Can Phytoplankton Reproduce On It's Own??

[ggNoRe]

So I've had the little 10G nano up and running for a few months now and everything was going well until all of a sudden BOOM! For like 10 days now the water keeps getting "cloudier and cloudier" until now I have been just thinking must be a bacteria bloom. But today as I noticed it's getting worse and worse it is totally green!!! I did dose a very thick and premium phytoplankton pretty heavily for a little while (Jays Reefebugs most premium version) but it wasn't enough to turn the whole water green for extended periods and would always clear up after a couple minutes. I stopped dosing phyto a couple weeks ago. About 3 days ago I did a 50% water change and added some carbon but in that time it has got exponentially worse. Any thoughts or opinions? Can phyto breed exponentially without feeding F2 and the sorts in a normal reef environment?

 

[Spare time]

Yes but its rare from my understanding. A cheap (but safe) UV like the green machine will clear it up.

The good side is that your copepods and other zooplankton think they have died and gone to some sort of food heaven

 

[ggNoRe]

No way I'm investing on a UV sterilizer on this essentially free tank I setup in my garage with spare supplies I had lying around. Just did an 80% water change and still super cloudy. This is WILD.

 

[ptrusk]

yuch

 

[ptrick21186]

Wow....never seen this before

 

[ptrick21186]

Can you give us some details on the tank? Specifically if you're dosing anything

 

[ggNoRe]

Can you give us some details on the tank? Specifically if you're dosing anything

Set it up 5 months ago (thought it was 3 months but checked my old photos and saw September) with a piece of live rock from my 2yr old display as well as water from the established system as a place to banish my anemones that were wrecking havoc in my display. 2 months later added a stronger light and a couple fish that I needed to move. Slowly have been moving some frags over from display as well. Corals all doing very well and growing in new system. Started to get a little dinoflagellates which have troubled me in my display constantly. Did a fair amount of liquid carbon dosing as well as phytoplankton dosing. Carbon dosing stopped about one month ago. Phytoplankton dosing stopped more recently about 2 weeks ago. Water started getting cloudy about 10 days ago. Right away did 50% water change. Added a couple corals looking to be in very bad condition 2 days ago (one elegance and one hammer). Water continued to get rapidly worse. All corals other than the 2 recently added still look very healthy, fish, and anemones looking good.

I spent a couple hours fiddling with my cheap microscope but I couldn't find anything that seemed to be alive or moving. Possibly magnification is too high as it starts at 120x.

 

[taricha]

skimmer, uv, fine filtration or time/nutrient depletion. Those are the ways a phytoplankton bloom (or bacterial bloom) ends.

 

[ggNoRe]

Yes I was thinking. Just going to continue to wait it out and do water changes when it gets really bad. Hopefully nothing dies in the meantime.

skimmer, uv, fine filtration or time/nutrient depletion. Those are the ways a phytoplankton bloom (or bacterial bloom) ends.

 

[bushdoc]

I see you have HOB filter there. It might be a nutrient trap if not cleaned regularly.

 

[ggNoRe]

Yea I am going to go ahead and change the polyfilter floss

 

[ggNoRe]

Phyto bloom still going strong. As far as I can see fish and coral doing fine. Changed filter floss and did 80% water change did not stop it.

 

[Holy handgrenade]

Looks like you dont need to buy phyto anymore!