Marine Snow and your Zoas

[Fishindude88]

I used to use Marine Snow as part of my feeding regiment in my tank. Everything seemed to benefit from it (excluding the stubborn ones that don't eat) and I attributed good growth rates to using it (although I never kept count).
I read that Marine Snow was bad to use so I stopped using it, shortly after I started keeping count of my weekly growth rates. Although I have no evidence of slower growth, I think I had better, healthier, zoos/palys while using Marine Snow. Why not use it? What are the negative effects of using Marine Snow?

[Pufferpunk]

Total junk--most silacate. Don't use it, get your $$$ back. Use DT's Phytoplankton & oyster eggs if you want to suppliment your feedings. Also Cyclopese (sp?) & Coral Frenzy.

[ronert]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14401528#post14401528 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pufferpunk
Use DT's Phytoplankton & oyster eggs if you want to suppliment your feedings.

I use this and have great growth.

[Fishindude88]

Okay. I am currently using Kent Marine Chroma Max or Zoo Max (the concentrated formula) with Roti-Feast and a Vit C suplement. Is this good or are oyster eggs better?

[Pufferpunk]

They all add a little something different to the mix of food. I like to mix it up. Rod's Food is the best, if you can find it.

Dosing your tank with vitamin C will offer you much more benefits than just adding a VC suppliment ot their food, as zoas really don't seem to eat much per se.

[Gfsrepairs]

I like the coral frenzy, seems like the whole tank gets active with it.

[tmantaylor18]

DT's phyto is dead,smelly, plankton. I recommend using something a little more fresh like a blended mix of fish,shrimp, oysters, ect. For zoas you will want to use the juice and tiny particles more than anything.

[Fishindude88]

Cool, I will have to pick up some new products. Thanks!

[Pufferpunk]

The owner if DT's did a lecture at our reef club meeting & it is not dead at all. The most longest-lived plankton on the market, if kept refrigerated & shaken weekly. There is a "use by" date on it.

[DTagrin]

I am the owner of DT's Plankton Farm and am posting this, which is from the storage/odor/shelf life page of my website under DT's Live Marine Phytoplankton;
Odor:

DT’s Live Marine Phytoplankton does have a noticeable odor and it is normal that the odor is sulfurous. This is due to the fact that a type of sulfide, dimethylsulfide is produced by some phytoplankton and is associated with cryoprotection.

Sulfides produced by living phytoplankton: A small amount of sulfides are produced by phytoplankton that is always in the product. Sulfides are very volatile and they come out of solution and build up in the air within the bottle even at low temperatures. If the phytoplankton is kept at a temperature in the 40’s instead of the 30’s it will have more odor. If it warms up for even a short time, say during shipping, it will have more odor.

We had our product tested throughout its shelf life and beyond. The levels found were very low ranging from 17 to 20 ppm (ppm = parts per million). These levels are very low and were also very consistent from just packaged phytoplankton through phytoplankton that was more than 5 months old (beyond the shelf life). People are extremely sensitive to sulfides, which are detected at the very low levels of 0.5 ppb (parts per billion).

A bottle of DT’s Live Marine Phytoplankton may have a strong odor because dimethylsulfide builds up in the air that has been trapped in the bottle.

The odor from the phytoplankton is most noticeable in the air that is trapped in the bottle, and it builds up over time. That is why a half empty bottle smells more than a full bottle, and a large bottle smells more than a small bottle. While odor intensity is almost impossible to describe; it is normal for the odor of sulfides to be strong, particularly in DT’s that has been in storage for a while.

There is also a peer-reviewed research article concerning the quality of phytoplankton products in the aquarium trade that you should read if you are concerned about quality.
http://somas.stonybrook.edu/~MADL/pubspdf/Emma-clamgrowth.pdf

[Pufferpunk]

Cool Dennis, I didn't know you were watching this. Did I explain about Marine Snow correctly? I remember throwing out my 3/4 full bottle after getting home from your lecture.

[DTagrin]

Actually, the analysis of marine snow showed that it contained crystals of acid-treated cellulose that is used as a thickener in many food and pharmaceutical products.

[Fishindude88]

So the final verdict on Marine Snow is do not use it? What does the acid-treated cellulose do to my tank?

[Pufferpunk]

NIMFT!!!

[RedEyeElf]

Dennis for the win, Dennis came out here and gave a VERY informative lecture to our reef club too SDMAS

I'm feeding H20lifes, mini mysis cubes, H20's Brine, mysis, spirulina mix cube, soaked in DT's Live phyto, with some DT's oyster eggs in the mix. soak for 30 minutes, and target feed my colony's. Colony's are exploding in growth since I started this regiment. This is all that gets fed to the tank, the fish eat whatever blows off corals

[Fishindude88]

Wow, that is a lot of stuff. How about rotifer eggs?

[Canarygirl]

Who is the manufacturer of the Marine Snow product discussed in this thread? I just bought a bottle of a Brightwell Aquatics product with "Snow" in the title. (Wondering if it is the not-useful one discussed in this thread.)

[stoneroller]

Two Little Fishies