cyclopeeze

[buffalobill]

Is cyclopeeze good for fish and corals? Is this stuff causing my skimmer to go crazy. Any advice. Also I have live marine phytoplankton in my fridge that I hardly use because people say it causes phosphates to go up. Any truth to this. Any one get chance please respond.
Thanks
Kevin

 

[JayM]

cyclopeeze is good in small doses, but it can cause your skimmer to act up. There are some who believe that it can lead to cyanobacteria outbreaks if too much is used.

Marine phyto is not something I use....but I don't see use for it unless you specifically have something that needs it.

 

[buffalobill]

Thanks Jay for responding

 

[Blueflu1]

I use it occasionally and have no problems.

 

[pillowfish]

I use cyclopeeze to weekly to supplement the food intake of the corals in the tank. But I use very very small amounts. I have used phyto in the past as well, but have found it just makes my skimmer go nuts and raise my phosphates. I agree with Jay, I would only use the phyto if you have something that directly utilizes it. I usually turn my skimmer and power heads off when I feed like this to allow the food to stay suspended in the water column longer and not just quickly skimmed out. It alos helps with keeping my skimmer working properly.

 

[jtma508]

Everyone has something in their tanks that directly uses phytoplankton. Most all zooplankton consume phtyoplankton and this is one of the major food sources for corals. Pods are consumers of phyoplankton as well. I culture my own phyto and centrifuge it to remove the culture water but I'll see if I can test the culture water and report back on NO3 and PO4 levels.

 

[jtma508]

As promised, I decided to look into the NO3 and PO4 in live phyto cultures. First, a caveat: this is my own live cultures NOT commercial ones (like DT) that will include various stabilizers to keep the little guys alive. I have no idea which, if any, commercial live phyto has phosphates or nitrates in their product --- maybe none --- but here is what I've learned about my own.

I currently culture 3 kinds of phyto. All three are initially fed the standard f/2 formula which I get commercially (Florida Aqua Farms). I keep two cultures (~1.5 liters each) of each type going at all times. After they are well established (high cell densities) I no longer feed them again until they are split. Basically, they only get fed once --- when they are split. They seem to do fine with this method. I've never had one crash.

So for this test I put 50ml of a Tetraselmis culture with a density of about 2M cells/ml into the centrifuge and spun it down to separate the cells. I poured the supernatant (the culture water) into a clean beaker and tested it using an Elos NO3 kit and a Sailfert PO4 kit. Here is what I found:

NO3 => undetectable
PO4 => trace (significantly less than 0.03)

Again, this may not apply to commercial products but correctly cultured phyto will not add any nitrates or phosphates to your system as a result of the culture media in which they are suspended.

Peace out.