Carbon and DT Phyto dosing

[ufcd98]

History: setup 10gal tank 8/16/03. Stupidly listened to LFS and put 2 black percula clowns in it immediately, which died 2 weeks later with white patches/spots all over them.
8/27/03 put in live rock with an open brain coral on it, which appeared to be near death. Water changes every other week of 2 gallons and feeding 1/4 cube of Hikari Blood worms for the two shrimp have been the ONLY things i've put in there until today.
9/19/03 put in yellowish polyps and hairy mushrooms

Since the open brain has made a miraculous (for a slacker like me) comeback during the cycling, i figure i oughta actually feed it. so i bought DT phytoplankton from LFS.

Question1: Should I remove the carbon/floss Eclipse 10 filter when feeding the DT phyto, and if so, for how long? what about the "bio-wheel"

Question2: What's the name of the yellow polyp things?

Question3: What should i feed the shrimp aside from blood worms?

I plan on trying another fish 10/16/03 (2 months post-mortem for the clowns).

Thanks all, this board is super good,
steve
http://luke.schroeterclan.com and go to the fishtank page for more pics

 

[Anonymous]

Steve,
Have you checked out our New Reefkeeper's Forum? That would probably be a good place to look around and read up on tanks.

As for the DTs, some people use them, some don't. That part's up to you. What I can tell you for sure, though, is that they are useless to your open brain. It just doesn't have the ability to catch it. Much easier on you and your tank to feed a small piece of shrimp or shellfish to the brain right after lights out when the feeding tentacles come out.

The yellow polyps don't have a scientific name....yet. Some sources list them as Protopalythoa sp., but they really don't have a name. It doesn't really matter, because they are very easy to care for.

Shrimp will accept just about any food with gusto: flake, frozen, etc.

 

[ufcd98]

thank you very much for the reply.
should you have a moment, coud you describe the feeding of the brain?
1. what is raw material (frozen brine, supermarket shrimp, etc)
2. size of piece
3. actual delivery method

thanks again, i love this board

steve

 

[Anonymous]

To be honest, I never feed my green open brain and it's done fine for a year and a half. It certainly can't hurt to feed it though. I'd say once or twice a week, when you see those feeding tentacles come out, feed about a pea sized piece of frozen shrimp. I used to use a bag of frozen, unpeeled, raw table shrimp from the supermarket that I would cut up. Some folks use chopsticks to place it in the tentacles. The mouth will slowly envelop the shrimp. If you have any inquisitive fish or shrimp, they may try to steal the food, so guard it until the brain consumes it.