Anyone set up a Phytoplankton auto feeder?

[rdavidw]

Greetings and thank you in advance for any feedback or suggestions.

I have a 150 gallon tank with mostly SPS/LPS corals and a clam. Currently spot feeding reefroids with amio acids and phytoplankton every other day. Trying to automate the tank as much a possible.

Thinking of adding a dedicated phytoplankton tank, maybe around 3 gallons with a light on each side with an air bubbler. The plan is to run a dosing tube line from my new salt water tank to a float in the phyto tank. I will have two dosing pumps on the same smart plug, one from the phyto tank up to the display tank and a second one will pump from the sump to a drain. So, for example, if I set up the smart plug to run for 25 seconds every day, it will pump 30ml of phyto up to the display tank and about 30ml of tank water to a drain. The reason for the second pump is to mitigate the slow build up in the salinity level. I would also set up the skimmer and UV to cut off for about 90 min.

I would also set up a 3rd dosing pump to feed F/2 phyto fertilizer or similar into the phyto tank, maybe every third day.

In theory :face-with-rolling-eyes:, would I only need to top off the 50 gal new salt tank before the quarterly water changes and replace the F/2 fertilizer when empty?

In practice, would the phyto tank get super funky and need to be cleaned out and started over after a month or less? Will the phyto repopulate at a fast enough rate with just the light and the fertilizer? I am using RODI water for the new salt water, but its open to the air. Would I get something other than just the phyto growing in the phyto tank?

Thanks again for any feedback!

 

[sixty_reefer]

Depending on the tank size you may notice that the overall salinity in the main tank won’t really change much over time.

I wouldn’t use a float for the top up water from the culture, due to the bubbling of the air in the phytoplankton culture a dosing unit will be more effective, you will also need to have a lower salinity in your saltwater culture top up that will depend on the ml dosing a day and also evaporation on the culture 1.015 it’s usually a good number to start.

Your fertiliser will only need to be toped up once a week

In addition to your current plans I would recommend adding around 30 k1 micro media to the phytoplankton culture, this helps keeping the phytoplankton in suspense and it helps with keeping the photo reactor walls clean so that light stays constant and reduces maintenance.

I’ve got some similar plans from a automated culture that I’ve done a few years ago. My first one went 2 years without crashing. The only other thing I suggest is to keep a eye on the tank phosphates

 

[BigAl07]

@rdavidw have you looked at this thread yet?

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/auto-dosing-phytoplankton-for-optimum-benefit.1068523/

 

[Poseidon03]

That definitely seems achievable, but my main concern is the F2. It has a ton of phosphates and other stuff and you would almost be dosing it daily to your tank. Personally, if you want to do this, I would almost do a "tank transfer" type method.

Culture container: main culture that you dose F2 in. Every week, 75% of this container is pumped into a "dosing container." Then, it is filled back up and F2 is dosed.

Dosing contianer: holding container for how much phyto you go through per week. It starts at 100% full at the beginning of the week and is neary empty at the end. The culture container is pumped into this before going into the tank. This will help make sure minimal F2 is dosed.

 

[Pistondog]

I cutured phyto in 3x1 gallon containers. Harvested and diluted into a 10g bin that did 1 gallon awcs. The 10g bin was lit 8 hours and agitated.

This allowed scrapping bad batches before harvesting.

 

[rdavidw]

Depending on the tank size you may notice that the overall salinity in the main tank won’t really change much over time.

I wouldn’t use a float for the top up water from the culture, due to the bubbling of the air in the phytoplankton culture a dosing unit will be more effective, you will also need to have a lower salinity in your saltwater culture top up that will depend on the ml dosing a day and also evaporation on the culture 1.015 it’s usually a good number to start.

Your fertiliser will only need to be toped up once a week

In addition to your current plans I would recommend adding around 30 k1 micro media to the phytoplankton culture, this helps keeping the phytoplankton in suspense and it helps with keeping the photo reactor walls clean so that light stays constant and reduces maintenance.

I’ve got some similar plans from a automated culture that I’ve done a few years ago. My first one went 2 years without crashing. The only other thing I suggest is to keep a eye on the tank phosphates

Awesome! I have been fighting to get my phosphates and nitrates up. I was at 0.00 on both and kept getting Cyanobacteria. I had been running a bio-pellet reactor for about 8 years with only a cup of pellets and would keep a small ball of chaeto in my refugium. If it started to grow I would add pellets or if it started to die I would remove pellets. Worked well until I added a kalk stir reactor that dropped out the last little bit of phosphates out. I have removed the biopellets and am just growing chaeto now. Got my phosphates up to 0.05 and nitrates up to 3. My targets are 0.05 and 5.

