Dosing large amount of phytoplankton

[MNFish]

I am experimenting with phytoplankton and did a large harvest today. I have read the recommendation on 5-10 ml per 10 gallons. I just put approximately 1000 ml into a 75. I have never seen my coral as happy. I am going to keep an extra eye on nitrates and phosphates but so far it has been very positive.

Anyone else dosing large amounts of phytoplankton?

 

[elysics]

Back when I was regularly harvesting and had a healthy culture, I fed 100ml daily to a 15gal tank and hat no ill effects, didn't keep up with it longterm out of laziness though, and no icp data to back up the safety of what I did

I guess it depends a lot on how clean your phyto is of fertilizer residue, what kind of phyto, what your system looks like as far as filter feeders and filtration etc.

Corals loved it though

 

[HomebroodExotics]

Im sure that dosing phyto will help an aquarium overall but I also wonder how much it’s the left over nutrients making an impact on the corals more than the phyto. In other words I would be interested in knowing what the nutrient level of the phyto is and would your tank have just as much positive impact from dosing ammonia or nitrates. My biggest issue with phyto dosing though is the likely hood of continuing it forever is pretty nonexistent unless you implement a system like sixty reefer did that is automated basically. Even if it makes your tank look like the juice you still won’t do it forever unless it’s easy to do. But I do look forward to seeing what your conclusion is on this. Good luck!

 

[Kasrift]

I am experimenting with phytoplankton and did a large harvest today. I have read the recommendation on 5-10 ml per 10 gallons. I just put approximately 1000 ml into a 75. I have never seen my coral as happy. I am going to keep an extra eye on nitrates and phosphates but so far it has been very positive.

Anyone else dosing large amounts of phytoplankton?

Following because I have tons of phyto I culture. I do about 30-40 ml for a 32 gallon tank daily.

 

[christianscorals]

would anyone here mind guiding me on how to start culturing my own phyto based on experience? i don’t completely understand the set up or attentiveness required

i’ve been dumping reef nutrition live phyto daily for about a year now, i’m sure i’d save money doing it myself

any help would be appreciated, thank you

 

[MNFish]

would anyone here mind guiding me on how to start culturing my own phyto based on experience? i don’t completely understand the set up or attentiveness required

i’ve been dumping reef nutrition live phyto daily for about a year now, i’m sure i’d save money doing it myself

any help would be appreciated, thank you

Build Thread - Phytoplankton and copepod system

Tomorrow is harvest day for the phytoplankton. For the pods I plan on just refreshing water and adding phyto. The instructions call for about 1 cup of phyto to restart the culture so that is the plan. Not sure yet how many cups to add to copepods I am thinking 5?

www.reef2reef.com

Here is what I have for a system, only had it a short time but it comes with great instructions and is pretty easy. There are a few other people on there as well doing it. Honestly it is pretty simple and kind of fun.

 

[MNFish]

Build Thread - Phytoplankton and copepod system

Tomorrow is harvest day for the phytoplankton. For the pods I plan on just refreshing water and adding phyto. The instructions call for about 1 cup of phyto to restart the culture so that is the plan. Not sure yet how many cups to add to copepods I am thinking 5?

www.reef2reef.com

Here is what I have for a system, only had it a short time but it comes with great instructions and is pretty easy. There are a few other people on there as well doing it. Honestly it is pretty simple and kind of fun.

https://poseidonreefsystems.com/about
This is also a pretty good starting guide, mind you a lot of what is done here can be done DIY as well.

 

[ZoWhat]

I brewed my own phytoplankton for 2-3yrs and use to dose 12ozs nightly into a 200g water volume.

I quit after realizing as phytoplankton died off in my tank it constantly kept a small amount of AMMONIA going on in my water chemistry.

I now dose AMINO ACIDS and see 1000 times more benefit to corals.

I believe phyto only feeds copepods and if your corals don't really consume copepods, BREWING AND DOSING PHYTO IS A WASTE OF TIME AND EFFORT.

Amino acids is soooo more important to corals than phyto IMO


.

 

[MNFish]

I brewed my own phytoplankton for 2-3yrs and use to dose 12ozs nightly into a 200g water volume.

I quit after realizing as phytoplankton died off in my tank it constantly kept a small amount of AMMONIA going on in my water chemistry.

I now dose AMINO ACIDS and see 1000 times more benefit to corals.

I believe phyto only feeds copepods and if your corals don't really consume copepods, BREWING AND DOSING PHYTO IS A WASTE OF TIME AND EFFORT.

