Auto Dosing Phytoplankton for Optimum Benefit.

[rdavidw]

Very helpful thread!

I am just starting to auto dose phyto. Looking to start simple and then move to a more automated process.

My current set up consists of two 1 gallon jugs with each jug having a strip light and a bubbler. Each jug started with about 1/3 of a gallon of live phyto, 4ml of F/2 and 4ml of Ferrion (iron). Jug (A) has a dosing line to the display tank to feed 150 ml at 1:00 am. Skimmer shuts off for two hours and UV for one hour.

I have a sterile 8 gallon sealed container from the brewing world with just RODI water at 1.19 salinity. When jug (A) gets down to about 1/3, every 19 days or so, the full jug (B) is moved to the spot (A) was in with the dosing line. I then top off jug (A) with clean salt water and I add 4ml of F/2 and 4ml of Ferrion and set it back in the grow spot to get back to full saturation over the next 19 days or so, and repeat.

So far so good, corals and clam are happy!

Few questions:
1) If I just add the F/2 and Ferrion to the 8 gallon salt water reserve tank, will it be far more susceptible to growing something funky? It is sealed off from light and has an air-lock, but when I pull from it air comes in.

2) I am currently dosing 7.8 ml of Ferrion once per day to my refugium with chaeto. If I were to move that dose line just to my phyto jug (B), would that over dose the culture? I don't know at what level iron becomes toxic to phytoplankton. Would all of the iron that is taken up by the phyto make it back to the main system?

3) I was originally thinking of only having one phyto container and one salt water top off container that would add 150 ml of salt water with fertilizer each day. One of the issues I was warned about was the amount of F/2 that would make its way to the main system. It was suggested that I should have an intermediary vessel to grow the phyto and to dose to. My question is this, will all of the F/2 and or Ferrion that is dosed into a phyto culture make it into the main system if all of that culture is added to the main system? Does it matter if it is taken up by the phyto or not before it makes it to they main system?

Thanks for any help and suggestions!