DT's, Golden Pearls etc

[DJ88]

Who uses any of these kinds of foods? What kinds of results are you seeing? What doses are you putting in?

I feed 15 ml of DT's and two small spoons of 20-80μ golden pearls every two days. The spoons are the same ones you see in your sailfert test kit of Ca.

I haven't noticed any drawbacks as the DT's are live so they aren't being consumed by the bryopsis. If anything I think the feedings are helping out compete the bryopsis for food. I have noticed grape caulerpa growing very easily now where it wasn't before.

I can see all kinds of growth and new color on all the corals. Colors in a couple I didn't know were there. ;) Visible growth over a two day period. I am attributing this in part to the new reactor and the feedings. So I can't say it is ALL the DT's and pearls. But they sure have helped. In a big way I think.

I had used the ESV Spray dried phyto and had some success with it. But it was a hassle to blend up every two nights and I wasn't getting the resutls I have now.

As an added bonus I am noticing spaghetti worms and bristle worms galore. Even pods out in the open in the day. So my sixline isn't completely wiping them out. :eek:

Anyone else?

[ 23 May 2002, 23:10: Message edited by: DJ88 ]

[Aquattro]

Darren, I use DT's. Probably a capful every other day or so. So far I've noticed greater polyp extension. Growth can be measured in days. One frag I mounted about 5 days ago has encrusted about 4mm over the putty. A purple cap has encrusted about 1/2" in a month. Can't say for sure it is due to DTs, but it certainly doesn't hurt. Also, I'll split the feeding to half during daylight, and half at night.

[fishnut]

Do you turn off your skimmer when you add the DT's, and if so, for how long ?

[Delphinus]

I am dumping about 30-45 ml of DT's daily into my 75g, because I have three itty-bitty clams in this tank (2 - one inchers, 1 - 2.5 incher).

One of the little clams, that was 1" when I bought it a month ago, is now maybe 1.5" if I am not mistaken. So one thing in the tank is growing at a rate that exceeds my expectations. However the other two clams, bah, they look the exact same as the day I bought them; the other 1" in fact is actually kind of struggling still. I will be pleasantly surprised if it turns around, actually.

Other than my one clam, I honestly cannot say I really notice anything else for my efforts yet. Maybe I am dumping too much into such a young tank (4-5 months), because I have a nasty cyano problem and this really gross kind of turf mat algae completely covering my sandbed. (It really is a kind of ... "icky-yechhky-ew".) Whether this is due to the DT's, or the old VHO's, or not enough flow in the tank yet, or something else, I cannot really say for certain. NO3 and PO4 are completely undetectable in this tank.

I have yet to really be knocked out of my socks for coral colour or growth yet. I thought my M. cap was turning a rose colour a week ago; but the hint of red has all but disappeared as fast as it ever appeared (it's back to tan/orange now). But to be fair: with 2 or 3 exceptions, the only things in this tank are frags, so it could just be that I'm expecting too much, too soon.

Time will tell. Everyone I've talked to is a firm beleiver in DT's, so I am staying the course for now. I do beleive that the DT's is in part responsible for the one clam doing so well. It is documented when they're that size, that they're more filter-feeders than they are photosynthetic. I just wish the other two clams would follow this guy's example!!

I am perhaps a little dismayed that I appear to be going through a $50 bottle on a monthly basis (I had actually been dumping >45 ml at one point, acting on advice ... I've cut back just because I can't really sustain that kind of usage). $50/month is a HUGE fraction of my whole reefing/entertainment budget. I am really, really tempted to start growing my own Nannochloropsis spp. ...

PS. Fishnut: FWIW, I don't turn my skimmer off. I don't think you're supposed to need to, unless you maybe have a hugely overpowered skimmer for your system. If it's an average powered skimmer, no sweat. That's my take on it anyways.

[ 24 May 2002, 07:46: Message edited by: delphinus ]

[DJ88]

Tony,

have you thought about growing your own DT's? Use a bottle to start your own culture? I wish I could remember his name but there is a guy on the baords from Toronto that does exactly this.

