When do you dose Phyto?

One Reefing Boi · Sep 17, 2020

Pretty much title

rkpetersen · Sep 17, 2020

Never. I used to, but haven't for about a year now.
Everything is thriving, including a couple of tridacna clams.

esther · Sep 17, 2020

Following along. Interested to see what everyone says.

One Reefing Boi · Sep 17, 2020

rkpetersen said:
Never. I used to, but haven't for about a year now.
Everything is thriving, including a couple of tridacna clams.

I just got some pods and phyto from algae barn and wondering if it is better to dose at night for the pods to eat or during the day for some of my corals/so they can multiply under the lights

ScottR · Sep 17, 2020

I dose at night as a snack for the corals that are open. I will often mix it with zooplankton (reef roids). Does it do any good? No idea. I just do it.

vetteguy53081 · Sep 17, 2020

I dose at night. They generate during day with lights on. I wait til lights off to supplement it

One Reefing Boi · Sep 17, 2020

esther said:
Following along. Interested to see what everyone says.

honestly prob doesn't make a huge difference but want to try and get the most bang for my buck

One Reefing Boi · Sep 17, 2020

ScottR said:
I dose at night as a snack for the corals that are open. I will often mix it with zooplankton (reef roids). Does it do any good? No idea. I just do it.

lol true -- feel like that can be summed up for a lot in this hobby lol

josephxsxn · Sep 17, 2020

In the evening but this is because I dose it along with other things that I turn my skimmer off for. Never truly gave the time much thought.

Pods on the other hand I add at night to prevent the fish from devouring them.

One Reefing Boi · Sep 17, 2020

josephxsxn said:
In the evening but this is because I dose it along with other things that I turn my skimmer off for. Never truly gave the time much thought.

Pods on the other hand I add at night to prevent the fish from devouring them.

yes I added my first batch of pods about a month ago middle of the day when I got them. It looked like my shrimp and clowns just took a triple shot of espresso... prob only 1/3 of the pods made it lol

One Reefing Boi · Sep 17, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
I dose at night. They generate during day with lights on. I wait til lights off to supplement it

I dose at night too so the pods can enjoy it, but why not dose during the day when they can replicate and you can get more?

Reefing_addiction · Sep 17, 2020

Just bought some phytoplankton from Mercer of Montana and they recommend to does with all flow off for 15 minutes so that’s what I’m doing

vetteguy53081 · Sep 17, 2020

One Reefing Boi said:
I dose at night too so the pods can enjoy it, but why not dose during the day when they can replicate and you can get more?

Because it is generally consumed during the day.

Phycodurus · Sep 17, 2020

i dose in the evening just as the tank lights go out (but living room lights are still on ... usually for two more hours).

One Reefing Boi · Sep 17, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
Because it is generally consumed during the day.

makes sense -- maybe ill dose a bit in the day and night

Tuffloud1 · May 12, 2021

Considering certain types of dino detach from surfaces and go into the water column during lights out, running a UV sterilizer at night is a good way to fight them. With that said, when is the best time to dose phytoplankton if running UV at night? I imagine during the day when you can turn the UV off?

Does the benefit of dosing at night outweigh running a UV at night to fight dinos?

Reefing_addiction · May 12, 2021

So I switched to reef nutrition. Love the concentrated phyto.

I still dose at night with lights off in the dt. Main reason I does at night is it turns my water green.

I also dose to help feed the pod population in my sump and dt. So I usually dose straight in to my sump, which is where the lights are on. But it makes it’s way up to the the dt. By the morning my water is no longer tinted green.

my main reason for dosing is to feed pods so the mandarins I have always have food