Can you overdose phytoplankton?

[tzabor10]

I regularly use phytoplankton to feed corals in my 120 gallon mixed reef tank. I realize that my tank is now an oversized phytoplankton reactor. There is a green haze on the glass every 8 hours. Fleece roller is forest green and going quickly. Can you have too much? I usually dose 2-4 cups of home grown phyto throughout the week. Replacing the main batch every month or two.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Can you have too much?

Yes and no - excess phyto shouldn't really hurt anything (it may actually be good for a tank in some cases), but if you add too much, it can potentially turn your tank into a phyto culture (and sometimes it can be tough to get the phyto bloom to clear); it typically takes a pretty massive overdose and/or a severe lack of phyto-predators with good phyto-culture conditions in the tank for this to happen though:

I've seen tanks that dosed too much phyto without enough pods/filter feeders, and the tank water turns green to the point where you basically only see silhouettes inside; you can't enjoy a tank if you can't see what's inside

Examples of what was likely too much phyto/too good of conditions for phyto, but first, some info for these and some info from the first link:

Look for live phyto cells under a microscope. Green water isnt always phyto.

If the tank was more cloudy white/brown than it was green then I think you are probably right about the bacterial bloom being the main issue rather than the phyto growth- a phyto bloom usually looks more like the tank @WesleyC posted

Live phyto overdose leads to cloudy water?

I have a Red Sea Reefer 170 with about 42 total gallons of water. For 3 weeks now, I've been dosing about 15-20ml of the AlgaeBarn live phyto that came with my 5280 pods combo pack. A week ago, I started seeing my water get a bit cloudy, and today it's totally brown/green. I've tested all my...

www.reef2reef.com

Green water algae?!

hello, so I have a 90 gallon tank with two viparspecras. I keep getting green water algae. I’ve only been running my lights at 1% blue and 1% white and my water turns green within a couple days. I have two and a half sides of the tank painted black. What am I doing wrong? The lights only stay on...

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Accidental Phyto vs. Green-water-that-isn't-Phyto?

Greetings all. So I have a 5gal bucket that I use for culturing rubble/frag-plugs and various bugs. Over the past few weeks it has turned a very exciting shade of PHYTO-green. Under the microscope it looks very similar to the store-bought variety, but have to admit that I don't have a degree...

www.reef2reef.com

HELP. new to reef GOT green

tank is 150 g. Got 4 fish and some corals Everything was going great (6 months in) Went on vacation for a long weekend. Think my in-laws had the lights on bright white for way too long. Came home to this. It’s been two week. Done about 6 water changes and still not clearing up...

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Can Phytoplankton Reproduce On It's Own??

So I've had the little 10G nano up and running for a few months now and everything was going well until all of a sudden BOOM! For like 10 days now the water keeps getting "cloudier and cloudier" until now I have been just thinking must be a bacteria bloom. But today as I noticed it's getting...

www.reef2reef.com

Live Phytoplankton overdose?

The tank was first cloudy around 6 weeks ago. I have been dosing around 20ml live phytoplankton every other day. Last dose was 2 weeks ago. Tank has been this green ever since. Copepods have been loving it they are booming. Not sure as much from my Corals though. What can I do to clear it up...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[twentyleagues]

Wow. I dose 5oz every other day. I dont use mechanical filters and I shut my skimmer off for the night when I dose.

 

[cdnco2004]

Yes and no - excess phyto shouldn't really hurt anything (it may actually be good for a tank in some cases), but if you add too much, it can potentially turn your tank into a phyto culture (and sometimes it can be tough to get the phyto bloom to clear); it typically takes a pretty massive overdose and/or a severe lack of phyto-predators with good phyto-culture conditions in the tank for this to happen though:

Yeah you can't overdose as in its going to harm your livestock. You just run the risk of the phyto reproducing in your tank and then you get a bloom. Water change and running UV will clear it up.

 

[slingfox]

I purposely dosed 2000ml of fresh phyto in my tank earlier this week then turned off rollermat, skimmer, UV and ozone for 48 hours. No I'll affects whatsoever and my water achieved next level clarity as a result:

Experiment: Dumped 2000ml of Phyto into Tank

I have a small scale phyto setup growing tetraselmis in two 2000ml beakers. I harvested half of the beaker volume this week and instead of putting the phyto into bottles I dosed my 140 gallon tank with 2000ml of freshly harvested phyto. To give phyto time to circulate I turned off my skimmer...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[kdx7214]

From my experience the only side effect of doing large doses of phyto is the reduction in nitrates and phosphates, which some organisms need to survive. I slipped and dumped in far more than I should have once and both read zero.

 

[cdnco2004]

Yeah people also report that if they regularly dose phyto it negatively impacts their algae reactors performance.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

Hey @ISpeakForTheSeas I think you missed one lol

Phyto Bloom in a Home Aquarium...

So...how many people have experience with a phyto bloom in a home aquarium? I culture my own phtyo (nannochloropsis oculata) at home and last weekend (the 7th/8th) I was cleaning my culture vessels (aka 1 gal gatorade jugs) and poured probably close to 2 cups into my 125. And I thought all was...

www.reef2reef.com

OP, live phyto can be overdosed and in the right environment turn your entire tank the color of the phyto, in my case I accidentally dumped an entire quart of live nanno that I had cultured into my 125 and ended up with the above result about two days or so later.

Dead phytos being overdosed I believe would just cause a nutrient spike potentially leading to more issues down the line.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Hey @ISpeakForTheSeas I think you missed one lol

Haha, yeah, leaving a few out gives people some they can go looking for

 

[tzabor10]

Yeah you can't overdose as in its going to harm your livestock. You just run the risk of the phyto reproducing in your tank and then you get a bloom. Water change and running UV will clear it up.

10% water changes weekly. UV sterilizer runs 5 hours per night. Slow speed. Phyto is definitely alive in there. Scraping the glass isn’t the worst thing I’ve done.

 

[tzabor10]

From my experience the only side effect of doing large doses of phyto is the reduction in nitrates and phosphates, which some organisms need to survive. I slipped and dumped in far more than I should have once and both read zero.

Nitrates are almost always between 1 and 3 per NYOS testing. Po4 used to be around 3ppm but not is between 1 and 2 ppm. Certainly some phosphate comes in through phyto dosing. I’m suspicious of the nori clips adding phyto as well.

 

[kdx7214]

Nitrates are almost always between 1 and 3 per NYOS testing. Po4 used to be around 3ppm but not is between 1 and 2 ppm. Certainly some phosphate comes in through phyto dosing. I’m suspicious of the nori clips adding phyto as well.

I suspect the phosphates come from whatever fertilizer you use to feed the phyto culture. You can overdo that pretty easily. I had that problem initially but finally worked it out.

 

[Weaverjay101]

Wow. I dose 5oz every other day. I dont use mechanical filters and I shut my skimmer off for the night when I dose.

How do you get rid of particles without mechanical filtration?

 

[twentyleagues]

How do you get rid of particles without mechanical filtration?

its really not that bad. Very large skimmer during lights on or when not dosing may be most of the reason. I have a spot I can run floss should I feel the need but have only used it on set up to get rid of the silt from the sand. Also tank drains to refugium so a lot probably gets trapped in the macros. Then cuc takes care of the edibles.