Reef By Steele
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DO ROTIFERS EAT CYANO?
Recently I was asked by an R2R community member for information on rotifers which you can see here.
www.reef2reef.com
I first started culturing rotifers to try to raise Clown Fry. This was actually the inception point of @Reef By Steele only we didn't know it at the time. As with any endeavor I start by doing research, but at the time I only researched how to culture and about feeding them to fry. After the clown fry outgrew rotifers and moved to BBS (Baby Brine Shrimp) I wondered if it was worth the work to keep the culture running as it has to be harvested and cleaned daily. I reached out to my #1 source in a post under my original R2R nomenclature @HankstankXXL750, and received advice that rotifers benefit corals Softies, LPS and even SPS. I continued to culture and would dose to my tanks. when asked to compose a thread on the benefits of Rotifers, I had to go back to the basics and do more research, as I will never post anything that I do not know as a fact, unless I state IMO or state I am not certain. During this research I discovered that there are studies suggesting rotifers prefer cyanobacteria to all other algae sources in freshwater. I posed the question on the above thread, and no one came forward with a solid answer, but doing an experiment was discussed, and I stated that we would experiment with rotifers and Cyano.
As a disclaimer, yes this tank is terribly infected with cyano, and that really upsets @Ocean_Queenie as this is the home of the two Clown Fry we were able to raise from our first try. They still reside in this 20 with an sponge filter, as Sherry decides on a tank size, as she wants these two for that, and by never moving them we know they are disease and parasite free. We clean the tank and do water changes but the Cyano returns rapidly. I put them under the scope to verify Cyano before we start.
Our experiment begins today. We will first siphon and complete a 50% water change. Then we will add 1 gallon of freshly harvested rotifers. We will leave the filtration, and feeding schedule the same as it has been running and make no other changes. We will take new pictures and update on as regular of a schedule as we can. At the end we will come back and make a statement about our observations and whether we believe that the rotifers made an impact or not.
Please follow along on our journey.
Thanks
Kent and Sherry
Recently I was asked by an R2R community member for information on rotifers which you can see here.
Are rotifers just for feeding fry?
An R2R community member reached out to me and asked if i could do a thread about the benefits of adding rotifers to a reef tank. So I did some additional research to add to my own knowledge and experience. Please offer any experiences or additions that you have experienced in your own systems...
www.reef2reef.com
I first started culturing rotifers to try to raise Clown Fry. This was actually the inception point of @Reef By Steele only we didn't know it at the time. As with any endeavor I start by doing research, but at the time I only researched how to culture and about feeding them to fry. After the clown fry outgrew rotifers and moved to BBS (Baby Brine Shrimp) I wondered if it was worth the work to keep the culture running as it has to be harvested and cleaned daily. I reached out to my #1 source in a post under my original R2R nomenclature @HankstankXXL750, and received advice that rotifers benefit corals Softies, LPS and even SPS. I continued to culture and would dose to my tanks. when asked to compose a thread on the benefits of Rotifers, I had to go back to the basics and do more research, as I will never post anything that I do not know as a fact, unless I state IMO or state I am not certain. During this research I discovered that there are studies suggesting rotifers prefer cyanobacteria to all other algae sources in freshwater. I posed the question on the above thread, and no one came forward with a solid answer, but doing an experiment was discussed, and I stated that we would experiment with rotifers and Cyano.
As a disclaimer, yes this tank is terribly infected with cyano, and that really upsets @Ocean_Queenie as this is the home of the two Clown Fry we were able to raise from our first try. They still reside in this 20 with an sponge filter, as Sherry decides on a tank size, as she wants these two for that, and by never moving them we know they are disease and parasite free. We clean the tank and do water changes but the Cyano returns rapidly. I put them under the scope to verify Cyano before we start.
Our experiment begins today. We will first siphon and complete a 50% water change. Then we will add 1 gallon of freshly harvested rotifers. We will leave the filtration, and feeding schedule the same as it has been running and make no other changes. We will take new pictures and update on as regular of a schedule as we can. At the end we will come back and make a statement about our observations and whether we believe that the rotifers made an impact or not.
Please follow along on our journey.
Thanks
Kent and Sherry
