[rsman]

Sorry for the mix up Im not trying to culture pyhto in a mixed culture Im thinking about having a multiple zooplanton culture system. aha well thatll work fine then, you just need to screen the overflows so that nothing good goes down them.

As most of you already know brime shrimp need good oxygen concentration to grow. uuh, brine shrimp dont need good anything to grow, including oxygen, there is 2 low numbers one where they change what they eat and how fast they breed its around 3ppm and one where they croak around 1ppm

How fast will a skimmer remove phyto, does anybody really know the answer to that question. the only problem with the answer is really a problem with the quesiton, look at the protein skimmers available commercially, are you really comparing an euro-reef with a seaclone??? also look at the flow rate vs volume if it takes 20 minutes for a single phyto cell to make its way to the skimmer to be removed, there is a good chance that a copepod or something might find it and eat it. and once that happens then its chances of being pulled are lower.

Can you give some kind of study link or reference. search around the DR Ron forum there is one in there

Everybodyusing DT's is just pouring money down the drain if its that true. no it gets back to that volume thing, and the amount of DT's thing, they are pouring some money down yea, but how much, and at what benefit if its not eaten eventually itll settle and decompose, decomposing in the skimmer collection cup provides no nutrient excess to the tank, decomposing in the tank does.

Copepods don't eat just one thing they also eat diatoms and dirt maybe even bacteria. my empty head isnt seeing anything that says they only eat one thing so if im not following that part point it out. but more or less diatoms are algae, i dont know of any copepod that eats dirt. bacteria consumption is secondary to algae.