TG
What about algae on the glass and stuff that sticks to the rocks - how do you deal with that?
No algae on the rocks or glass TG beyond corraline, and for that I use a magnet once a week.
RC
Hey Mike, The things that are fed in a substraight system, as I understand it, range from bacterial, to amoebas, rotifers, nematodes, etc. and fill the range of critter sizes up to larger pods. I do believe in the "food web" idea, that you want to feed the little things, so that they can be food for larger things. I really think it's a good way to provide a variety of food sizes for many animals that we keep like very particle size specific feeding SPS. Do you feed with a plan accounting for different food sizes?
RC I think you will find the populations of the critters you listed to be not that much, but regardless lets go with the fact, say that the DSB is thriving with them for arguement sake. Most of the critters you have listed are part of a food cycle one feeding upon the other, and this is real nice but thier is a reason that they are in the sand, it protects them from preditation. The top line preditor in the sand would be the worms and the pods (not including stars or gobies and such). So this food web is a great benefit to those topline critters but not really to your corals, now I am sure thier is a possibility that a zooplankton (which I dont believe a dsb produces) and some pods may make it up passed all the fish , and crabs and duster and worms and such and be available to a coral or anenome but I believe that to be slim to none
Regardless of all of that RC Natural food sourses such as pods, zooplankton, phytoplankton, nematodes and so on really kind of suck from a nutritional point of view. The nutritional valvue of all of these critters lies in thier meat, problem is that only about 40% to 60% of thier bodies contain the meat. Personally I perfer to replace that meat source with actual meat from a blend of shrimp, scallop, and fish meat. I blend it so that it comes out is a multitude of sizes from microscopic to fish size bits. This way when the coral and or critter uses the energy to capture the prey they are getting 100% meat and not all the shell, antenii, legs and so on.
One more point RC on the natural food source. Yu have very little control over it, it will rise in population and die off with out you having any say in it. This translates to more water quality issues. A dsb is in a constant state of flux with populations being born and dieing off, with each die off comes nutrients, great for the cycling of the bed and bad for the critter we keep that do not like nutrient ladened water. When I feed my tank and do not rely on these natural fluxes, I control the quality of the food, and how much goes in and comes out. Its like serving dinner and then cleaning up after the meal. Dont worry about the SPS they farm thier own bacteria when they need nutrients to suppliment thier carbon production.
Mike
