Feeding phyto ?

I don't use it anymore. I honestly think it pollutes more than helps....and isn't cheap. Of course, depends on tank size. If you have several like 8 - 10 phyto feeding corals, then I'd go for it.

p.s. and if I did use it, it would be live phyto...who knows, maybe some other time.

 

FWIW no coral, filter feeder, zooplankton, etc can tell if phyto is "live" (viable) or dead (non viable).

Recent research has shown over 70% of the oceans phytoplankton is "dead" (non viable). Given that and the fact animals can not distinguish between live and dead, why do people think live is better?

 

Same reason & benefit as in feeding lives pods, shrimp, etc. or, in eating fresh caught fish, shellfish vs. frozen, freeze dried, pickled, sundried.

 

You got that right I have never found a reason or need to cut a pump off for feeding phyto or anything . I just replaced a 80.00 impeller and 20.00 seal kit in a pump because they turned the pump off and it wrung the hub right out of the impeller on start up. Water puts a lot of resistance on impeller's

 

But non viable has the exact same nutritional profile and the animals can't tell the difference, only you can (due to label alone). The foods you mention are ones you prefer to eat yourself and presumably people can tell the difference, although nearly all fish for sushi is flash frozen, even in Japan. The animals being feed in your tank with phyto can not tell the difference and don't care.

 

Take apples for example. Given proper storage one can't tell the difference between 6 months and fresh off the tree.

 

I used to just squirt some phyto right in the tank but i recently started target feeding a phyto/oyster mix. For this, i just turn my powerheads and return off. The skimmer just recycles whats in the sump during this period of time. Next time I try though, i think i am just going to shut the powerheads off, my return is pointed at the surface for agitation so maybe it won't affect the lower regions of the tank too much.

 

I was given to understand that the advantage of live vs non-live phyto was that it was less polluting to the tank. Being live, it would not begin to decay if left uneaten/unskimmed. Of course, this is more important in a culture medium where there is no skimming (such as for growing zooplankton) and less so of our large tanks with protein skimmers.

 

Nothing personal Gresham but you can't tell me the nutritional profile is "exactly" the same in dead vs. live anything.

 

I sure can and have the data to back it up. What is printed on our bottles is what was returned from the lab. We routinely test and routinely get back the same numbers for live and non viable.

But your partially right, live phyto sitting around will LOOSE part of it's nutritional profile while non viable won't.