Description

Ultimate EcoPack: Comprehensive Reef Nutrition

Coral reefs are among the most complex ecosystems on Earth. As such, recreating them in the home aquarium–especially their elaborate food webs–can be extraordinarily difficult. With the Ultimate EcoPack, providing high-quality live and prepared feed has never been simpler and more economical. More than just a food, the live phytoplankton and bacterioplankton in this unique kit actually promote nutrient cycling and water purification; to boot, the copepods mop up detritus and film algae. Provides a balanced nutritional profile and wide range of food particle sizes! See below for more information.

EcoPods:

EcoPods contains a mix of four select copepods. Each is chosen for its size, behavior and nutritional profile. The cohort featured in this product is far better as a food or as cleaners than any one of its members by itself. Since individuals of all life stages (i.e. all sizes) are included, it may be exploited by all zooplanktivores, right out of the jar!

• Tigriopus californicus. This is the largest species in the mix. This harpacticoid is an excellent cleaner and is rich in color-enhancing carotenoid pigments (when included in its diet: See below)!
• Tisbe biminiensis. Also a harpacticoid, but much smaller, it cleans the tiniest cracks and crevasses of live rock and macroalgae.
• Apocyclops panamensis. Larger than Tisbe and smaller than Tigriopus, this cyclopoid rounds out your tank’s zooplankton size range. Though it spends some of its time vulnerable to zooplanktivores in the open waters, it is roughly twice as productive as Tisbe and Tigriopus, laying eggs every 4-6 days, and so recovers from heavy predation.
• Oithona colcarva. Like Apocyclops, this super-tough pod is a cyclopoid; though it spends even more time swimming in the water column, its nocturnal nature helps to protect it from predation. This species prefers miniscule food particles, and so is useful for turning over bacterial biomass (e.g. after carbon dosing).

OceanMagik:

OceanMagik is a special blend of four live phytoplankton species. It is formulated to provide your corals, pods and filter-feeders with the right balance of fatty acids, proteins, vitamins and amino acids. All phyto species in the Ultimate EcoPack improve water quality by competing with nuisance algae for nutrients.

• Nannochloropsis gaditana. This is a very tiny, fast-growing algae that rapidly consumes nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate. Brown, non-flagellated, 1-5 microns.
• Tetraselmis sp. Rich in amino acids, this species is especially wholesome. Green biflagellate, 6-10 microns.
• Isochrysis galbana. This species boasts of a high DHA content and it excellent for enriching zooplankton such as copepods and brine shrimp. It is also widely accepted by oysters, clams, mussels and scallops. Brown biflagellate, 10-14 microns.
• Thalassiosira weissflogii. The largest species of phytoplankton in the Ultimate EcoPack (and capable of forming chains), it provides a coarser particle size that is ideal phytoplanktivores such as corals and Christmas tree worms. This planktonic diatom consumes silicates and so competes with harmful benthic diatoms. Unflagellated diatom, 5-32 microns.

PNS Product Combo:

This critical component of the Ultimate EcoPack completes the package both nutritionally and ecologically. Each product, PNS ProBio and PNS YelloSno, contains the photosynthetic purple non-sulfur bacterium (PNSB) Rhodopseudomonas palustris. The first product is live (an inoculant) whereas the second, which simulates marine snow (a coral and invert food), is flash pasteurized to lock in nutrition and extend shelf life. Even as these bacterioplankton inhabit the water column and are responsive to carbon dosing, they colonize anaerobic areas (subsurfaces of rock and sand). Found naturally on the coral reef, and even within corals as a symbiont, the proven benefits of PNSB are mindbogglingly wide-ranging:

• Consumes excess ammonia and nitrite. Because this is an assimilatory process, no nitrate is generated!
• Consumes excess nitrate and phosphate. Carries out denitrification much more quickly than obligate anaerobes (e.g. Aeromonas).
• Fixes nitrogen. This diazotroph is known to nourish zooxanthellae to promote coral growth.
• Consumes dissolved and particulate organics, including lignocellulose-based detritus (e.g. macroalgal litter).
• A powerful probiotic. Promotes digestion/feed conversion and synthesizes antibiotics such as Vibrio-killing streptomycin.
• Synthesizes extremely desirable carotenoids such as astaxanthin, which act as antioxidants and enhance animal coloration as they are passed up the food chain!
• On marine snow, it is deliverable to diverse organisms via wide-ranging particle sizes (<1 micron to >1 mm).