hutchinson
Member
I was reading about coral and anenimes need to eat pytoplankton. Does pytoplankton grown in ur tank??
Phytoplankton
- Thread starter hutchinson
- Start date
stanlalee
Active Member
many if not all corals eat phyto but you probably dont need to add much if any depending on what you are keeping. Most LPS that are going to be fed should be fed zooplankton or meaty. Many SPS and Leathers are phyto feeders. Between lighting and nutrients they take in thats already in the water you often dont have to feed corals. many LPS will grow alot quicker if fed meaty foods. Can mess up water quality very quickly adding phyto.
BTW why are you asking?
BTW why are you asking?
stanlalee
Active Member
Originally Posted by deeze
Is it correct to say that a UV sterilizer will kill off Phytoplankton?
yes if used properly edit: any phyto that passes thru it.
Here's a chart (from those famous Drs. catalog) of what kind of wattage and flow are neccessary (assuming bulb is fairly new and sleeve clean):
parasites:
8W ineffective
15w flow rate 75gph
18w 100gph
25w 150gph
30w 175gph
40w 300gph
65w 570gph
algae/bacteria:
8w flow rate 120gph
15w 230gph
18w 300gph
25w 475gph
30w 525gph
40w 940gph
65w 1700gph
as you can see running one inline with a typical tanks 600gph return system wont even be effective for algae unless its a 30 watt plus UV unit much less for parasites control. an 18W UV will work on a small tank like mine with a 300gph drain and return for algae control.
For most people that means a 36W sterilizer for algae control or looping a seperate small powerhead or mini pump thru it for parasite control
sharkbait9
Active Member
uv will not kill all phyto in your tank, it will kill some but not all.