My plan was to use 1.026 salinity in the phytoplankton tank to keep it the same as the tank. Would that hinder the growth of the phyto?

On the salinity change in the tank- the dosing pumps I use are only $12 and its easy to set up. I have my kalk water top off on a pH controller, with a fresh water top off on a lower float, so I get about a gallon swing in salinity each day anyway. I also dose calcium chloride and sodium bicarbonate which seems to add salinity at around the same rate my skimmate pulls it out.

Is this the K1 Micro Media you recommended?

 

[sixty_reefer]

Awesome! I have been fighting to get my phosphates and nitrates up. I was at 0.00 on both and kept getting Cyanobacteria. I had been running a bio-pellet reactor for about 8 years with only a cup of pellets and would keep a small ball of chaeto in my refugium. If it started to grow I would add pellets or if it started to die I would remove pellets. Worked well until I added a kalk stir reactor that dropped out the last little bit of phosphates out. I have removed the biopellets and am just growing chaeto now. Got my phosphates up to 0.05 and nitrates up to 3. My targets are 0.05 and 5.

My plan was to use 1.026 salinity in the phytoplankton tank to keep it the same as the tank. Would that hinder the growth of the phyto?

On the salinity change in the tank- the dosing pumps I use are only $12 and its easy to set up. I have my kalk water top off on a pH controller, with a fresh water top off on a lower float, so I get about a gallon swing in salinity each day anyway. I also dose calcium chloride and sodium bicarbonate which seems to add salinity at around the same rate my skimmate pulls it out.

Is this the K1 Micro Media you recommended?

I always tried to keep my cultures at 1.019 at the time speaking with others it seemed to be the sweet spot, once it hits the tank in my view won’t make much difference as it will be removed via skimming or used via the tank. I also used table salt from the Red Sea instead of synthetic salt it kept the culture at a lower ph and it seemed to work for me. Give the culture a week or so also before you start dosing to get some strength.

If possible instead of a single dose, see if it’s possible to spread it over 24 hours. I used to dose hourly.

That’s the right media, you should be able to find smaller amounts cheaper.

 

[rdavidw]

I am considering pumping the phyto into my sump/refugium instead of directly into the display tank. The Skimmer and UV will be of for an hour or two so that will not be a problem. I have my sump set up with one return pump that goes:
Sump -> UV -> Chiller -> Manafold
-> Display Tank
-> Carbon Reactor -> Skimmer -> Sump / Refugium

Will the activated carbon reactor filter out the phytoplankton?

 

[sixty_reefer]

I am considering pumping the phyto into my sump/refugium instead of directly into the display tank. The Skimmer and UV will be of for an hour or two so that will not be a problem. I have my sump set up with one return pump that goes:
Sump -> UV -> Chiller -> Manafold
-> Display Tank
-> Carbon Reactor -> Skimmer -> Sump / Refugium

Will the activated carbon reactor filter out the phytoplankton?

I would imagine that some of the cells would get trapped in it, if that’s a bad thing I wouldn’t be able to tell you. In my case I always dosed to get the benefits of the decomposition of the phytoplankton in my tank.

 

[rdavidw]

OK - Going to start off smaller and simpler, may upgrade later.

Just going to use two 1 gallon glass jugs with each having:
1) few feet of led light strip taped to the outside
2) air bubbler tube
3) about 30 K1 media
4) 4ml of K2
5) 1.019 RODI salt water
6) about 1L of phyto

I am going to set them side by side next to my refugium and dose about 100 ml per day out of one of the jugs to the refugium about an hour after the lights go out in the display tank, and have the skimmer and UV off for two hours. About once a month, I will have one jug that is about 1/4 full and will then swap it with the full one that was not on the dosing pump.

I will sterilize a 1L container with StarSan to pour the existing phyto into, then rinse and soak the empty jug and the K1 media in P.B.W. then rinse and sterilize with StarSan and fill the jug with 3L of 1.019 RODI salt water, topped off with the 1L of phyto and add the 4ml of K2.

I will just run my skimmer a little wetter if the salinity starts to creep up, or just bleed off a little tank water.

I have been fighting to get my phosphates and nitrates up and this should help, I can adjust the 100 ml per day as needed. I may also add 2ML of the K1 every other week to jug that is not on the dosing pump.

Does 100 ml per day sound about right for my 150 gallon tank? I have a small Derasa clam and mostly SPS/LPS corals. I am hoping the phyto will also grow my pod population.

I have been spot feeding reefroids with about a 1/2 cap full of Amino Acids, every other day. I wonder if adding some Amino Acids to the phyto jugs would work well?