OCEANDOSE

You will have to use clean sea water from the beach, as some crabs are filter feeders as are the muscles. You will need lots of clean water with plankton/food in it for them to survive, the artificial salt mix wont cut the mustard here sorry

We have one in the tank at the moment, and as livingart said....they will eat any and everything. They crush up mussels, scallops, snails basically anything with a shell will be crushed and eaten...damn strong. They are pretty cool to watch, but inactive during the day, once the mainlights are out he's straight out looking for more trouble and occasionally swimming. You will need a fair bit of room and all the rockwork to be glued or stuck together somehow. You will also need a decent skimmer as these fellas make a mess

Hi scales & tails fishfa Guy I can sort you out, but suggest you do alot of reasearch on clown breeding, as it ain't as easy as you may think, you will need a heck of alot of phytoplankton and rotifers to start with, and thats the easy part. "Kiwikid" and "cookie extreme" have had sucess in breeding clowns, mabey they might be able to offer you some advice Normal Plankton , I don't even know what that is Simple version is phytoplankton is plant and zooplankton is animal Really suggest you do a little more homework before trying to take on this chestnut

Not Quite........... if it curls up you are still only 99% safe, there are a couple other species that will curl up, but your chances are pretty good

That little sucker is an isopod, it looks to be a Cirolanid but may well also be a Sphaeromatid. Easy way to tell is to see if it rolls up into a ball when touched, if so its a sphaeromatid. The sphaeromatids are very benefical and your lucky if you have a few of them in your tank as they scavenge though the substrate and rock, excellent as a cleanup crew, the cirolanids are pretty much the same, but a few in this family also like to suck a little fish blood on the side. If your paranoid get 1 large chromis(cheap) and see if the bug attaches, if so net the fish and kill the isopod as its a blood sucker, if it leaves the chromis alone, you have the start of an awesome cleanup crew, prob the most effecient bug to have

Just to give the thread another kick……… The amount of nutrients remaining in Oceandose phyto after culture are to low for hobbist testkits to pickup, You(Reef) have actually measured the quantities using a photometer(an upmarket scientific refractometer with a brain.) The results he got were 0.0 PPM Nitrate 0.03 PPM Phosphate And trace metels wern’t tested(as far as I’m aware but will also be undetectable). The culture medium used is basically 1/3 Nitrate, 1/3 phosphate and the remainder is made up of various metals and vitamins. Now in your 2500L tank you would need to dose well over a dozen bottles in a single shot to get any detectable increase in nutrients….. So I’m very curious as to how your liverock went a dark green colour(quote) when all you were ever sent to dose in total was 2L, which also should have only lasted you a couple days at the recommended dosage(40ml/100L every 2nd day), not the 2 weeks you say you dosed the product for. So not surpising you didn’t see many results…ever heard the expression “shooting an elephant with a bb gun†But thanks, I guess that’s your review

Comments appreciated, but dont know your mate and dont know the phyto he is using. This trial is Reefs tank and Oceandose phyto , so the results will more than likely be different!

A little confusion, trials still on.... :oops:

After a lot of consideration I’m pulling this trial. Sorry to those that were looking forward to it. This will be a big waste of my time, energy and money, Reef hasn’t shown much interest, which is obviously going to continue though the trial, and end in a false report(as well as other reasons metioned). The phyto has proved itself for well over a year now, and continues to do so, with people from all over the country dosing. Once again sorry to those who wanted to see the trial. If there is another experienced reefer out there who wants to give this trial a shot, PM me your details and we will keep this thread alive.

Reef will be honest with the results, The phyto has allready been trialed by Puttputt on the other site, and he doesn't import anything. I would also prefer a good clean well known tank with a experienced owner(not knocking any other reefers, just dont know anything about you or your tanks and practises) As far as measuring the results, i guess it would be visual(new growth, color improvments, better PE extension, more pods, ect), Any ideas on how else to test, please comment???

