Few questions about plankton?...

[Marklyall87]

Hi, I have recently started adding plankton to my tank & am currently buying it from my local store but I'm new to this and have a few questions...

1) I have been putting plankton in my tank for my soft corals as I was told they will eat it, but do hard / stoney corals eat it? Also will the fish eat it?

2) when I buy the plankton it comes out of the reactor warm, then I'm told to put it in the fridge, won't the temprature change kill it? Why do you keep it in the fridge?

3) how much plankton should I be adding to my tank, I have approx 200lt of water including sump & about 10 soft corals, I'm currently running no skimmer & adding about half a shot glass full each day.

Any help would be great as i want to learn more about this, thanks. Mark

 

[Bifferwine]

Whether you need to be adding plankton or not depends on what types of corals you have. Most soft corals do not need plankton additives. What kinds do you have?

Keeping it in the fridge keeps it alive, but is cold enough that the plankton won't reproduce in there. It can be kept in the fridge for a few months before it actually does die.

If you only have soft corals, you probably don't need to be spending your money on dosing phytoplankton. The majority of soft corals get any nutrition that they need from your lighting.

 

[VAreef]

Don't know if I can answer all your questions but I can say that almost any photosynthetic coral will eat plankton. The refrigeration makes the plankton go dormant and much of it will not die off. As far as how much? I've never added it to my own. Never found the need for it. I would think our tanks are making plankton anyways on their own. I could be wrong though but I have never fed phyto and my corals have always grown.

 

[yote]

+1 Biff and Va
Soft corals get their energy from the lights and what and what little dissolved nutrients that are in the water.

On the Phyto.Ever notice that dusty green algae happens to stick to the glass? Thats Phyto,so theres really no need to dose it.

 

[reeffreak]

Are we talking about phytoplankton(algae,plant) or zooplankton(animal)?

In most cases,I think phytoplankton is the biggest waste of money and not to mention adding pollutants to our system.It's not fully understood product and many aquarist like myself believe it does nothing for corals.It however might be a food source for zooplankton which is a food source for many corals.

 

[Marklyall87]

Hi, thanks for all your replies, the algae I'm adding is live algae, I've been buying it in 250ml bottles and was thinking of buying a reactor but nearly all my corals are soft ones so I don't know if I will bother with it anymore...