Phytoplankton feeding

[scotty333]

Evening guys,
I’m going to start feeding phyto tomorrow when lfs gets his stock
3 questions on this

1. How much to put in 525ltr aquarium
2. Can you target feed a clam
3. Skimmer offf for a bit?

Thanks in advance

 

[tzabor10]

Evening guys,
I’m going to start feeding phyto tomorrow when lfs gets his stock
3 questions on this

1. How much to put in 525ltr aquarium
2. Can you target feed a clam
3. Skimmer offf for a bit?

Thanks in advance

Feed as much as you want
Yes you can feed a clam, but they don’t need it
Skimmer off would help

 

[scotty333]

sod it then I’ll chuck a bottle in

 

[tzabor10]

sod it then I’ll chuck a bottle in

Creating your own phytoplankton is easy and can give you a lot more nutrients. Doesn’t take much room or sophistication

 

[scotty333]

Sophistication is my middle name so I’m good there

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

1) Most commercial phyto's will have instructions with recommended doses, but it really doesn't matter, you can't overdose.
2) Just broadcast feed the tank, no need to target feed a clam
3) Skimmer should be off for a while, since a skimmer will skim it out.

 

[scotty333]

Cheers for that

 

[Uncle99]

Depends of the consistency of the phyto, some watery, some thick like reef nutrition.

On the thicker kind, I do 30mls every week with everthing off for and hour, I don’t directly feed my clams as they are all above 2”.

Keeping small amounts in the column keeps all fed and doesn’t tax your filter as much.

 

[scotty333]

I’ll check out the consistency tomorrow and report back
What volume of water you adding 30ml too?

 

[scotty333]

And is that one shot or spread out?

 

[Naekuh]

If you have a sump or a return section in your AIO, you can probably just dump it in there.

 

[scotty333]

Yeah I have a sump with dsb and calurpa

 

[Outlaw Corals]

Creating your own phytoplankton is easy and can give you a lot more nutrients. Doesn’t take much room or sophistication

Everything I’ve read and from everyone I’ve talked to about feeding live phyto is that they will eat up your nitrate’s

 

[scotty333]

That’s fine because I dose vodka once/ twice a week to keep them at 12

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

In my tanks, (40g 100L ish) I dose a turkey baster full in the morning and evening. Plus a turkey baster of my swamp mix in the morning. Clams are filter feeders, so they can pull it out of the water column. I turn my pumps off when I feed including the skimmer. Phyto is smaller than most filter material but it will get caught up in the skimmer. I broadcast feed in the tanks DT. Growing cultures or at least maintaining ones is pretty easy BTW. As far as eating up your nutrient’s, I have one tank that is High and one tank that I am fighting to keep something of a level in. They get the same amount of Pyhto each day. I think the nutrient issue only comes into play if you dose excess phyto and it stays in your water column.

 

[tzabor10]

You could always chronologically

Everything I’ve read and from everyone I’ve talked to about feeding live phyto is that they will eat up your nitrate’s

I am not sure if I agree. I have always had low (1-3 ppm) nitrate. I have always credited my deep sand and live rock. But maybe phytoplankton helps too

 

[scotty333]

Would it be normal for phosphates to rise and nitrates lower with this?
I added 100ml on Friday and po4 was at 1( up from 0.05) and nitrates 10ppm (down 2)

 

[Uncle99]

I’ll check out the consistency tomorrow and report back
What volume of water you adding 30ml too?

To 250g total water volume, once per week, every week.
Reef nutrition live phyto is the brand.
Very concentrated stuff.

 

[Uncle99]

And is that one shot or spread out?

Once per week every week.
It feeds the guys who keep my sand and rocks clean and corals fed.

 

[scotty333]

This stuff isn’t to dark in colour