Obviuosly, dead phyto added to the tank is extra nutireints the second it hits the water, while live phyto will continue to use the tanks nutrients untill its either eaten or skimmed out Apparently only really good skimmers will remove phyto from the water coloumn, venturi and airstone skimmers dont really have a chance, the new needle wheel skimmers should remove the majority. In saying that if the live phyto isn't getting skimmed out that quickly, it can only be consuming the tanks nutrients as food, reducing the cyano, and other nutrients. You have then created a slowed natural phytoculture system in your tank......untill its all skimmed out or eaten. Quote "The bottom line is that no dead, semi-live or bottled live product can come close to the useful longevity of fresh refrigerated live cultures (regarding particle size in particular)... and since fresh live cultures kept refrigerated degrade markedly on a daily basis (clumping/clotting) until around 6 months (at best), we cannot expect these older, less fresh, commercially processed products to fair much better no matter how much money in marketing the manufacturers spend. " Also worth noting that, as phyto is sitting in the fridge, its slowly using its own nutrients to stay alive(vitamins/aminos ect), so after a few weeks you may think you're doing good to your tank but in reality your feeding empty phyto shells, with no nutition inside. I dont know enought about chemical warefare to confirm this but, different strains will naturally try to poison off other species to remian dominant.... I reccommend you use livephyto within 2 weeks or 3 weeks max, after this time, the phyto will start to degrade.

Better start a fresh thread that belongs to the subject, rather than hijack :oops: Right......Reef and Myself have taken the gloves off and are going to do an experiment/trail I have never met Reef and the same applies to him(you'ld think), neither of us do business or deal with each other in anyway, and arn't old school buddies, which you would have picked up if you followed the other thread. The trial will be based on 1-2 months of daily dosing, i reccommend 40mls/100L every second day. Reef will confirm latter what dosage he is going to feed as his tank has a high SPS percentage. Many experienced reefers have dosed phyto with excellent result,(these people will make themselves known in this thread if they feel comfortable). Reef has trialed the DT live phytoplankton product in the past, with very little sucess and had a buildup of nutients to show for it. While i dont claim to be a phyto expert, i dont agree with the selection of algaes that are contained in the DT product.(Nannochloropsis, Phaeodactylum and Chlorella) Oceandose phyto is a Blend of Nanno, Tetraselmis and Isocysis, these are the most commonly used phyto strains in aquaculture and together form a complete package, with all needed amino acids, color pigments and minerals/vitamins any coral/animal could wish for. I will be supplying Reef the phyto at no charge, allthough he has offered to cover the courier charges. SHOWTIME 8)

Thanks for that. Reef and i have made an arrangement, please see new topic called phyto.

Well done Reef, the tank looks awesome, as do the goniopera. Well i guess nature got phytoplankton wrong, it obviously doesn't do anything........ Wonder what would happen if you removed all traces of phytoplankton from the oceans...sounds like you have discovered the polution problem. Fact is phytoplankton is natures way of passing on all nessecary amino's(EPA, DHA), vitamins and trace metals ect, that the coral or animal cant get from the water column or light. It may not directly benefit all of coral/animal species you have, but indirectly phytoplankton additions will benefit all life in the tank. As a matter of interest, what phyto product were you using to dose your tank, as it sounds like it wasn't the best. Also i'd be interested in that gizmo you have to continously drip feed your tank since its useless to you. PS/ While there are disputes at present with the ability of some SPS and LPS corals to directly use phyto, currently by far the majority is pointing to no, but within the next few years i think a few new ideas will arise, on the reaction the coral has to phyto.

Sorry to hijack this thread by the way Yes you can overdose everything, but we are talking about feeding your tank, not puring gallons and gallons of plankton in every day(which is what it would take). And yes again the fertilisers do contain copper(the good ones anyway), copper is present in the ocean at 0.0009 PPM, your instant salt mix also has copper in it wether it has been added or is an impurity, its there!! Yes the majority of corals get by and some do well, but there is a difference between getting by and flourishing. Why do you think it is that goniopera's and gorgonians dont last all that long?. As far as leathers and sponges go, they are filter feeders and will take what evers on offer....being phyto, bacteria or DOC's, which is why they thrieve and often outgrow most tanks.....think about it, apart from a healthy Tonga leather most are a pink/brown dull color.....try feeding phyto and see what happens when there is some nutritional value in the food. As far as SPS goes, it isn't yet proved that they use phyto, but yet when they are cut open, phyto is found in there stomach's. As i said a few weeks back, the polyp ext you get on all SPS once phyto has been added to the tank is outstanding.......why is this????? PO4, ammonia and nitrate are nutrients that phytoplankton uses to start the foodchain, these nutrients dont get too high in nature because there is plankton to control this!! However you are right, phyto isn't needed by the majority of corals, but its the difference between baked beans and a 3 course roast dinner!!