In our tanks with that much volume of water, it is quite impossible to do. So, the zooplankton (whatever you like to grow), has to be in a small system. So, when you feed them with phyto, your zooplankton can easily find the food. Unless you do not mind your entire water system are green color. Not to mention you are having that much phyto to give them everyday.


Regarding type of zooplankton, you could have as dense as 20 to 100 rotifer in 1 ml while you can only have roughly 5 pods in 1 ml. Any higher, they'll produce too much waste in a day and crash. When I kept my culture at the highest density, I had to harvest them 2-3 times a day to decrease their density, and also suck out their waste every day. Quite a bit of work.

For feeding, you have to have at least 7 days rotation of phyto for feeding them everyday. Also has to be consistent amount of feed. More food, they reproduce too much and crash your culture. Too little, they'll starve to death and crash your culture. Fun time.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Hey everyone,
I keep thinking about culturing phyto and rotifers (in 5 gal containers) and dosing them to my sump maybe few times a day or night
I have 3 frag tanks (180G each) connected along 2 fish tanks (220G and 430G)

Do you think that those filter socks will stop rotifers from cycling. how much of a waste would that be
Im using those plastic mesh filter socks.
Also, will that be a good food for both lps and sps?
And I would appreciate any suggestion, I am new to culturing and feeding live.

We have L-Type rotifers, Brachionus plicatilis, if you need a starter culture. Our rotifers are ciliate free and we ship them all over the world into global aquaculture. Check out our rotifers here: http://apbreed.com/product_live_rotifers.php.

We also offer all the marine microalgae-based feed for culturing and enriching the rotifers. Our blends are being used by numerous marine ornamental hatcheries and now we have more and more customers culturing rotifers to feed to SPS and other coral types at home and in retail stores. Our RGcomplete is the best feed and enrichment for rotifer culture; this product will allow you to focus on the rotifer cultures and your animals while eliminating the need to culture phytoplankton. http://apbreed.com/product_rgcomplete.php

Finally, we have the a culture system for growing rotifers. Check out our CCS: http://apbreed.com/product_compact_culture_system.php

Let me know if you have any questions or if you would like to chat over the phone.

Regards,
Chad