brine shrimp

we just recently purchased a 110g tank with sump that were using for a reef and fish tank. were new to the saltwater marine aquariums and are trying to find out whether its a good idea to add brine shrimp to the sump since the sump seems to be growing green algae. its too early for fish since we just set up the tank a few days ago and therefore theres nothing to eat the brine shrimp to keep them in control. so my questions are this:
1. should we place some or all of the brine shrimp in the sump?
2. should we worry about the bs taking over the tank and breeding?
3. ive read that bs are dirty... is it bad to add live adult brine shrimp?
any other suggestions for the sump and tank are gladly taken.

 

Welcome to 3reef,

I see no real advantage to adding brine shrimp to the sump. They will not consume the algae that commonly occur as a natural part of most cycles. Brine shrimp hold little nutritional value to fish or inverts.

Instead I would just let the cycle progress as it should, make sure you are using RO/DI water to prevent addition of phosphates and monitor the basics such as ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

 

Adding brine shrimp to a tank or sump will prove to be a short lived venture.
They don't have the power to keep away from water flow so they end up in filters and get chewed up by pumps. Also, if any predation exists in the tank the shrimp won't last anyway.
Brine shrimp are considered "dirty" as in bacteria that the cysts are known to have. You can sterilize the cysts before hatching or better yet, decap them prior to hatching.
As for nutrition, newly hatched brine shrimp nauplii have an egg sack which contains high levels of fatty acid which start to deplete as soon as the nauplii begin to emerge from the cyst. Decapping makes it easier so they have more nutrition left upon hatching, as well as eliminating the chances of a cyst or it's remaining shell lodging in the digestive tract of a small fish or fry.
Brine shrimp therefore start off with a high fatty acid profile, and as they grow through the 15 molts, they increase their protein levels but rapidly loose the fatty acid profile.
Protein levels of juvenile to adult brine shrimp are higher than many foods we feed our fish as brine from GSL cysts have 49.7 to 62.5 % dry weight of protein. (source:Manual on the Production and Use of Live Foods for Aquaculture, Artemia Reference Centre, University of Ghent)
Now by choosing what enrichment to feed them you can increase the protein, increase the fatty acid profile, or get medicines and vitamins to the intended fish/fry.

 

well we added the brine shrimp last night... i didnt read the posts till today but thanks for tryin to save me. lol. as you said, they all got sucked through and didnt even make it to the refugium before gettin stuck in the filters. farewell, brine shrimp... ive definately learned my lesson with them. thanks again tho.

 

Gotta read the threads you post ....they usually help. Where did you hear that brine shrimp would have been beneficial for eating algae?

 

the lps... although im starting to think i should stop listening to them since 4 of their tanks have ick and the mgr keeps moving fish from tank to tank.

 

Yup always do some research here first, you will save money and hopefully fish and inverts. Some LFS are excellent, but it goes with the territory when you are new at this, the LFS maybe a great resource for some things and very disappointing for many other things.