Continuous phytoplankton|rotifers reactor 24h food supply

sixty_reefer

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Hi guys this is a little project I’ve been working on for a few months and now looking for your views on this subject.

It all started with me getting a few non photosynthetic corals (gorgonians) and got me thinking in a way we’re I could give them a constant supply of food.

The project started by developing a continuous reactor of phyto to the tank, the reactor has been working now for 7 months without crashing so good news there. Started initially whith 1ml per hour and now am at 6ml per hour.

Step 2

Removed all the mechanical filtration from the tank so that the food isn’t removed from the water

Step 3

Added a starter colony of rotifers to the tank


The rotifers colony has been regenerating it self since week one, so plenty of food there the pytho culture the same just top up water and miraclegrow once a week. Since den I’ve noticed an explosion on my feather dusters growt the gorgonians open most day SPS got a good PE most of the day and the copepod numbers are crazy.

Now could this be a good way to keep more non photosynthetic corals in hobby aquaria I’d like to see some of your views on this thanks.


My aim is to share my experience on here to, the first 7months of the experience is here Continuous phytoplankton|rotifers Method
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?sh...plankton|rotifers-Method.834542/&share_type=t do apologise but is to many info to copy on here

Currently struggling a bit with low no3 I’ve increased 6 chromis to try and resolve this, there’s 18 fish in the tank now 3 off them are quite large fish

Advantages I’ve seen

No need for a protein skimmer I’ve switched of mine at month 4

Less glass cleaning

Effective at preventing dinos and cyano by outcopeting this species

Increase in pod life

Crazy polyp extension

992519e606356b8b01e8470fe112ad5d.jpg


Has anyone seen a stylocoeniella like this before?

I’ve noticed many more but will keep that for future updates
 
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sixty_reefer

sixty_reefer

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Thanks guys it’s only a young project that is showing to have a lot of potential, maybe with the help of reef2reef we could transform this in to a method of reefing, the advantages are endless wend you use such a inexpensive ingredient on a continuous mode, but I feel that my knowledge is limited as a hobbyist and will need every ones help to carry on.

In my 300l system I’ve stopped carbon dosing completely, 18 fish now and still struggling to raise no3 from nearly 0.

No protein skimmer

A chance to maybe be able to keep some nps corals like carnations corals and non photosynthetic gorgonians.

Probably the 3 more important things I’ve noticed so far.

There is loads more

But as I mentioned I can’t do it alone.
 

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Thanks guys it’s only a young project that is showing to have a lot of potential, maybe with the help of reef2reef we could transform this in to a method of reefing, the advantages are endless wend you use such a inexpensive ingredient on a continuous mode, but I feel that my knowledge is limited as a hobbyist and will need every ones help to carry on.

In my 300l system I’ve stopped carbon dosing completely, 18 fish now and still struggling to raise no3 from nearly 0.

No protein skimmer

A chance to maybe be able to keep some nps corals like carnations corals and non photosynthetic gorgonians.

Probably the 3 more important things I’ve noticed so far.

There is loads more

But as I mentioned I can’t do it alone.


You are doing fine alone. Just continue documenting your progress. Your photography is excellent. Continue on in that manner.

I have run such high nutrient systems that the dispay tank had a phytoplankton bloom.

You should watch BRS TV series on 160G SPS dominate tank with 25G algae refugium and see how much food is put into a reef tank with a mature biofilter.

I also have those NPS as well as sea apple & flame scallops. Feed your tank and it will grow. Yes, add more food to your display tank. Bacteria feeding on fish & plant protein will produce amino acids to assist coral growth and provide the coral colors you witness in your tank.
 
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sixty_reefer

sixty_reefer

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@sixty_reefer

Outstanding, you are approaching Nirvana.

Is makeup water to phytoplankton culture added manually? Do you add nutrients to makeup water?

5a575343efd7d80d3b7002608b4fd287.jpg


This is a quick diagram of the continuous reactors (in my case water bottles)

Am using two channels on the doser to automate the system, one deliveres 6ml of salt mix at 1.015 to the first reactor and the second channel pulls 5ml of phyto to the rotifers reactor and then the tank gets dosed by overspill. Does it make sense? This is happening every 60 minutes 24 hours a day. The rotifers reactor only been on for 1 or 2 months as an improvement from CRF a British reefer that gave me the idea as I was only dosing phytoplankton before and every now and den add a bag of rotifers in hope that they multiply in the main tank. That was alright but not as effective as having the continuous culture in a reactor as it is now.

As nutrient I add every 7 days 2ml of miracle grow to the phytoplankton culture. It seems to work well
 

Subsea

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Because I am a simple man and smart enough to mimics success, I will implement what you’ve done.

But I don’t want to automate with equipment that cost money. Instead, I will drip manually and add fertilized makeup water manually each day. I am retired and have that time. Also, I have well over twenty differrent tanks.
 
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sixty_reefer

sixty_reefer

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Because I am a simple man and smart enough to mimics success, I will implement what you’ve done.

But I don’t want to automate with equipment that cost money. Instead, I will drip manually and add fertilized makeup water manually each day. I am retired and have that time. Also, I have well over twenty differrent tanks.

Wow 20 tanks! Now that’s a goal for me unfortunately on my current property I only have space for this little 60g [emoji23] in my case I had to automate it, as my goal was to keep the basic food supply available 24/7, there was no way on hearth I could do this manually.
 

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Wow 20 tanks! Now that’s a goal for me unfortunately on my current property I only have space for this little 60g [emoji23] in my case I had to automate it, as my goal was to keep the basic food supply available 24/7, there was no way on hearth I could do this manually.


@Jomama
Do you have a link to a night dive video with swarms of zooplankton that show where NPS live and how they feed.
 
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