How often do you feed zoo/phyto plankton? What brand do you prefer?

[nbgen12]

Before today I never really fed much zoo or phyto plankton(I've got 2 zoa colonies, 1 yellow polyp colony, decent sized maze brain coral, 1 small stylophora, 2 montipora caps). One colony of zoas has recovered pretty well since my alkalinity problem about 4 months ago where I hadn't kept up with it and it was near 2 meq/L(I didnt have the SPS until AFTER the alkalinity thing was fixed, and somehow the brain coral was fine the whole time). I've got Alk at 3.0 now for the last few months and the one colony is recovering well, while my eagle eye zoas have been just kind of treading water. I decided to feed a little of phyto and zoo plankton today and get off the flow to the sump and within 15 minutes both colonies of zoas opened up much much more. I read an article about them needing a little higher nutrient levels in order to thrive, so I figured I would start doing this once a week with both phyto and zoo plankton and having the return cut off for about an hour to let everything stay in the DT.

 

How often to you guys do this for your zoas/soft corals? I know they are photosynthetic, but I feel like just a little feeding could make a huge impact...at least in my system which is currently lightly stocked in terms of fish and coral. Anyone have similar experiences?

 

What brand or type of phyto and zoo plankton do you use?? I've just got the kent marine stuff but figure there is probably something better out there or maybe cheaper in the long run with good results.

Edited April 26, 2012 by nbgen12

[onux20]

I used reef nutition products once or twice a week.

 

Since everyone's tank is different, you will have to feed and monitor how your tank reacts. Dont feed too much too often at the expense of water quality.

[steveoutlaw]

Wait, you have to feed zoas?

[nbgen12]

You don't really have to feed them, but they are filter feeders, so I've read getting a little extra nutrients into the water is ok and can be really beneficial to them. Since my phosphates and nitrates are about as close to 0 as you can get, and my zoas weren't growing much at all I decided to read a little on it. Zoas like to have a little extra nutrients in the water, and I've read people add a little zoo and phyto plankton for their corals in general, which I hadn't been doing. I was only feeding the brain and yellow polyps about once a week, then only feeding what the fish would consume on a daily basis. This didn't leave much for anything else in the tank in terms of nutrients.

 

I'm going to start doing this once a week and keeping an eye on the nutrient levels and see how things react. Anyone that has a lightly stocked tank might already be doing the same thing and I'd be interested to hear about it.

 

Zoas are hardy....but everything else is thriving in my tank except for the zoas, and I've seen that zoas can actually recede with a lack of nutrients in the water. My SPS has absolutely taken off since I got them about 3 weeks ago. I will also make sure to be careful on the feeding because the SPS will not appreciate too much nutrients, but I need to find the balance. My calcium is around 380(slowly raising to a target of 420), Alk is at 3.0 meq/l(would like to raise to about 3.3-3.5), Magnesium is at 1350, PH 8.2. I have been checking the zoas non stop during the day and at night to see if I can find any pest or anything which would cause them to have problems, but have seen nothing. I also gave each colony a little coral dip a couple days ago to make sure there were no pests or fungus problems. I figure the lack of nutrients might be having an effect, so time to try a little adjustment.

 

Chime in if you are having to do the same thing. Let me know what brand of plankton products you use and if there is anything you think I should be doing which I may be missing

[nbgen12]

I've seen tons of good things about the reef nutrition products and may have to get some when my current stuff runs out

[onux20]

I've seen tons of good things about the reef nutrition products and may have to get some when my current stuff runs out

For the record, I have never target fed my zoas and they seem to be fine.

[treesprite]

I use Rods food a lot and wave it over everything. The particles are small enough for tiny mouths.

[rocko918]

never feed my zoos or anything other than my fish.

[Dholmblad]

I squirt some at my sps every once and awhile. I dont know if it makes a difference.

[jaddc]

I have never target fed my zoas. That said, some of the larger polyps will capture food. When they do they close up to ingest. I think you are getting to a deeper issue that many have discussed at length. That is the balance of SPS coral, which need clean water, and everything else, which likes a bit of dissolve organics and nitrate to really thrive. There are many opinions and few answers. I'm experimenting with soaking my food in Selcon and then adding that to water. The water gets a bit cloudy with Selcon until I turn the return pump on. Everything is growing well and my nutrients are in check.

[Coral Hind]

I only feed the fish. Most of the target food is normally not even captured by the coral.