RockBox13
Active Member
Being successful with starfish in the long term like a Fromia or Linckia for me and customers I have proof of success with has a lot to do with maintaining a steady pH the 8.2-8.4 range. A pH at 8.1 that swings down to 7.9 is not going to keep a starfish alive very long. That’s where I have seen them melt in people’s tanks most often and it usually happens very soon after they are introduced.
Except for my first tank, I have always included an area for macroalgae and a cryptic zone with live rock. The constant darkness encourages the growth of sponges, tunicates and formaniferans, bristleworms, brittle stars, bacterial films, etc. This cryptic area means that you can have a supply of live rock that has developed sponges and bacterial films that you can put into your display to feed a Linckia or Fromia, or put the star directly into the cryptic zone itself. The sponges in the cryptic zone will continue to be a source of sponge to colonize the display wherever possible.The Macroalgae refugium should be constantly pumping out pods and mysis and their eggs. If you’ve ever seen stomatella snails or those small brittle starfish spawning in your tank, that’s live zooplankton going everywhere, feed a bit more phytoplankton and you’ve got pods everywhere. If you have very good water quality you will get blooms of mysis shrimp hatched from eggs with your frozen mysis. Clean up crew like peppermint shrimp, hermit crabs, and your other snails can all be spawning. Red Banded Trochus can really get going with the spawn and then there go the brittle stars again. How much do you think SPS love all that live natural food? The more you provide the proper amount of that first link in the food chain which is phytoplankton, the more natural and diverse zooplankton and those pods essential for you Def Leppard Wrasse lovers like me. Almost any kind intended for aquarium use or you could source food grade phytoplankton. AquaVitro Fuel is a great all around reef supplement to me. Phytoplankton (Chlorella), carbohydrate, vitamin, amino acid, polyunsaturated fatty acid, and Vitamin C. Add some Lugol’s or other iodine supplement and you have a lot of bases covered and nice food web growing. Nutramar Ova was great food for everything, I wish it were still available. If you can get frozen lobster eggs or unsalted smelt roe (masago), or flying fish roe (tobiko), like from your sushi menu, they have a higher nutritional value, fat content, vitamin B12 and calcium. Cyclopeeze is great food and has a high level of carotenoids like astaxanthin that can noticeably add color to fish and corals.
You can chase Nitrate and Phosphate ratios or low alk, low pH and whatever else in search of a more colorful, healthy and resilient reef tank, but nothing that contributes to your “microbiome” which I hate hearing that BRS Clown say in his ridiculous videos. Anyhoo, yeah nothing in your tank that contributes to a more diverse and abundant amount of natural zooplankton for your SPS, amphipods, copepods and mysis for fish and coral, filter feeders and sponge eats Nitrate and Phosphate.
Except for my first tank, I have always included an area for macroalgae and a cryptic zone with live rock. The constant darkness encourages the growth of sponges, tunicates and formaniferans, bristleworms, brittle stars, bacterial films, etc. This cryptic area means that you can have a supply of live rock that has developed sponges and bacterial films that you can put into your display to feed a Linckia or Fromia, or put the star directly into the cryptic zone itself. The sponges in the cryptic zone will continue to be a source of sponge to colonize the display wherever possible.The Macroalgae refugium should be constantly pumping out pods and mysis and their eggs. If you’ve ever seen stomatella snails or those small brittle starfish spawning in your tank, that’s live zooplankton going everywhere, feed a bit more phytoplankton and you’ve got pods everywhere. If you have very good water quality you will get blooms of mysis shrimp hatched from eggs with your frozen mysis. Clean up crew like peppermint shrimp, hermit crabs, and your other snails can all be spawning. Red Banded Trochus can really get going with the spawn and then there go the brittle stars again. How much do you think SPS love all that live natural food? The more you provide the proper amount of that first link in the food chain which is phytoplankton, the more natural and diverse zooplankton and those pods essential for you Def Leppard Wrasse lovers like me. Almost any kind intended for aquarium use or you could source food grade phytoplankton. AquaVitro Fuel is a great all around reef supplement to me. Phytoplankton (Chlorella), carbohydrate, vitamin, amino acid, polyunsaturated fatty acid, and Vitamin C. Add some Lugol’s or other iodine supplement and you have a lot of bases covered and nice food web growing. Nutramar Ova was great food for everything, I wish it were still available. If you can get frozen lobster eggs or unsalted smelt roe (masago), or flying fish roe (tobiko), like from your sushi menu, they have a higher nutritional value, fat content, vitamin B12 and calcium. Cyclopeeze is great food and has a high level of carotenoids like astaxanthin that can noticeably add color to fish and corals.
You can chase Nitrate and Phosphate ratios or low alk, low pH and whatever else in search of a more colorful, healthy and resilient reef tank, but nothing that contributes to your “microbiome” which I hate hearing that BRS Clown say in his ridiculous videos. Anyhoo, yeah nothing in your tank that contributes to a more diverse and abundant amount of natural zooplankton for your SPS, amphipods, copepods and mysis for fish and coral, filter feeders and sponge eats Nitrate and Phosphate.
