Growing algae without fish

[Ironworm]

I am wanting to grow some for our local reefing club for new members. I have a spare 90 gallon tank which is overkill but I'll work with what I have. I did have a few questions hopefully I can get some assistance.

1. Spot for the tank will be in the garage, I plan to put glass covers on the top to keep out unwanted guests. Will that affect the grow of the algae?

2. How do I feed the algae? Without fish I understand I need to dose nitrates and phosphate. Are there any product recommendations? I wanted to add pods to the tank could I feed the algae phytoplankton?

3. Is there such thing as too much flow? I have a spare 2100gph powerhead I planned to use to have some flow in the tank. But I'm not sure if it will be too much flow.

Any and all help would be appreciated, you guys are amazing!

 

[acbaldwin]

1 - glass shouldn't matter, except that it'll reduce evaporative cooling and may get salt creep, impacting light.

2 - Yep, you'll want fertilizer. http://nilocg.com/ is a good site. You need nitrate, phosphate, potassium, iron, and trace (micros).
Most recently I picked up calcium nitrate (from amazon), potassium phosphate, ferrous gluconate (kent's iron is also great), and millers microplex (*maybe*).
Be warned, the micro mixes like CSM+B and millers have copper and perhaps other harmful metals. They're probably not necessary as long as you do water changes, but I'm trying something new.
Use a calculator like http://rotalabutterfly.com/ to determine dosing. I like to mix a solution and dose that instead of dry for accuracy.
You'll get pods regardless of phyto, but perhaps it would be useful. I've got tons of iso/copepods and my growout tank has only been up for a few weeks.

A powerhead (assuming the open koralia type) will probably get gunked up, but 2100 in a 90 is probably just fine flow wise.
I put a pump with a large foam screen, with pvc tubing inside the tank to keep the flow going from left to right, so I can keep the more invasive macros from flowing into the rest of the tank. I'll post pics if that doesn't make sense.

 

[Ironworm]

HAHA thank you, my wife feels like i am becoming a bomb maker buying all these different chemicals.

Could you post of a picture of your pvc tubing setup? Interested to see what you have.

 

[Ironworm]

What salinity are you keeping your grow out tank at?

 

[acbaldwin]

I think I'm going for around 1.023-4.


Here's the 55g growout tank.

From right to left The tubing is from my submerged pump, which keeps the tank flow going constant left to right in order to keep the chaeto from getting mixed in with everything else.

and the return spray bar.