Rayjay is his name. here is his DT's culturing page.

http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/page18.html

[ 24 May 2002, 08:29: Message edited by: DJ88 ]

[Biogeek]

I did a side-by-side comparison of most of the plankton foods on the market that came out in the Marine Fish and Reef USA 2002 Annual (http://www.inlandreef.net/marandreefan.html). Basically DT's did the best, but I do into a lot more detail in the article. Weiss Co. disagreed with the tests and asked that his products not be included with the results. There is an archive of many of my posts about phytoplankton products available online here (http://www.reefcentral.com/library/phytoplankton.htm), if you're interested in more detail.

I also explain how to culture phytoplankton, and why sterile technique is important in the GARF archives here (http://www.garf.org/news13p2.html#green). Basically, if you follow the technique rayjay recommends, you're almost guaranteed that it will not be the species of phytoplankton you think within a few generations. There are plenty of greenwater cultures that are easy to grow, but the nutritional value of unknown species of phytoplankton cultured on plant food is highly variable (although it's fine if you just want to grow brine shrimp like rayjay)....

Rob

[DJ88]

Oh I have read your article Rob. Believe me. It was what took me to using DT's. That magazine doesn't stray far from me. :D

Thanks for adding in here. Appreciate it. smile.gif Not often you get to chat with the author. :D

[Silverfish]

Hi everyone, I have been using DT's for about 2 months and have noticed better growth and coloration in my corals.
Lots of worms in the sand, and the caulerpa has gone nuts too.
My purple gorgonians have started growing nicely, which is nice because they weren't doing much till I started adding DT's.
I dose approx. 6 to 10 ml every two or three days.

[EmilyB]

I keep fish, LPS, and softies. I have no interest in SPS, I'm not even really sure why I have any corals at all, but I think I am trying to give my fish a natural environment...

As a result, the feedings of the fish keep most everything else in the reef happy as well.

I will, however, reiterate that the larger sizes of the Golden Pearls are phenomenal for getting tiny fish eating and putting on weight. They float in the water column. The smaller variety also packs a huge vitamin pill onto those live brine....(I usually feed them the nanno paste and the powdery GP).

Established tanks should :confused: create their own photoplankton, do they not ?

[Biogeek]

delphinus: You don't really have to have a hugely over-powered skimmer on your system to remove phytoplankton - just a really efficient one. Although most skimmers didn't really remove much phytoplankton from the water when DTs first came on the market, many of the high efficiency skimmers out there today (like the ETS, HSA, AquaC, etc.) certainly pull out phytoplankton pretty well...

DJ88: Glad that the article is useful. I think I cited David Cripe's article on phytoplankton culture (the same species of phytoplankton can range from highly nutritious to down-right toxic depending on how they are cultured and exactly when they are harvested), and discuss the results of growth trials of phytoplankton cultured on different media (although now that I think about it, that might have been cut for length). Anyhow, the basic story is that it is easy to take a single culture of phytoplankton, split it between several vials, and grow each of them on a different growth medium in the lab. Each culture grown in this way will end up producing phytoplankton of different nutritional value. I presented data in my talk at the last MACNA showing how much faster copepods grow and reproduce on phytoplankton cultured with the recipe that I give in the GARF article above compared to liquid plant fertilizer drops from Wal-Mart. That is the point I was trying to make, and although it is certainly possible to culture phytoplankton at home, even with my experience and facilities to grow phytoplankton for my research, I'd rather buy it ;)

Siverfish: most of the marine animals that feed on phytoplankton do better with continual small doses of food rather than occasional big doses. They can't really take advantage of a big pulse of food every couple of days, and you will probably notice more small critters in your tank if you feed the same total amount at about 3 ml per day, rather than 10 ml every 3 days...

