100% Live Food

[mcvicker]

Hello,
I have been looking at raising phyto/rotifers, refugium designs, etc... Does anyone out there feed their tank 100% live food raised either in the tank, bio reactor, or refugium? Can you explain what you do? For some reason this has really grabbed my attention/intrigue and I spent a little time looking at the phyto/rotifers and then brine shrimp strategy. But these don't seem that healthy for the fish, so a large refugium for copepods makes sense. But then how do you get the copepods from the refugium to the tank? Plumb them together, shake the cheato over the tank, net them and transfer. Plus how do you start the cycle? Do you feed the refugium but not the tank? I am just interested if there is anyone out there doing this and how.
-chris

 

[dnjan]

That is essentially how I feed my tank. I have a fairly high nutrient tank (on the verge of, or experiencing some nuisance algae), underskim (older RedSea Berlin skimmer on a 100-gallon tank), and have a small bioload.

As long as pod production and agae meets food demand for the fish, it works. In the past 12 months I have added food to my tank approximately 6 times (mostly to gradually get the frozen food out of the freezer).

Start by reducing your feeding. Watch your fish to see if they are getting thin.

Note - I would not recommend trying this unless you have a mature tank with an established sandbed, as well as a small fish load.

 

[DonW]

This is the goal with my new tank. I'm 99% percent live feed now. Creating a food chain is not hard but you really have to concentrate on what you feed each step in the chain. Starting with phyto, there is three types that should be fed. Then there are pods, they need brown phyto the green goes right through them. The rotifers use the green algae and the roti's can be fed to the brine. Right now I'm doing nano, Iso, brine, pods and roti's.

 

[mcvicker]

Okay cool. My tank is about 2 and a half years old so it is mature but my pod population is now quite low. I went about six months with no skimmer and I saw my pod population fall off which is odd, my glass/tank required less cleaning, but macro algae cropped up. Now I have been skimming for a couple weeks and I have to clean my glass way more often and the macro algae is going away.

My current plan is to set up a cascading tank that goes phyto into rotifer, into Cheato/Pods, into the tank. I was thinking of modifying a hang on back fuge for this with the feed pump on a on/off schedule. My feeding would be essentially "miracle grow" type product for the phyto nutrients. Would it make more sense to just have brown phyto to pods to tank for the cascade? Or have a mix green/brown to a mix rotifer/pod to the tank set up?
-chris

 

[mcvicker]

Out of curiousity do you plan on doing water changes/protein skimming with this strategy? I understand completing the food chain so the nutrients in the tank just go around and around, however if you remove some nutrients (skimming/water change) then you have to add something back right?
-chris

 

[DonW]

Everything has to be cultured seperatly but can be fed in sort of a soup. Slow feeding will require a aerated slow feeding system.
This is the feed or type of feed I was refering to. Air goes in the bottom and an aqualifter pumps in tank water real slow. You can also add thing like cyclopese and other fine food 24/7.

Don

 

[class clown]

Everything has to be cultured seperatly but can be fed in sort of a soup. Slow feeding will require a aerated slow feeding system.
This is the feed or type of feed I was refering to. Air goes in the bottom and an aqualifter pumps in tank water real slow. You can also add thing like cyclopese and other fine food 24/7.

Don

Don - who makes the product you have pictured there?