On Nov 20, 9:49 am, Big Habeeb wrote:
I don't know if they do or not...I just know that I was told to add it
by the lfs, and the back of the bottle seems to indicate that this is
what corals and the like chow on...
for all I know, phytoplex may be a
big scam excuse to charge me 13 bucks every couple months.


i wouldn't expect it to be a scam, i always look at phytoplex as the
food source for the bottom of the chain, sort of like nitrates is. I
use it to keep the copepods, amphipods, and other invert happy, and in
turn the swimming half that get swirled around in the column in turn
feed the corals. I assume the corals eat this directly, but i use it
to keep the base chain healthy, and let the base chain feed the
corals. However, you will find that i do things uniquely in the reef
world. I dotn go out and buy expensive pieces, ever. i just stock my
tank with live rock, and samples of stuff and wait for them to grow,
biologically. I just keep the biological system at its best by paying
attention to the bottom of the chain, and ensuring that all the middle
species are in tact, like asturina stars(sponge and coral eaters i
suspect), a small tad of cyanobacteria, a small tad of slime algae, a
multitude of tube worms and the like in the substrate and on the
rocks, a healthy DSB, tons of pods crawling and swimming around, and
micro sized worms crawling around on the glass, baby snails, spawning
hermits, spawning snails. once I have this, I rest at ease and just
watch corals and sponge pop out of nowhere. it takes a healthy bio to
grow stuff from the smallest seed, such as stoways that are so small
you cant seem them until they grow. Most everyone else just goes out
to the store and buys what they need instead of culturing it from
birth. But, you will find alot of bio-heads on this board, and thats
why i like it, to me, taking care of the bio from the bottom up is the
only way to go, but alot of people are too impatient for that route
and tend to adhere to the buy-and-replace method, instead of the grow-
from-scratch method.

take a look at the phytoplex at marine depot, its pretty cheap there,
and if you ever need to make an order, throw a 16oz bottle in your
order and you will get it the cheapest this way i think.
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewIt...d~vendor~.html

i have the same shrooms, they have a bit more green on them than in
the picture. my nitrates hover near 10ppm frequently as i do very
infrequent water changes. i suspect this is why my mushrooms are
always hating it. everything else is fine including my porites
encruster coral.