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DNA · 07/11/2015, 02:34 AM

Since we are leaning towards rich and diverse plankton as a way towards getting our tanks back on track let's discuss it further.

Algae killing products seem to open the door for dinos. Are they taking all the food away from the good plankton or simply killing the plankton in the process?

For best success with achieving a high population of "pods" is, an ample food source, (detritus, algae decay, plankton, micro-algae, diatoms, etc....), places to hide from predators and good water quality should be your goals.
http://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/pods

Ample food source.
Looking at the amount of the dark brown/green stuff in my skimmer that collects there every day and the never ending gunk that gets blasted from my rocks and vacuumed from my sand I'd think there is plenty of food for pods, but is it the right kind?

Detritus as fish poo is at the same amount every day as go into the tank as fish food and it exits the fish with much of the nutrients intact.

Free floating algae decay is picked up by the skimmer very fast, but plenty of it will get picked up by the rocks and sand as well.
I do have living micro algae on my rocks visible with magnification.

Plankton is our missing ingredient as a food source for other plankton.

We have some diatoms, but it seems like the dinos always have the upper hand and a it seems like a diatom bloom can never push the dinos out as they can in the ocean.

Places to hide we have as rocks, sandbeds, balls of algae, refugiums etc.

Good water quality is another missing ingredient as the water is dominated with toxic dinos that are certain to compete for food, spots to live in and interfere with reproduction, food sources etc.

We should all shift our forces from the futile dino killings to ways to aid plankton to settle in and see where that leads us. It seems to be working to some extent for some of us already.

---

My tank has some pods, but they are sparse and there are no amphipods, stars, bristleworms, small snails or featherdusters to name a few. I restarted my tank with dry rock, so it started out the wrong way for plankton.
The 20Kg of live rock I added to my sump a year ago did the trick for a short time, but not in the long run.
There are no plankton products available here and they are next to impossible to import because of customs.

07/11/2015, 02:34 AM	#1237
DNA Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Iceland Posts: 1,516	Since we are leaning towards rich and diverse plankton as a way towards getting our tanks back on track let's discuss it further. Algae killing products seem to open the door for dinos. Are they taking all the food away from the good plankton or simply killing the plankton in the process? For best success with achieving a high population of "pods" is, an ample food source, (detritus, algae decay, plankton, micro-algae, diatoms, etc....), places to hide from predators and good water quality should be your goals. http://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/pods Ample food source. Looking at the amount of the dark brown/green stuff in my skimmer that collects there every day and the never ending gunk that gets blasted from my rocks and vacuumed from my sand I'd think there is plenty of food for pods, but is it the right kind? Detritus as fish poo is at the same amount every day as go into the tank as fish food and it exits the fish with much of the nutrients intact. Free floating algae decay is picked up by the skimmer very fast, but plenty of it will get picked up by the rocks and sand as well. I do have living micro algae on my rocks visible with magnification. Plankton is our missing ingredient as a food source for other plankton. We have some diatoms, but it seems like the dinos always have the upper hand and a it seems like a diatom bloom can never push the dinos out as they can in the ocean. Places to hide we have as rocks, sandbeds, balls of algae, refugiums etc. Good water quality is another missing ingredient as the water is dominated with toxic dinos that are certain to compete for food, spots to live in and interfere with reproduction, food sources etc. We should all shift our forces from the futile dino killings to ways to aid plankton to settle in and see where that leads us. It seems to be working to some extent for some of us already. --- My tank has some pods, but they are sparse and there are no amphipods, stars, bristleworms, small snails or featherdusters to name a few. I restarted my tank with dry rock, so it started out the wrong way for plankton. The 20Kg of live rock I added to my sump a year ago did the trick for a short time, but not in the long run. There are no plankton products available here and they are next to impossible to import because of customs.