Dr. Shimek article about Filter Feeders (AFM-April 2000)

[Carlos]

I was reading Dr. Shimek’s article “Reef Aquarium Ecosystems: It’s all in how they filter the water” in the April issue of Aquarium Fish Magazine (pp 62-70). This article explained how filter feeders work and get their food. Very interesting and would encourage everyone to read it!

Anyway, He mentioned the fact that in our aquariums, the only constant source of filter food is our sand bed. When he meant constant, I think he was referring to 24/7. This leaves me with a little bit of concern because I do not think that the sandbed can supply enough food for our animals. He also mentioned that there are other sources of food such as Phytoplankton. Now, I personally feed phytoplankton to my tank every other day. I ask myself, it this enough for the corals and clams? or are they slowly starving. I know light provides food for some corals but light does not provide the necessary, shall I say, fiber for the corals to create tissue.

My question is, what do you guys feed your tank? I was considering feeding phytoplankton everyday for my tank but due to the price, I am unable to do it at this time. How about feeding phytoplankton (live) every other day, and some type of dried or frozen plankton the rest of the time? How about taking it even further and having a constant drip of dried dissolved plankton to the tank all the time? (Similar to dosing Kalk) Has anyone tried it and with how much success?

Here I am reading the article (little bit behind as you can see!) and looking at my tank, specially my clams and SPS and asking myself. If I was a filter feeder, it would bite if I got to eat only every other day or just five minutes every day. I would be hungry most of the time!!! I am not trying to blame anyone nor start a fight here. My interest is mainly for the well being of the animals that reside in my tank.

Can you imagine if we had some time of constant dosing mechanism for phytoplankton! Think of the potential and the doors it would open in terms of coral care in home aquarium!!! What do you guys think?


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Carlos
Carlos' Great Barrier
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Please, take care of the ocean and its creatures. They are all we've got!

[Alice]

Hey Carlos;

Interesting idea. I was under the impression, and it's prolly out of date by now that adding phyto to our tanks also helped to boost the phytoplankton that occurs all by itself in the tank. Creating a somewhat self-sustaining population if used on a regular basis.

Your idea makes good sense though. I'll have to look at the article.

~Alice

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Reefkeeping is my life; I can't afford a hobby too!

[Doug1]

Carlos you bring up interesting questions. I think tackling this problem is one oif the main motivations behind the refugium craze nowadays. Dripping a solution with phyto shouldnt be that difficult to do and the constant suppy would probably benefit the animals> I may have to get out the surplus medicall stuff and rig one up, as soon as the phyto comes in, Thanks for the idea


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Reef as if your life depended on it, yours might but the sea's does
Doug moderator TheReefTank/ReefCentral

[Reefkeeper]

OKAY, OKAY DOUG....



Phyto will be in on wed, as well as sprungs marine snow, (and with a little luck from UPS land, so will the B-Ionic)

ANYway... sorry to get on a LFS bent...

Carlos-
how deep is your sand bed? Alot of people put the bare minimums in (1" or so) and that would not be sufficient to created much habitat. If you are running a deeper bed, you would be supprised at the life that is cruising around in it. all of those critters are having baby critters, as well as defecating, and all of that, plus the bacteria that lives thier is a primo source of food.

I think your idea is great on dripping the phyto... I am setting up a sps tank at work and got a kent aquadoser for that purpose, (one for Kalk, also) I belive that the constant dosing would be more natural, as well as benifiting your water quality. The big plus that I see between phyto, like DT's, over plain green water (freshwater) is that the phyto will live in your tank, reproduce, and as it says on the DT's label, use nitrates and phosphates out of your tank to do so... not a bad deal.
I would be interested if anyone had any PROVEN methods of propogating the stuff... I have tried a couple of ways that I have found on the web, and they did not work....
as to answer your Q on what people are doing now...

I feed my 75gal every other day- the critters vary from 2 clams, acro's, various leathers, and some LPS, sponges, etc. The tank gets Selcon and seachems reef advantage mixed with aqualine bushke Plankto (plankton substitute) I am getting 3 products in this week that I am going to try also... DT's, Sprungs Marine Snow, as well as a spray dried Phytoplankton, that you are supposed to disolve(?) in water and add to your tank.

Hope this helps,

Gene

[MiNdErAsR]

I feed my tank every day, although the food is varied. I feed the cyro-preserved algae pastes every other day or so, shooting for (at leaast) the 10,000/ml cell count as recommended by Rob Toonen. Note this is a recommended starting point and I have ramped up to feed a much greater amount.

Here is a great link to a calculator which does the math for you, and suggests a doseage for each of the cryo-pastes...

http://www.jplink.com/reef/iac.htm

I also feed both sizes of Brine Shrimp Direct's Golden Pearls in between cryopaste feedings. On top of this I feed frozen mysid, pacifica plankton, and calanus micro plankton as well as Hikari Marine-A & Vibra-gro pellets, nori, spirulina flakes, and other flake foods from BSD.