Amino acids is soooo more important to corals than phyto IMO


.

I dosed Reef Energy AB+ in the past but honestly I am seeing better results from the phytoplankton, but measuring results in a reef is often harder than it sounds.

 

[EakTheFreak]

I dose Reef Energy AB+ 3 times a week and phytoplankton home made 3 times a week giving the reef one day off from it all.

I culture Tisbe and Tigger pods as well so the phytoplankton keeps those cultures going strong. I love mandarin fish, wrasses and anthias all of which consume copepods on the regular and also benefit from the phyto in which my home made copepods are eating.

I personally make massive batches of phytoplankton like four 2 liters worth and dose about 250 ML when I do it in my 170 Gallon tank. I’ve never seen my corals look better and I’m going on about 2 months of it now.

Ive checked my nutrients and they seem to be holding steady. Some people argue that phyto can actually lower some of the nutrients by up taking some.

 

[Lavey29]

Corals have an endless supply of phytoplankton in the ocean so offering them a continual supply in our tanks makes sense to me. Although I think you reach a point of diminished return if it's overdosed. Skimmer takes it out and I would be concerned about organic waste in the tank. I currently dose Phyto feast 5ml multiple times during the week and am a believer that phytoplankton really helps biodiversity along with corals.

 

[christianscorals]

Build Thread - Phytoplankton and copepod system

Tomorrow is harvest day for the phytoplankton. For the pods I plan on just refreshing water and adding phyto. The instructions call for about 1 cup of phyto to restart the culture so that is the plan. Not sure yet how many cups to add to copepods I am thinking 5?

www.reef2reef.com

Here is what I have for a system, only had it a short time but it comes with great instructions and is pretty easy. There are a few other people on there as well doing it. Honestly it is pretty simple and kind of fun.

thank you!

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Dose ISO and TET daily in the 40 I probably put in a turkey baster of each. All my tanks get some. My Phyto is a live growing culture that I 1/2 once a week. Sits on a window sill with a bubbler. I get my Phyto from here, Never crashes.

Store — Holdfast Aquaculture

www.holdfastaq.com

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

Your tank only can consume small amounts of phytoplankton via copepods , corals , filter feeders etc the rest is just waste . The good thing tho is its really hard to over dose phytoplankton to have a negative impact .

 

[MNFish]

So I had to travel for work last week but before I left I dumped 1/2 gallon of phytoplankton into a 75 gallon, when I returned everything looks good. There was some normal algae growth on the glass but everything else looks great. I dumped about 1/2 gallon of fresh phyto into the 75 tonight and will take measurements tomorrow.

 

[EakTheFreak]

So I had to travel for work last week but before I left I dumped 1/2 gallon of phytoplankton into a 75 gallon, when I returned everything looks good. There was some normal algae growth on the glass but everything else looks great. I dumped about 1/2 gallon of fresh phyto into the 75 tonight and will take measurements tomorrow.

1/2 a gallon!! That seems like a ton. I dose like 250 ML into my 131 gallon and thought it was a lot.

doesn’t that mean you are dosing like 1892 ML into a 75 gallon tank?

 

[MNFish]

1/2 a gallon!! That seems like a ton. I dose like 250 ML into my 131 gallon and thought it was a lot.

doesn’t that mean you are dosing like 1892 ML into a 75 gallon tank?

Correct I am making way more than I need so wanted to see what will happen as the recommended dosage seems very low to me, and I am not sure where the recommend dose comes from to be honest.

 

[MNFish]

I dumped so much into my fluval 13.5 that the water is still cloudy 2 hours later, I might have over done that one.....

 

[EakTheFreak]

Correct I am making way more than I need so wanted to see what will happen as the recommended dosage seems very low to me, and I am not sure where the recommend dose comes from to be honest.

Hey I’m not judging for the record I’m actually quite interested. I always have tons of extra home made phyto.

Do you by chance track your phosphate & nitrate in the tank. My fear would be that those would both increase to high levels but I don’t have any factual evidence on that.

 

[MNFish]

So after putting in at least 1/2 gallon 2 weeks in a row my nitrates and phosphate have bottomed out. Coral growth looks to be increasing not only visibly but I needed to increase dosing across all 3 tanks. It is hard to tell but other algae growth seemed to have slowed as well. I am going to keep dosing large amounts as I am not too worried about about 0 nitrates and will use this as an opportunity to start feeding more.