Feeding SPS?

[wade2185]

OK, I have never really bought into the whole idea of feeding SPS food. I have heard people feeding Cyclopseze, Golden Pearls, etc. Do you ZEOheads feed your SPS or is the ZEOvit system feeding the SPS? The reason I ask is because I went to a LFS today and they were raving about these new Oyster eggs. They said that they are alot smaller than other foods and because of that they were ideal for SPS. Any thoughts?

[nyfireman3097]

from what i gather the Zeo does it for us feeding them will only cause nore nutrients in the tank
Nick

[Diesel3443]

No extra food here the mulm will feed the coral

[mesocosm]

Greetings All !

Do you ZEOheads feed your SPS or is the ZEOvit system feeding the SPS?

Generally no, and yes. The ZEOvit system is, in part at least, a "microplankton/bacterioplankton" generator. The bacteria and "mulm" central to the ZEOvit system appear to serve as a non-photosynthetic nutrient source for our corals.

Any thoughts?

Consider ...

During the day on a natural reef, it appears that virtually no moderately large zooplankter would reach the coral on the reef's face. Nonetheless, this area would be bathed in a diffuse rain of particulate organic material derived from fish feces, dissolved material and microzooplankton. Much of this is generated in the habitat immediately adjacent to the reef by the action of the planktivorous fishes, ... (Alldredge, 1972), but it has other components as well (Alldredge and Silver 1988).

Extracted from:
Feeding the Reef Aquarium, A New Paradigm. By Dr. Ron Shimek (2002-2003).
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-0...ture/index.htm

It seems to me that the "mulm" and bacteria (... and other associated, but undocumented micro-beasties ... like ciliates ...) associated with the ZEOvit system fall ... at least generally ... into the categories of "particulate organic material" and "microzooplankton", respectively.

Also ...

Particulate organic material is found in all natural sea water and is common in our aquarium waters as well. Often the particles are so small that they are not visible to the unaided eye. Such particles are small blobs of organic material, and they are covered with bacteria which are digesting them. Other such particles may simply be bacterial in origin. Bacteria are a very good source of useable nitrogen, as the bacterial cells have a higher ratio of nitrogen to carbon than do either plant or animal cells. The particles forming particulate organic material are often very small and most bacterioplankton are even smaller, so a couple of questions need to be asked. First, do corals actively feed on this material, and second is there enough of it in the normal water flowing over a reef to actually provide much nutrition on the reef. The answer to both questions is a resounding, "Yes."

Extracted From:
Feeding Begets Food, 1, or… Food Production By Design, How A Deep Sand Bed Can Produce Food For Reef Inhabitants. By Dr. Ron Shimek
http://www.dtplankton.com/sandbeds.htm

The processes and biochemical pathways which provide essential non-photosynthetic nutrition to our corals are currently poorly understood ... at best. And yet, something beyond photosynthesis is clearly going on ... particularly within the context of ZEOvit methodology.

Two thoughts, FWIW ...

First, the term "low nutrient", when applied to natural seawater, is IMO, somewhat misleading ... but not in terms of chemistry. NSW is essentially devoid of nitrogen-based "nutrients", such as NH3/NH4, NO2, NO3 ... etc ... and is therefore chemically "low nutrient." And yet NSW contains ... dependent on region (latitude) and season ... upwards to tens of thousands of cellular organisms (... microzooplankton and bacterioplankton - collectively termed "microplankton" ...) per ml. This is hardly a biologically "low nutrient" environment. Reef habitats are not nutritional deserts, regardless of water chemistry.

Second, the presence of such a large pool of nutrient cellular organisms has at least the potential to form the base of a very productive food pyramid/web. Any particulate organic matter that is introduced into the base of such a web ... cyclopeeze, golden pearls, oyster eggs ... has the potential to generate increased productivity throughout the web. While it currently remains arguable whether or not corals derive direct nutritional benefits from such supplements, I would find that the discovery that such supplements indirectly feed corals ... by boosting the population/availability of bacterioplankton which do directly "feed" corals ... to be hardly surprising. It is perhaps worth mentioning that there are more credentialed folks than myself in other cyber-spaces who apparently would be surprised by this ... take it for what it's worth.

Having said that, the accumulation of particulate organic matter ... cyclopeeze, golden pearls, oyster eggs ... is problematic within ZEOvit methodology. The introduction of a supplemental food nitrogen reservoir ... with its potential associated phosphate reservoir ... doesn't seem to me to be all that good of an idea within the context of the ZEOvit system.

Now if we're talking about the supplementation of live phytoplankton, live rotifers, and live copepod populations ... in small amounts and monitored closely in terms of system performance ... well ... that, it seems to me, is an entirely different kettle of micro-beasties ...

... Then again, I am a ZEOHeretic, after all ...

JMO ... HTH.

[nyfireman3097]

awesome post bro very very informative
Nick

[wade2185]

Mesocosm - Very informative indeed. Your comments really made me think. That is what I was looking for. Thank you.

[mesocosm]

Just smoking AAHC and sipping cigarettes ...

[nyfireman3097]

Weird thing is i beleive u lol
Nick

[Orion76]

Great post Gary.

Wade, many people maintain very successful SPS tanks without intentionally feeding the corals but personally I think they do benefit from some extra food. I think if you are going to feed them then live rotifers are the way to go. They are the right size, are very nutritious and are easy to breed in large quantities.