How much phyto should you feed and how often?

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Let's talk about phyto! How much should you dose? How often? Does time of day matter? Excited to learn from you guys and your phyto strategies!!

 

[Kmst80]

Keen to know too. At some stage I was dosing 100ml a day in a 100 g system. As I found out the hard way I used to much miracle grow(5g per 1.5l) to grow the phyto and it caught up with me on the Icp test, Nitrate were up to 59ppm and phosphate at1.25 ppm. Changing fertilizer and amount now but wonder what others dose.

 

[Jekyl]

About 20ml a day in a 90g

 

[vetteguy53081]

15-20 for me

 

[Jedi1199]

The bottle says 1 capful, 5ml per 50g of water twice a week. I am using 4 (to a measured point on an old shot glass) about 2x per week on a 135g with 40g sump.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

0. non. Zero.
Doesn't your tank produce phyto?phytoplankton?!
This is the grimme on the sides of the tanks. The biofilm.
D

 

[PeterC99]

1 cup of homegrown phytoplankton everyday In my 90g reef!

 

[Reefing102]

@Eldredge has a schedule for his phyto but for me it’s totally random. I just pour some in, usually at night, and call it a day. If I had to guess probably about 100 mls each time. I go through a quart a month

 

[JGT]

1ml/gal, 250 gals=250ml nightly.

 

[Jedi1199]

If you want numbers, I add 40 ml per week (each dose is 20ml). Usually on my friday and my sunday. I add it directly to the refugium in daytime while the fuge light is off.

 

[CoralB]

10 ml twice a week

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

When did this become a thing? Sorry I was absent from the hobby 2015sh.
D

 

[Jedi1199]

When did this become a thing? Sorry I was absent from the hobby 2015sh.
D

I have a purpose for my dosing. You should know by now I do nothing unless there is a reason for it. lol. I just built my 135g setup. I now have a refugium. I added a couple bottles of tig pods. So I am dosing Phyto to feed the pods. This is the only reason.

This is also why I dose into the refugium and not the DT.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Ahhh ok pod food. Lol.
Gotcha ty for the explanation
D

 

[Jekyl]

Ahhh ok pod food. Lol.
Gotcha ty for the explanation
D

Also helps control algae

 

[gbru316]

When did this become a thing? Sorry I was absent from the hobby 2015sh.
D

At least the early 00’s, if not earlier.

 

[tbrown]

I dose 10-20 ml whenever I feel like it in the 75 gallon. I add it to the return section of the sump so it broadcast feeds my tank. I use it to feed the pod population mostly but I usually dose with aminos and trace minerals first which typically causes the coral polyps to open up so I'm pretty sure the coral get some too. Maybe just pipe dreams.

 

[am3gross]

I usually just squirt some in, of course I am keeping my eye on the PO4 as if it is up then I wont add any. Also to note, I shut down the display return pumps to keep the dose in there for a few minutes, and the same with the frag tank. Let it marinate in there for about 10-20 minutes, kick on the return pump and then let the filtration take the rest out. I also feed mine right before lights out, however like stated above, I only feed depending in the PO4 level and if I can handle it.

-Mike

 

[Johnz]

Not for me, tried it briefly years ago, didn't seem worth the money or effort. Cleaning the glass produces a nice cloud of green every few days. To each their own though, definitely some impressive tanks dosing phytoplankton, like PeterC99's photo above, stunning tank.

 

[Gogol_frag]

Let's talk about phyto! How much should you dose? How often? Does time of day matter? Excited to learn from you guys and your phyto strategies!!

Dosing: I dose 2 litres of phytoplankton per day to my 180 gallon reef.

Preparation: I have a 24 gallon, lidded phyto tank (fancy words for a food safe 24-gallon lidded clear-acrylic container) with a tunze submersible light that's on 24×7 within the phyto-tank. The tank is heavily bubbled via mutiple Penpax bubble hoses. It is a self sustaining system that i never ferilize and never do jack about. Ocassionaly (roughly once a month) I add an unmeasured dollop of Reef Nutrition's RG complete ( I consumed a 32-oz bottle in one and half years), which is my only external energy source for the Phyto-tank (outside of the Tunze light). I also have an army of glass shrimp living in my Phytotank, and i suppose they poop and fertilize. When the tank level goes down to 20-19 gallons, I siphon some of my display-reef's water to my phytotank to get the level back to 23-24 gallons. Thats it!

My Nitrates and Phosphates (in my reef) are less than .1 ppm each. I have no dinos (had dinos but they died naturally), no GHA, some cyano, but its marginal. I dont do water changes and have no sump (the phyto-tank has replaced it).

I do dose 7-5 ml NoPox/day though to keep my bacteria happy, but not too happy that they choke my fish out of oxygen. To keep the reef well-oxygentated I run 14-hour light cycles.