Algae-control over Algae-elimination

ZoWhat

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Expert level stuff here, but I want to share my own experience.

Everyone has their own husbandry and is entitled their their own-way-of-doing-things.

I have for awhile now been dosing 32ozs of tetraselmis phytoplankton algae that I brew on my basement in two big 5gal containers with spouts. 32ozs going into a total water volume if around 250gals.

Brew station
20201103_104616.jpg


I started the "brew" buying a bottle of Mercer of Montana strain of tetraselmis in a bottle.

Much like keeping a strain of Yeast going and going to brew homemade beer, I keep brewing this tetraselmis phyto on scale where I dose a 32oz bottle of the stuff straight from the brewing container into my DT roughly about 1hr before the lights go out for the overnight.

Benefits I'm seeing:

> nuisance algae on all LR is gone. Ive read that my tetraselmis is a plant-based algae that outcompetes bad algae. Do I still get algae film on my glass? Yes, but its tetraselmis algae that scrapes off easily. My tank water is a constant shape of light hue of green that you only see in a white bucket during waterchanges. There is no murkiness when I'm just sitting looking at my cirals and fish

> extremely happy corals. Im a dominated zoa/paly tank and I've never seen my polyps more colorful and plump/fleshy. I do have several mushrooms and these guys are my early-warning guys. If they look slightly shriveled,I know something isn't right with my water quality. Ever since dosing tetraselmis my mushrooms look like Goodyear Blimps they have gotten so fleshy.

I wish I had before'n'after pics of my corals because the change has been dramatic.

Am I saying dosing tetraselmis phyto is the "hidden secret" most reefers don't know about and don't utilize???? Maybe....

Problem is with suggesting to you a change on the way you do things gets "personal" really quick because we all believe we've done the research and are doing the best for our tanks.

Anyone else out there dosing tetraselmis phyto? Please tell us your experiences...



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ZoWhat

ZoWhat

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Interesting. You kind of need a control tank to know if the benefit is really from the phyto though?
Well... I can tell you before tetraselmis I was fighting nuisance algae and was dosing vodka to the point where my tank was a ULNS and my zoas/palys looked like crao and weren't growing
 

robertpdx

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Just saw this, and my interest is piqued.

Can you share you method of growing this up and maintaining it?
 

Dkmoo

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i might be simplifying this - but if i'm understanding this right - it's just a "nutrient competition" based method so, what different about it than from using a fuge/algae scrubber?

not trying to be contentious - i'm genuinly curious.
 

sfin52

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i might be simplifying this - but if i'm understanding this right - it's just a "nutrient competition" based method so, what different about it than from using a fuge/algae scrubber?

not trying to be contentious - i'm genuinly curious.
Its also food for coral. A fuge and scrubber is not.
 

t5Nitro

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My corals look best when I dose phosphate. I've been dosing phyto daily, but without the phos the corals are more drab. The phyto never seemed to rid my GHA problem. The phos certainly amplifies it, but the coral like it.

Interested in others experiences.
 

sfin52

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so... kinda like what Vibrant is doing right? reducing nuisance algae and turning it into coral food. i understand Vibrant is a bacteria thing but similar end result.
Yes. I believe thay the phyto is more nutritious.
 

t5Nitro

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Here's a snapshot of my right sided rock. I dose 3ml of sps evo and sps booster daily which is a phyto supplement that contains the one in OPs post. I dont think phyto generally helps nuisance algae. Must be other factors because mine is outta this world. Also, shocker but my NO3 and phos stay low... lol. I can't figure out how to balance complete coral starvation vs minimal nutrients causing insane algae growth. Without phos dosing the sps start to look sad and pale.

20210102_173551.jpg
 

Dkmoo

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Also, shocker but my NO3 and phos stay low... lol.
Can't tell if you were sarcastic but thats actually common. What you are measuring in the test is remaining NO3/phos in water. It's low bc all of that is already sucked up by the GHA;Yuck
 

t5Nitro

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Yeah!! Sarcasm haha. There's loads of it soaked into the algae. What do you do, ya know? My sps on the other side have never looked better but I have to combination dose phyto and phos to get them to look that way. The algae is rampant. Prior to phos with phyto alone it looked similar.
 

hart24601

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There is something to the idea that dosing live phyto, not something like easy sps phyto that isn’t alive, is similar to a Refugium binding and export in the respect that you add live phyto, some is consumed and some lives in the tank with both the phyto consumers (other microorganisms) and the phyto up taking nutrients to grow and they are then skimmed out of the tank (mostly). With phyto and consumers growth rate these can outcompete hair algae to some extent if there are grazers present.
 

Cory

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Well to say something worth anything, phyto is the start of the food chain besides the sun. Phytoplankton feeds zooplankton which feed the fish fry, corals etc. All the way up to sharks. So it all starts with phyto.

Ive wanted to try this now for a long time! Whats your source? Do they ship well in the winter?
 

Aqua Man

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I have for awhile now been dosing 32ozs of tetraselmis phytoplankton algae that I brew on my basement in two big 5gal containers with spouts. 32ozs going into a total water volume if around 250gals.

32 oz!!!?!? Interesting, thanks for sharing.

Is the tetra as easy as the Nano to culture?
 

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