Phytoplankton Dosing-Worth it?

[hart24601]

Like with most things reef I have found the answer it... it depends...

I cultured phyto for a while and found filter feeders exploded in population, they then died off when I stopped dosing as well. Keep in mind it's easy to overdo it, you are adding lots of nutrients with phyto, even if it's consumed by organisms they will still excrete some of that food.

This can be beneficial of course if you are running lower nutrients. Phyto will also supply carbohydrates, lipids and amino acids either from being directly consumed or dying and releasing those to the water where other organisms uptake them.

Others have reported a decrease in nutrients presumably to the phyto growing in the tank and then being exported via the skimmer.

Is it worth it for your system? Give it a shot! Just remember like everything there are pros and cons!

 

[MichaelReefer]

Like with most things reef I have found the answer it... it depends...

I cultured phyto for a while and found filter feeders exploded in population, they then died off when I stopped dosing as well. Keep in mind it's easy to overdo it, you are adding lots of nutrients with phyto, even if it's consumed by organisms they will still excrete some of that food.

This can be beneficial of course if you are running lower nutrients. Phyto will also supply carbohydrates, lipids and amino acids either from being directly consumed or dying and releasing those to the water where other organisms uptake them.

Others have reported a decrease in nutrients presumably to the phyto growing in the tank and then being exported via the skimmer.

Is it worth it for your system? Give it a shot! Just remember like everything there are pros and cons!

Did you ever do direct target feeding to coral with them? Or just turn skimmer off and drop them in the tank a few times a week?

 

[hart24601]

Did you ever do direct target feeding to coral with them? Or just turn skimmer off and drop them in the tank a few times a week?

i just broadcast fed with the skimmer off. It was mostly for clams but I didn’t notice much from them, they grew plenty fast either way.

I have not seen much evidence that corals can directly consume phyto, I am a big fan of feeding coral but each type is quite picky on the size of food it can capture. For example most acros take food around 300 micron - baby brine shrimp size. BBS eat phyto so i am skeptical most coral can directly capture and consume phyto, although they clearly can eat organisms that eat phyto

 

[Thespammailaccount]

I am mainly looking to do it so I can get my Refugium going crazy good and all the copepods. Should I just drop a cap full in my refugium every day?

What kind of phytoplankton do you have or plan on using? If it is the phyto feast from reef nutrition the bottle stuff in the refrigerator at the LFS just follow the directions on the bottle or half the dose and monitor the system don’t want to overdue this kind or phosphates will rise. If it is phytoplankton from a culture you can dose up to 5 mls per 20 gallons daily

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Did you ever do direct target feeding to coral with them? Or just turn skimmer off and drop them in the tank a few times a week?

I broadcast dose daily sometimes twice daily and will target feed my filter feeders a few times a week

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Like with most things reef I have found the answer it... it depends...

I cultured phyto for a while and found filter feeders exploded in population, they then died off when I stopped dosing as well. Keep in mind it's easy to overdo it, you are adding lots of nutrients with phyto, even if it's consumed by organisms they will still excrete some of that food.

This can be beneficial of course if you are running lower nutrients. Phyto will also supply carbohydrates, lipids and amino acids either from being directly consumed or dying and releasing those to the water where other organisms uptake them.

Others have reported a decrease in nutrients presumably to the phyto growing in the tank and then being exported via the skimmer.

Is it worth it for your system? Give it a shot! Just remember like everything there are pros and cons!

Well said

 

[NS Mike D]

+1 on the above. Nothing better than starting slow, watching (and testing) what is going on in your tank and adjusting accordingly and judicially.


I Just ordered supplies to start my phyto/copepod cultures. I anticipate once it's up and running a full cycle, the main harvest of phyto will go to the pod culture, back up harvest to the fridge, as small a mount for tank dosing (also to the fridge) and the excess will get tossed.

Pods will get harvested and added to sumps and DT for the dragonet.

 

[Flameback Pair]

This stuff almost looks too good to be true but if it is it will be very much in demand. It's in a dosing bag like the ones hospitals use and you stick an airline hose in it with a dosing pump dispensing it. They say it stays good without refrigeration for 18 months !!!! Don't know which strains of phytoplankton is in it.

 

[Bam327]

I’m tagging along here. I just started a Nanno culture yesterday and ordered a bottle of Iso this morning to start next week. I have a couple of questions.
What’s a good dose of either of these for your DT? ml/gal/day?
My rate of f/2 for Nanno is 2ml/4L of salt water. Does that dose apply to ISO?
Also, do you need to find a way to heat your bottles? There’s no way mine are at 78 degrees.

 

[NS Mike D]

I've been updating my phyto/pod project in this thread

Tigger & Tisbe Pods

I am actually experimenting again. I am wondering if I can get the tank to cycle by running an airline throw the live rock fast to see if it can process the nitrogen cycle efficiently. The water is staying very clean. A light amount of detritus on the bottom.

www.reef2reef.com

@Bam327 78° is ideal but I don't think it's necessary. IMO, it's too easy to culture more phyto than you'll ever need so does one really need maximum efficiency.

