local macro ?

[skyedolphan]

Ok I know there are those of you out there that use local macro to fee d your tangs and keep in tank is there any site or a way to find out what is safe and what is not I brought home some stuff from Charleston today I have it in a bucket still there are TONS of critters in there some isopods and other things that are black and white stripe some all black they look like they have 12 legs and all they remind me of are the pincher bugs that are around in the summer..anyway I would like to see if the tangs would like this but afraid to introduce anything harmful in the tank any and all help will be appreciated..

[Tobyt]

Unfortunately, I don't know of any local algae/critter database.

I freshwater rinse the algae I get at the beach and remove all critters as best as I can. As for critters, I try to add only the ones I recognize, and try not to add snails or crabs. I'll try to photo-log some of the critters and algae going forward though. I really need one of them super microscopes! :)

[skyedolphan]

so would you say any macro from the beaches after a good ro/di rinse would be safe? I am just concerned about possible toxic in oplant or something or am I just being a nervous nillie?

[Tobyt]

Your concerns are absolutely warranted. I didn't run out and grab a big chunk of algae and throw it into my tank. You know, you do what you think is reasonable in terms of risk.

I took small samples of various local algae and found which ones my yellow tang liked best. Mine likes the soft red bushy kind. But it didn't reject any of them.

Critters are relatively easy to deal with since you can usually see them and fresh water will generally kill them.

Toxins are not easy to detect unless you're looking for them. I chose to disregard this risk. But given the amount of algae my tang eats, I'm sure it would have gotten sick by now if the algae were toxic, nor have I seen any negative effects on my coral or other life. My guess is that the local algae is no more toxic than that cheap dried nori stuff which is grown and harvested in the open ocean near metropolis type sea ports.

What I like best is that I can jam the algae between some rocks and it stays good for a week or more.

[skyedolphan]

Thank you very much I guess I will do some serious rinsing withthe ro and elastic a little of the different ones onto shells to see what they go for :)