Phytoplankton, Zooplankton, skimmers

I have recently seen live phytoplankton for sale on ebay, is this a good idea? Will the live phytoplankton take over my tank or will the protein skimmer flush it out? It says that it can be kept cold in the fridge for months, is this true?

Anyone feed there mushroom corals Zooplankton?

What type of phytoplankton should i buy to feed my corals? That is, what brand, and should i only buy the stuff that is kept cold etc.. what is good quality plankton? And once again, will my skimmer take out a lot of it? I think that i have heard of a lot of people turning off their protein skimmers when adding plankton.

Does adding Phytoplankton or zooplankton degrade water quality?

in general, is there anything else i should consider feeding my soft corals other than phytoplankton or zooplankton? Ive heard of people adding tuna, clams, oysters, and other stuff. Anyone have any thoughts on this or any good recepies? There is one in my aquarium corals book, but i wanted your guys opinion as well.

What really seems to work for mushroom corals and xenias?

Lastly, what corals would you suggest that would be appropriate for a beginner? I dont mind anything that is fairly difficult, but what kind of coarls seem to spread well, are colorful and are not too hard to take care of?

Yes I am reading a coral book, but I wanted some opinions from here.

 

VERY FEW corals ingest phytoplankton. While live phyto can live for quite some time in a fridge (provided it's shaken every couple of days), I wouldn't buy phyto off of EBAY. Most home growers of the stuff don't own centrifuges and you don't want it if it hasn't been centrifuged.

Phyto is definately skimmed out and if it isn't, it definately hampers water quality. My nickname for it is "Phosphate in a bottle". Neither xenia nor mushrooms will eat it. Xenia and MOST mushrooms feed primarily off of photosynthesis and DOM (Dissolved Organic Matter) and to some degree off of bacterioplankton.

For beginners corals, I would suggest shrooms and zoanthids.

 

I agree with inwall. For sure xenia is totally photosynthetic and the shrooms wont really go for it. Phytoplankton is more of an sps coral food.