I have a thermometer next to my culture an I am using indirect sunlight. The avg temp is 68° and the phyto is doing well, the left side was set established monday

I think I am good until the winter, and was thinking I can get a reptile heating and an inkbird or willfi controller (to prevent accidental over heating)


as for dosing, Poseidon recommends 5ml per 10 gallons three to four times a week.
Tank stocking, filtration etc will affect this formula so I would do it 2x week and see how it goes and increase accordingly.


remember to turn off the skimmer when dosing.

 

[Bam327]

Thanks Mike. Is that 5 ml/10 gal the same for Nanno vs ISO? And do you feed via a dosing pump throughout the day, or just one shot once a day? Seems that if you have to turn your skimmer off it would be best to do it in one shot?

 

[calli]

I have been reading up on dosing Phytoplankton, and getting a culture going and growing them myself. I have found mixed opinions on it and wanted to see opinions in here. Do any of you dose phytoplankton? Did you see any benefits? Adverse effects? Do you recommend it? Thanks!

Do you have any updates on this? details on what you started with dosing and such?

Thank you,

Ian

 

[gbroadbridge]

From what I read, some people say its pointless because the skimmer will kill them all anyways?

Pyhto seems to make everything happy in my 90 gal - and it certainly helped with Dino's in my Nano tank.

The skimmer and UV are turned off for 2 hours after dosing.

 

[Paddypils]

This stuff almost looks too good to be true but if it is it will be very much in demand. It's in a dosing bag like the ones hospitals use and you stick an airline hose in it with a dosing pump dispensing it. They say it stays good without refrigeration for 18 months !!!! Don't know which strains of phytoplankton is in it.

Filterfeeders exploded after dosing this, no more visits to the fridge late at night.

 

[Tbg299]

I have been reading up on dosing Phytoplankton, and getting a culture going and growing them myself. I have found mixed opinions on it and wanted to see opinions in here. Do any of you dose phytoplankton? Did you see any benefits? Adverse effects? Do you recommend it? Thanks!

I have been dosing Tommy's phyto for the past year with fantastic results. I have huge copepods swimming around my refugium.

 

[Susan Edwards]

I dose 200-400 ml a day and culture my own. I dump some in the display and some into the fuge.

I purchased the posiedan kit

https://poseidonreefsystems.com/products/phytotank-complete-kit

I ordered 2 of the bottles. Years ago I made my own but this is so much simpler. And the pay back time won't be long. Was spending at least 40 a month. Now I'm harvesting 5-6 bottles every 7-10 days. I send 2 to my son in law every month or less. I do find with the bags that there is settling in the creases so I plug the vent and shake once a day

I ordered 2 types of phyto from @Eldredge. A bottle of T and a bottle of N. I mix them before I use. I'll be starting my copepod culture this week, using the same system. That will save me a 100 bucks a month

 

[Susan Edwards]

Here is a pic of my set up. Will get the copepod jug ready tomorrow for tuesdays pods. This is 2 days of phyto growth. Going to be a nice batch. Thought I was losing the culture on the left but it recovered and is starting a new batch nicely

 

[Derrick0580]

I currently run a poseiden reef setup. I gave up on tisbe pods and switches to tigger pods and they are breeding like there’s no tomorrow! I also culture nanno phyto. I get 2 liters a week from a harvest and the 3rd liter I use to restart my next culture. I tried multiple times with poseiden’s suggested 250ml to start a culture and had more crashed cultures than good harvests. I also use mercer of montana f2 and I use 4 ml of it each culture and I haven’t lost a batch in a long time. Personally I do not measure what I dose into my tanks but it is suggested between 5-10 ml per 25 gallons of water. I dose about 4-6 turkey basters full of tigger pods after tank lights go out every other day and about 50-75 ml of live phyto into my 120. When I spot feed my corals with reef roids I also use phyto instead of tank water to mix up the powder for an extra boost for the corals. Plus I am dumping phyto into my pod culture a couple times a week to keep it tinted green. So all in all I go through the harvested phyto fairly quickly. I actually just order all the hardware and jars to build 4 more culturing vessels and plan on making them resemble the poseiden reef set up as much as possible.

 

[Susan Edwards]

I usually have to add another ml of each fertilizer. For fish food, I put 6-8 frozen cubes in contiment containers and keep in freezer. To thaw I add 2-3 inches of phyto and sometimes some ab+ and fill with ro water. Tonight I feed 30 ml ab+ and mixed it with 2-300 ml phyto and used the turkey baster to feed. I also start with more than 250 ml start up. Prob. closer to 8oz.
I like the poseiden set up. Just toss the bags. Though I might get cheap and start washing and reusing at some point. Curious to see how the pod set up works. Ordered algae barns galaxy pods. It is a blend so we'll see

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

I usually have to add another ml of each fertilizer. For fish food, I put 6-8 frozen cubes in contiment containers and keep in freezer. To thaw I add 2-3 inches of phyto and sometimes some ab+ and fill with ro water. Tonight I feed 30 ml ab+ and mixed it with 2-300 ml phyto and used the turkey baster to feed. I also start with more than 250 ml start up. Prob. closer to 8oz.
I like the poseiden set up. Just toss the bags. Though I might get cheap and start washing and reusing at some point. Curious to see how the pod set up works. Ordered algae barns galaxy pods. It is a blend so we'll see

The Blend will mono out fairly quickly in that size container you will most likely end up with Tigs or Tisbe at the end . It's always best to do each species separate if that's the route you're trying to go .