EmilyB: Even established tanks don't produce enough phytoplankton to support the growth of obligate suspension feeders (such as flame scallops for example). There are some planktonic algae that grow well in established tanks (primarily diatoms), but most of them are eaten pretty quickly, and unless you have a really high nutrient load (which would almost certainly lead to you growing a lot of other algae in the tank too), there simply isn't enough phytoplankton to supply any animal that requires it with a consistent food supply.

If you have only symbiotic corals that get enough light and can capture excess fish food, then that probably doesn't matter to you. If, like Tony above, you have juvenile clams that gain more energy from suspension-feeding than from their symbiotic algae, or some species of obligate suspension feeding invertebrate in your tank, then you'll have to find some way to supplement the amount of phytoplankton in your tank to give them a reasonable chance of survival...

Rob

[fishnut]

What are "Golden Pearls" - what are they used for - where do you buy them?

Once I stopped using DT's, the cyano in my tank cleared up.

[EmilyB]

www.brineshrimpdirect.com (http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com)

If you were closer, I would give you samples smile.gif

[DJ88]

Fishnut,

How much were you feeding your tank to cause Cyano?

If anything in mine feeding DT's is causing a slowdown in growth of other algaes I don't want in my tank. ie bryopsis.

Thanks for the great info Rob. It is all very appreciated. :D

[fishnut]

Originally posted by DJ88:
Fishnut,

How much were you feeding your tank to cause Cyano? I was feeding 1/2 capful of the smallest size of DT's every 3 days or twice a week.

If anything in mine feeding DT's is causing a slowdown in growth of other algaes I don't want in my tank. ie bryopsis.

Thanks for the great info Rob. It is all very appreciated. :D <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[BCReefer]

I finally purchased some DT’s last week. I am in the understanding that I am to take out my clams and put them into a small container and feed them that way. Now I read that I can just put 3-5 ml per day and that could be just as good.

I would really like some opinions, as I prefer to keep my hand out of my tank as much as possible.

I have a 33G tank with a BakPak skimmer and several varieties of hard and soft corals.

Thanks for the help.

Cheers,
Patrick

PS> Rob just ordered the book, looking forward to reading it.

[Aquattro]

Patrick, whoa on moving the clams!!! Who told you this?? Unless the clams are sitting on soft sand with nothing underneath, they're almost for sure attached to something. Removing them and breaking this attachment WILL kill them. They also just don't like being played with.
Just add the DT's to your tank and they'll do fine.
I've had three clams..I moved one..it's dead. I left the other two alone, they're alive. Pretty simple. :D

[BCReefer]

That is exactly what I thought. But I read on many occasions that people said to remove the clam so that it can get direct feeding.

Never liked the idea so I have not done it to date. I leave my clam to do what it wants. It moves where it wants and that’s that.

P

[Aquattro]

Originally posted by BCReefer:
But I read on many occasions that people said to remove the clam so that it can get direct feeding.
P<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">ALmost forgot. Never directly feed a clam!! It can "choke".

[Troy F]

I saw an interesting thread on feeding juvenille clams, at least I think it was clams but if not it would work great for them too. The person cut a 2l pop bottle in half(ish) so that it could be placed over the clam, the food is then squirted in and contained by the bottle.

[Aquattro]

Troy, not a good idea.

Here is a brief article by Dan Knop

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/d_knop2.html

[Delphinus]

I second Reef_Raf. Don't take the clams out of the tank. Leave them be, and just feed the water column. Those people who advocate taking clams out and feeding them in a container outside the tank, are playing with fire IMHO.

Clams can die VERY easily -- it doesn't take much at all to lose them.

Don't get me wrong: I love these guys, but they are as hardy as a wet kleenex held underwater (I couldn't think of a better analogy, sorry...)

PS. Also second Reef_Raf's bit about spot-feeding ... don't. I've never tried this so I odn't have first-hand experience, but I've heard it's not a good idea, for the reasons Brad points out. Just feed the water column ... nothing else.

[ 26 May 2002, 14:37: Message edited by: delphinus ]