Feeding corals at night

[cat_fish_lady]

After doing some research, I've found that my LPS coral is indeed an Acanthastrea Echinata (the pics I posted may have been hard to distinguish but I can tell from the pics I've found in Eric Borneman's Coral book--which is fantastic btw).

I was not surprised to hear that they only extend to feed at night, as I had never seen it happen during the day, even with spot-feeding of very small blended shrimp pieces...

In any case, I wanted to ask: I know it can survive with sunlight alone, but if I want to feed zooplankton (like the liquid Kent stuff), how would I go about doing this? Does it need spot-feeding, which would require turning off the powerhead and skimmer (and probably disturbing my sleeping anemone and fish)? Or can I just add to the water and let it fill the tank? I don't have enough corals yet for that to make much sense, as I expect that would just foul the water and wouldn't provide much food for the Acan.

[Dave66]

Cat Fish Lady,
You may know I drip live phytoplankton into my reefs, and have for many, many years. The upshot of the drip is a bloom of micro-food, like huge numbers of Rotifers and micro-crustacean naupili. All of which my corals, including the night feeding SPS, eat.

It isn't at all difficult to home culture phytoplankton. Instructions are in my culture manual in the food forum.

I use a five gallon gravity feed to hold the live phytoplankton and drip it into my sumps, or more accurately, into the John Guest port in one of my skimmers. You should know that dripping live phytoplankton will result in outstanding coral growth and lots of filter feeders, mostly tunicates (sea squirts) and sponges.

Culturing phytoplankton yourself is much, much cheaper than buying commercial products that are hit or miss with corals.

Dave

[hockeyhead019]

Dave just a quick question for ya about the phyto drip... do you find it has any issues going through your return pump? Also how did you get your rotifer population started? I'd like to start some live food but would rather try and have a sustainable population instead of just having them in a 2 liter bottle like you explained in your live food thread (which is fantastic btw!!)

Cat Fish Lady I just spot feed my candy cane (which only extends at night) and it eats up anything from shrimp to a mushy mix of goodness that I make haha (it's actually a mix of rotifers, mysis and some other stuff)

[Dave66]

No, no problems going through the pump, since the phytoplankton is already mixed with the sump water. And with the GPH of my pumps, there isn't time for very diluted phytoplankton to clog a pump. At least they haven't in the 10 years I've been dripping phytoplankton.

And there already are Rotifers and micro-crustaceans and their young in your tank. What the phyto drip does is make them bloom in numbers and varieties, giving corals and clams precisely the micro-food suitable for them.

I culture phytoplankton in five gallon glass carboys. I refill what I take out with sterilized fertilized sea water. You can keep a phyto culture going as long as you care to, actually. If you have a microscope capable of 100X magnification or have access to one you can gage the diversity and numbers of zooplankton over time. You'll be amazed.

Dave

[hockeyhead019]

Very cool and ok that's what I figured that they'd be too tiny to have any effect on the pump

Ok I'll do some more reading and see if I can't get some cultures going and start a drip... how long would you say it will take to beef up the population of the different kinds of zoo? Just a ball park

Also does your populations of zoo make your water look cloudy? Or does it still look clear? Not that this is of much importance to me but just curious if it does, and if it does what would happen if you ran carbon?

Sorry for so many questions and CatFishLady sorry for the thread hijack lol

[Dave66]

You'll see it (via microscope) start to increase in about a week. It'll be mostly Rotifers to start, but if you check every month or so, you'll see more and more diversity. Vast, and I mean vast, majority is micro-crustacean naupili and Rotifers. Most of the naupili are very tough to ID. And adult micro-crustacean, and they'll be lot of them, are free fish food.

And the water is perfectly clear, remember they are bacteria size, and tons of filter feeding life will be happily consuming them.

I run Boyd's Chemi Pure Elite in my canisters, since it's carbons are extremely high grade, so the colloids (fats) produced by hundreds of types of zooplankton is removed by the carbon and the skimmers.

Dave

[smaug]

My lps were just fed about an hour ago in broad daylight. No tentacles were extended until after I dropped the pellets [nls small] on them,then they extended and fed. I feed my lps about every 7 or 8 days now. I also dose phyto and zooplankton daily for my scallops and all filter feeders.

[cat_fish_lady]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll definitely look into the phyto drip... I don't have a sump though (and don't have room for one, nor is my DT drilled) so whatever I use would be visible. So that would really limit things. But I'll see what I can come up with