What the fish don't eat, the various critters in the sand & live rock feast upon. This encourages those same critters to breed like rabbits and (hopefully) provide the live plankton the corals love to eat.

Since I began feeding as I do, I have noticed a lot more sponge growth. An added bonus IMO.

FWIW

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http://www.geekopolis.com/reef/nos4a2/

[Carlos]

ReefKeeper,

I have a 5" sand bed and at night, it is covered with little guys scurring around. This produces enough bacteria for the filter feeders to feed on but, to me that is not enough. I am trying to find ways to have a constant supply of plankton so the filter feeders have it available to them all the time. This would mean the ability of keeping sensitive corals with more success.

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Carlos
Carlos' Great Barrier
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Please, take care of the ocean and its creatures. They are all we've got!

[Aquaman]

The idea that our aquariums full of inverts need to be fed plankton is a fairly new one, most authors used to only advocate the use of light for the energy to stimulate the zooxanthelae in the animal's tissues. However, with the influx of all of these new plankton products and certain authors (Dr. Shimek) advocating more feeding everyone seems to be moving towards this direction, which is a good thing. I read the article you mention by Dr. Shimek, and it was very informative. He is one of the best authors out there.

The natural reef may be nutrient poor, meaning a general lack of nitrates and phosphates, but there is plenty of constant plankton in reef water at all times, and many of the reef animals we keep are adapted to taking advantage of this food source. I would say that with a healthy deep sand bed and fairly frequent doses of live or substitute plankton your corals and clams should be just fine, they are still getting a lot of the energy they need from the sugars created from the zooxanthelae. I personally figure with my deep sand bed and the fact that I feed my fish all sorts of small crustacean foods the corals get a good ammount. I also just ordered some of DT's phytoplankton and I will try that out as well.

If you wanted to attempt the creation of a constant drip of plankton it would be more natural to the animals than periodic doses and allow you to keep possibly other obligate filter feeders. It would be interesting to see how growth rates of corals and the other inverts changed in such a natural environment where high levels of plankton are constantly supplied, it would be a cool project to say the least!

You may already post on reefs.org, but in case you don't, Dr. Shimek posts over there on a regular bases and always answers posts directed to him. He has kindly answered some questions for me on that board. You could run your plankton questions by him and see what he thinks, after all he wrote the article you mention! Its a possibility.


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Aquaman

[ripentiger]

Was very interested to see this thread...as I had just purchased some DT for my tank on Saturday. After picking up on it on Reef.org BB, it seemed to answer my concern that the filter feeders need to be fed (I've got a 4 month 50 gal. reef going-am a beginner). My live rock is just covered with sponges, clam!, polyps, tunicates, feather dusters, and a lot other things I need to identify. To make a long story short-- two feedings of DT has shown a remarkable difference, I kid u not. So far, things have been going very well, and I credit it to the BB's input.
Have 4 1/2" sandbed with snails, peppermints (2), hermit crabs and brittle stars (2). I do not plan to add any more to the tank until it passes the 6 month mark.

I wonder if by adding DT you may get more Phytoplankton growing in your tank? I like the idea that it is natural product. Also, I go to a Oriental Market, purchase a frozen bag of a assortment of frozen mussels, clams, shimps, squids, and other weird stuff for $2.99. Put it in the blender, chop it all up and feed the tank with it, along with brine shimp. Keeps well in the freezer too. The brittle stars and Pepperments will take a piece right off the turkey blender tip if I offer it to them.

[MiNdErAsR]

Your coral are not the target feeders of the phytoplankton (algae) you are adding. It is all the little creatures, which are a part of your sand bed (i.e. rotifer eats phytoplankton, copepod eats rotifer, etc.). By providing these critters (bottom of the food chain) enough of the proper foods, they will respond by breeding like mad. This provides zooplankton (meaty) for your coral, which is their food of choice.

Most coral (and sponge) require specific sized food, and will reject anything that does not meet this criteria. So the more variety of micro/macro-fauna breeding, the better.

Small clams also benefit from the addition of phytoplankton, but less so as they mature.

Hope this helps.

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http://www.geekopolis.com/reef/nos4a2/

[Doug1]

Dr Ron Shimek is also a frequent poster on the ReefCentral BB, which I also moderate on.
Those of you who aren't familiar with that BB may wanna check it out. http://www.reefcentral.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/003525.html
This is Carlos thread on the subject and replies, BTW Carlos congrats on getting Rons attention and the compliment

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Reef as if your life depended on it, yours might but the sea's does
Doug moderator TheReefTank/ReefCentral