Nitrate and Phosphorus Control via Phytoplankton Additions?

[Dana Riddle]

They had that at MACNA. does any one know a release date?

I'll contact Luis and find out.

 

[CoralVue_Marketing]

You can’t post a pic without no link to product info!

I’ve been working on a diy version of this, lol, but it’s getting expensive!! Might be better to buy

We've heard it may retail for $2699.

They had that at MACNA. does any one know a release date?

I will see if we can find this out tomorrow!

 

[Dana Riddle]

We've heard it may retail for $2699.



I will see if we can find this out tomorrow!

I've heard differently. That price ($2,699) was for an industrial-sized model. Am awaiting retail price for the unit I received.

 

[CoralVue_Marketing]

I've heard differently. That price ($2,699) was for an industrial-sized model. Am awaiting retail price for the unit I received.

Oh thank goodness

 

[Breadman03]

Oh thank goodness

Agreed. There seems to be a few moving parts and I'm sure it won't be cheap, but $2,500 would put such a product out of reach for much of the potential market.

 

[User]

Oh thank goodness

Yeah, that’s like $300 materials and another $200 in pumps (and leds?) I about fainted when you said $2699, lol

I think I’m going to finish up my diy and run that for a bit. Although the conical bottom tubes are nice, they aren’t essential and it’s about time I finished a project as planned, instead of doing constant revisions and upgrades before I get stuff running

 

[CoralVue_Marketing]

Agreed. There seems to be a few moving parts and I'm sure it won't be cheap, but $2,500 would put such a product out of reach for much of the potential market.

Yeah, that’s like $300 materials and another $200 in pumps (and leds?) I about fainted when you said $2699, lol

I think I’m going to finish up my diy and run that for a bit. Although the conical bottom tubes are nice, they aren’t essential and it’s about time I finished a project as planned, instead of doing constant revisions and upgrades before I get stuff running

When I read it in an email earlier this evening it seemed high to me, too. I was just eager to post an answer here and jumped the gun before getting my facts straight! Lesson learned... ;Blackeye

 

[Mortie31]

Photos of my haphazard and new Easy Reefs algae/rotifer culture vessels. HUGE difference!

@sixty_reefer seems like they have made a posh version of your automatic roti and phytoplankton gizmo

 

[sixty_reefer]

@sixty_reefer seems like they have made a posh version of your automatic roti and phytoplankton gizmo

Indeed it looks very posh, but will it work? At first sight it just looks like just two vessels and the leds are wrong. They should of got the plans right. Will be interesting see how it works.

There’s a reason I’ve never updated my final plans

 

[Smarkow]

My observations are pretty much anecdotal at this point. Think I'll really investigate this and perhaps see if the 2020 MACNA is interested in a presentation. In the meantime, I'll keep R2R posted. All kinds of angles - PAM fluorometer readings v. hemacytometer, coral growth, etc.

@MACNA @MACNA.Support
Hmmmm I *ThInK* the MACNA crew have heard of you and might be interested

 

[User]

Indeed it looks very posh, but will it work? At first sight it just looks like just two vessels and the leds are wrong. They should of got the plans right. Will be interesting see how it works.

There’s a reason I’ve never updated my final plans

I can’t even see the leds...

 

[sixty_reefer]

I can’t even see the leds...

The led is at the top (lid) after a bit of reading on the product it seems that this is just a rotifers culture, and you still have to use the bags to keep the culture going. It does look very neat and clean. Just missing a few small details to reduce maintenance and be a great product. After a few months of use the vessel will start to look dirty from the inside. But overall it looks like a great product still not a real continuous culture but effective. The price mentioned on this thread seems a bit high for me.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I'll continue dosing the tank with green water until I have a valid reason to stop. You likely know this already, but it's a misconception that corals don't feed on microalgae. Makes me wonder what success could be had with Dendronephthya if green water is heavily dosed.

Little late, but getting caught up on the thread.

As for dendros, I have a dendro that has been thriving and growing like a weed with phyto dosing and with spot feeding. It was lethargic looking and would only puff up here and there. Now the only time it deflates is after a good direct feeding. NPS corals is why I started to drip phyto in the first place and it seems to really help.

The nub on the right is new growth and has very very small thistles starting to form.

 

[Timfish]

Seems reasonable to me. That's what drops the phosphate levels in the ocean.

https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/research/oceanbiology/reprints/conkrightetal_DSR1999.pdf

 

[Dana Riddle]

Hey @Dana Riddle. This brings me to a question I haven't asked yet because I thought it was just rubbish. With the findings of you adding phytoplankton to your build and seeing nitrate and phosphate lower brought me to ask. I recently started dosing algae Barn phytoplankton. After about a week I started noticing dinoflagellates in my sand bed. They are starting to spread to the rocks now. Do you think dosing the phyto could have brought this on. I thought I was crazy but if the phyto is lowering my nutrients and allowing the dinos to thrive ot makes more sense. Sorry if this isnt appropriate for this thread but I thought it fit.

Good question. I don't have any apparent dino nor diatom growths, but I have quite a few animals that might eat those growths (Astreas, Turbos, Nerites, limpets, Fighting conchs, and unidentified snails.)

 

[erk]

I've been dosing phyto now for 2 weeks. Wasn't able to dose at the full concentration that I originally planned due to almost killing off my phyto culture. Nanno doesn't like it hot, lesson learned. But even dosing the small amount I have been, I have seen a large increase in the amount of planktonic life, especially at night. Corals and my banggai cardinals are loving it. A scleronephthea frag that was declining is now growing like crazy. I think this is from the increase in plankton, not the phyto specifically. I dose in the morning directly into the DT and turn off the skimmer for 12 hours. No real increase or decrease in NO3 or PO4 yet. Maybe as I up the dosage I will see a change.

I bought a second culture kit from Mercer and built a little setup to house both bottles. I noticed when the original kit was declining that I had also over-harvested the phyto and that was making things worse. As phyto dosing becomes a standard part of my aquarium husbandry, I'm thinking of ways to automate this process.

Edit: I need to do another count to see where my cultures are at.

 

[tripdad]

Can you identify the plankton? Do you have a microscope? I'm curious what they are and if they can be cultured for introduction to other tanks.

 

[erk]

Can you identify the plankton? Do you have a microscope? I'm curious what they are and if they can be cultured for introduction to other tanks.

I can try to get a sample this weekend. I have a webcam i adapted to fit my microscope, so I can take a picture and post it.

 

[tripdad]

That's great! I have a marine scientist at my disposal so maybe we can identify them. Would be super cool if someday natural plankton, plant based and bacteria based and animal based, could be part of our "reef" tanks. We may have better success keeping some animals alive.

 

[erk]

That's great! I have a marine scientist at my disposal so maybe we can identify them. Would be super cool if someday natural plankton, plant based and bacteria based and animal based, could be part of our "reef" tanks. We may have better success keeping some animals alive.

When I have counted the culture concentration I have seen green organisms, about 5-10x larger than the Nanno cells scurrying around. They move so fast that I can't see any distinguishing features. They are oval shaped and move around in a zigzagging pattern. I use aquarium water to top off the culture tanks, so they came from the DT. They don't seem to try and eat the Nanno cells though.