Dosing rotifers for phyto bloom?

burningmime · Jul 5, 2021

Context: brand new 180 (~250g system volume); only turned lights on last week. Parameters are still super unstable. Ammonia and PO4 are undetectable, Nitrate is very high at ~40, going to water change some away but water changes are expensive.

Anyways, I may have overdosed phyto, because the water is greenish-brown (not much GHA; rocks only have some diatoms, but the water column is so green I can't see my aquascape). So I heard that dosing rotifers might be good since they will eat the phyto. Of course, then I'll have a lot of rotifers, so maybe I should pick up pods.

Anyone have any experience here? Will they help take down the algae bloom? Should I just order some and dump the whole bag in, or measure out rotifer doses per day?

Spare time · Jul 5, 2021

Rotifers and copepods will eat it. If you have been wanting to get scallops or clams then this is a great time to do so haha

You could also just grab a green machine.

Fish Think Pink · Jul 5, 2021

burningmime said:
Context: brand new 180 (~250g system volume); only turned lights on last week. Parameters are still super unstable. Ammonia and PO4 are undetectable, Nitrate is very high at ~40, going to water change some away but water changes are expensive.

Anyways, I may have overdosed phyto, because the water is greenish-brown (not much GHA; rocks only have some diatoms, but the water column is so green I can't see my aquascape). So I heard that dosing rotifers might be good since they will eat the phyto. Of course, then I'll have a lot of rotifers, so maybe I should pick up pods.

Anyone have any experience here? Will they help take down the algae bloom? Should I just order some and dump the whole bag in, or measure out rotifer doses per day?

Vote pods over rotifers but that is because I have fish.

Here is another way to handle nitrates: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/vodka-method.193607/

burningmime · Jul 6, 2021

Fish Think Pink said:
Vote pods over rotifers but that is because I have fish.

Here is another way to handle nitrates: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/vodka-method.193607/

Thanks!

I'm not concerned about nitrates; it's a new tank so I'd expect parameters to be a bit wonky for a while. My concern is the green/brown water that I can't see the fish through! Although I guess UV is the better solution long term.

burningmime · Jul 6, 2021

Spare time said:
Rotifers and copepods will eat it. If you have been wanting to get scallops or clams then this is a great time to do so haha

You could also just grab a green machine.

Oh good idea about the scallops and clams. Or I was thinking oysters. For the sump, of course, if they're in the tank, they'll be a tasty eel snack.

Spare time · Jul 6, 2021

burningmime said:
Oh good idea about the scallops and clams. Or I was thinking oysters. For the sump, of course, if they're in the tank, they'll be a tasty eel snack.

I wouldn't think an eel would eat those

Jay'sReefBugs · Jul 6, 2021

Wouldn't do rotifers you're going to end up with a bigger issue with the amount of dead one's going down into your filtration. They should be used as a food source nothing more . Copepods will eat it but not in a timely manner . Your best bet is water change , carbon and possibly UV

burningmime · Jul 7, 2021

Jay'sReefBugs said:
Wouldn't do rotifers you're going to end up with a bigger issue with the amount of dead one's going down into your filtration. They should be used as a food source nothing more . Copepods will eat it but not in a timely manner . Your best bet is water change , carbon and possibly UV

Thanks!

Well, I've changed about 200 gallons so far. Water changes start getting expensive after a while. Carbon is there, not doing much but getting 100% flow through the sump. UV is going on next weekend; just gotta find a way to plumb it in. Really is a lot of phyto, though:

Nitrates and phosphates both read 0 now, I assume because it's all tied up in the biomass of the phyto.

Jay'sReefBugs · Jul 8, 2021

burningmime said:
Thanks!

Well, I've changed about 200 gallons so far. Water changes start getting expensive after a while. Carbon is there, not doing much but getting 100% flow through the sump. UV is going on next weekend; just gotta find a way to plumb it in. Really is a lot of phyto, though:

Nitrates and phosphates both read 0 now, I assume because it's all tied up in the biomass of the phyto.

How much Phyto did you dose into your system to cause this ?

burningmime · Jul 8, 2021

Jay'sReefBugs said:
How much Phyto did you dose into your system to cause this ?

Not that much, just 16oz.

(which I now realize probably should have been portioned over several months)

hotdrop · Jul 8, 2021

burningmime said:
Not that much, just 16oz.

(which I now realize probably should have been portioned over several months)

lol that’s a lot. You will need to do some big water changes to pull out that much nutrients. You may want to just pull out most of you water and do a 80-90% wc run uv and wait for months. You might also see success with just growing macro algee at this point

burningmime · Jul 8, 2021

hotdrop said:
lol that’s a lot. You will need to do some big water changes to pull out that much nutrients. You may want to just pull out most of you water and do a 80-90% wc run uv and wait for months. You might also see success with just growing macro algee at this point

I was in a dosin' stuff mood

. I dumped in a bottle of bacteria that said "cannot overdose" and some coraline in a bottle and a jar of pods. I thought, why not a bottle of phyto, too?

Not too too worried about nutrients yet; there are ways to export them naturally, and nitrate/phosphate are almost zero right now (probably because it's all in the phyto itself). More worried about water clarity.