Biopellets as a source of bacterial food for corals?

[JDtimk]

I am wondering if employing a biopellet reactor to produce bacteria as a food source for acros or other corals for that matter has been tried by anyone? I came up with nothing on a search of that topic.

I was thinking of using my reactor which I abandoned as a nutrient management strategy along with my attempt to run a ULNS a few years ago.

My current tank volume is 210 gals and I normally run no filter sock and use a skimmer that is probably at capacity for the tank volume.
The idea would be to use just a teaspoon or two of pellets in the reactor in order to produce a population of bacteria as a food source. I would not really be trying to use the pellets as a primary nutrient reduction strategy.
I would run the output of the pellet reactor into the return pump instead of the skimmer inlet.
I am thinking that doing that would give the DT first dibs on any bacteria before the skimmer removed them from the water column.
Ultimately I would be hoping to provide a constant modest amount of bacteria as a source of food for the corals to feed at night.

Just a thought and wondered if anyone has tried this or has feedback for me to consider before attempting something like this.

 

[mcarroll]

If you're looking for something "extra" then I think you'd be a LOT better off feeding the tank @Reef Nutrition ROE or Ocean Nutrition's Instant Baby Brine Shrimp.

If your tank has fish in it, you're probably already doing PLENTY to feed the corals, so don't worry about it. Save or sell the reactor.

 

[JDtimk]

Good points mcarroll, and well taken, thanks.
Also was considering that if acros would benefit at all from the bacteria coming out of the reactor then one of the main benefits from my perspective is that it would be automated and basically free food that is not really adding any net gain in nutrients to the tank.
Maybe it would just be consolidating and making those nutrients available to corals at night while they are actively feeding on particles in the water column.
Again this is more of a question than even a hypothesis, so thank you for your feedback.

 

[mcarroll]

Folks have hypothesized about carbon dosing indirectly being a food source for corals before...I think it's part of the idea behind "shaking the stones" I've heard about in Zeovit systems.

But I suspect that there are equal or better chances of something malignant happening as something beneficial. There's no reason to assume a positive effect IMO. Replete carbon and nutrients + a random assortment of microbes = ???

Experience of others has shown what a problem carbon dosing can be in aquariums, so take a look at that side of the equation too.

This link might be of interest as it looks into the effects of foreign or excessive carbon on reefs: Global microbialization of coral reefs In reality it may be more accurate to say that aquariums withstand carbon dosing than to say they benefit from it.

This is why I say direct feeding or simply maintaining healthy well-fed fish is better.

In fact, if you're already feeding your fish, then coral feeding is an automatic by-product. Totally automatic coral feeding - solids AND dissolved nutrients!

 

[JDtimk]

I tend to agree with you about the well fed fish strategy of coral feeding and probably in reality a situation where the adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it" applies. I think it would be relative easy to tell if using pellets in the manner I proposed would begin to do any harm, but I think it would be very difficult to determine if they were actually doing any good and to what extent that strategy would be adding any benefit beyond my current feeding regimen and general ups and downs due to other husbandry issues.
I guess that is why I posted this here! Sometimes it helps to talk it out with other reefers.
Thanks again and happy reefing.