Liquid Life

meadbhb

meadbhb

Member
Hiya,
I was going to start feeding my tank due to the number of inverts I had/have in the tank, so I went to see what my local LFS offered. Does anyone use the liquid life line? They've got one for marine plankton which is MADE with Cyclop-eeze (is this the same stuff as Cyclop-eeze), Bio plankton and coral plankton.
Any thoughts, comments on these products?
Meadbhb
 
dskidmore

dskidmore

Active Member
I'd assume anything that comes in a bottle has dead plankton rather than live. Dead plankton have to be eaten right away or they will foul your tank. This could work ok if you're spot feeding specific invertabrates. If you can afford it, I'd rather go with either live cultures from the refridgerator case, or mail order. There are even saltwater rotifer eggs that you can purchace to hatch similar to brine shrimp eggs. (Not recomended as sole food, a variety of species of plankton/algaes is the best diet for filter feeders.)
 
duke13

duke13

Member
To be honest, you really don't need to add plankton because most of your inverts won't filter feed that much. You can choose to add plankton but make sure it's refridgerated kind, not the dead stuff on the shelf. Either way, watch out for your phosphate levels when using bottled phytoplankton.
I think your inverts will be fine with the amount food that falls to the sand when you feed your fish. Plankton probably won't be necessary unless you have a sponge or feather duster.
 
D

daniel411

Guest
Their are some exciting products coming out. I've seen them around and have heard people switching from DT's phytoplankton to them.
Its quite questionable that you "need" to add any of them. You can be quite successful without, relying on nature to take its course in a thriving reef. Of course a few species, as mentioned with the sponges and feather dusters may need additional supplements to thrive.
Becareful though as its very easy to overdose with supplements like those. You really could start algae blooms and a host of other problems. As for the phosphate warning that was mentioned above, you can't add phytoplankton while useing phosphate removers or atleast without them conflicting.
 
meadbhb

meadbhb

Member
Hiya,
Forgot to mention these products are either frozen liquids or in the fridge, so they should be live cultures.
I do have sponges, coco worms, tube worms, carrabian 'rooms and feather dusters. All of this stuff came in on my live rock, I haven't bought any corals yet. I haven't added any fish to the tank yet either, so I'm not feeding right now. Which is why I thought I needed to start adding some planktonic foods.
Which of the three would you suggest.
Meadbhb
 
dskidmore

dskidmore

Active Member
I'm not the expert, any of the live cultures sound good for a short-term solution. For long term, you may want to add on a refugium to produce your own pods.
 
duke13

duke13

Member

Originally posted by Meadbhb
Which of the three would you suggest.

I've used DT plankton in the past, good stuff. Can't say I've used any other brand. I can't imagine they can be that different from each other though.
 
meadbhb

meadbhb

Member
Hiya,
No...not even above. Unless there is some way to convert my bio wheel box into a fuge.
As far as I can tell, DT isn't sold in this area. Since I've heard so many good things about the cyclo-pleeze I though this would be a good product. However, it's made with cyclo-pleeze, so I'm wondering if it's the same stuff.
Meadbhb
 
spline9

spline9

Member
Yes, LiquidLife MarinePlankton uses real Argent Chemical Laboratories Cyclop-eeze. I believe the bottle label even uses the registered logo.
 
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