How much Phyto is too much?

[DmitryB]

I've started culturing Phyto (just the greens for now; trying my first Rhodomona lens now. Well, second Rhodomona lens, I friend the first attempt with too much light!) Anyway, with gallons of Phyto being made (even if it is just one strain), I've got too much Phyto! How much is too much to dose? I think I've seen @Reef By Steele say they dose up to 2x ml of their gallon volume?? I've tried just one ml of gallon volume for now, but my skimmer (October Regal 200 INT) goes absolutely bonkers for HOURS afterwards. And because I have it draining into a 1 gallon container next to the sump, it FLOODS. Now happened 3 times. Last time I left the skimmer off for 6 hours and it still flooded (I left for work.) So, is it just too much Phyto or does the skimmer just need to be dialed waaaaay down? But then it doesn't do much the other 18 hrs. (This Octo Regal skimmer is a pain in the butt!)

 

[Imrahilwjz]

Interested to see what foks have to say. I was dosing 400 mL to a 320 gallon system. I didn't notice that issue with my Bubble Magus curve 7, but that could have been because I wasn't watching closely. I need to harvest and start dosing again.

 

[rowenaad]

I culture my phyto so i have no idea what density we are talking about but i dump some random amount in my connected 20+15 gallon system. 1L usually last me 3 wks (cuz i wanna dump them all before going too old) or i can dump it all in 2 wks if i have too much in spare. my skimmer is mounted rather high mostly for air exchange so i never see it going crazy. and i never see any adverse effect with "overdosing"

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I don't know if there is such a thing as too much, but when I used to culture my pwn phyto, I never measured how much I added, I just poured. Sometimes I needed space in my fridge and I've had to dump phyto into my tank or else it would have gone down the drain, nothing ever happened. I never noticed anything happening to my skimmer.

 

[mcarroll]

I've started culturing Phyto (just the greens for now; trying my first Rhodomona lens now. Well, second Rhodomona lens, I friend the first attempt with too much light!) Anyway, with gallons of Phyto being made (even if it is just one strain), I've got too much Phyto! How much is too much to dose? I think I've seen @Reef By Steele say they dose up to 2x ml of their gallon volume?? I've tried just one ml of gallon volume for now, but my skimmer (October Regal 200 INT) goes absolutely bonkers for HOURS afterwards. And because I have it draining into a 1 gallon container next to the sump, it FLOODS. Now happened 3 times. Last time I left the skimmer off for 6 hours and it still flooded (I left for work.) So, is it just too much Phyto or does the skimmer just need to be dialed waaaaay down? But then it doesn't do much the other 18 hrs. (This Octo Regal skimmer is a pain in the butt!)

In the short term dial it down to dry skim and/or unhook the drain so the liquid fraction just goes back into the sump.

 

[afboundguy]

I am doing 900 ml spread out evenly over three doses daily for my roughly 200 gallon total setup. This is actually on the low side but I will be ramping it back up.

I use @TopShelfAquatics's dosing chart as it seems to break it down the best.

 

[DmitryB]

I am doing 900 ml spread out evenly over three doses daily for my roughly 200 gallon total setup. This is actually on the low side but I will be ramping it back up.

I use @TopShelfAquatics's dosing chart as it seems to break it down the best.

Wow I was not expecting those numbers!

 

[JonoH]

I dose 500ml in my 220 Gal most days with no adverse effects to my skimmer. But I am heavy SPS stocked with some Clams and filter feeders. (Also culture my own Tiso and Nanno).

If your skimmer is going nuts, maybe its not getting consumed? How heavily are you stocked?

 

[sixty_reefer]

I’ve used to dose 4ml/gallon, the dose was spread over a 24 hours period (dosing every hour). imo, it will depend on the biodiversity in your system.

 

[fryman]

I dose 6-8 liters a day in a 120gallon. Right now it's a mix of tetraselmis, chaetoceros gracilis, and tisochrysis lutea, although I have tried a variety of diff mixes. I use phyto for my automatic water change.

It has less of an impact that you probably expect. Doesn't move the needle, as far as I can tell, for inorganic nitrate or phosphate. Other feeding has a much bigger impact, especially pellets (when I feed lots of pellets I see inorganic phosphate spikes).

I have a few three-year old flame scallops though, probably only alive due to phyto dosing.

 

[DmitryB]

I dose 500ml in my 220 Gal most days with no adverse effects to my skimmer. But I am heavy SPS stocked with some Clams and filter feeders. (Also culture my own Tiso and Nanno).

If your skimmer is going nuts, maybe its not getting consumed? How heavily are you stocked?

I currently have a lot of frags, SPS and LPS. None of them are big. And I have 2 clams: a small Crocea and a 5" Squamosa. It's possible they're not consuming it fast enough at this time.

I assume everyone shuts off the skimmer for X amount of time after dosing Phyto? My skimmer goes nuts right after dosing and then for hours after. I should note though that when I first installed the skimmer, it would go bonkers when I added regular frozen food. One cube of brine shrimp and the skimmer immediately went crazy. It stopped doing that soon after; there's no noticeable increase in foaming when I add frozen foods now. Is the skimmer adjusting itself? Maybe it will adjust to Phyto as well, although I don't think skimmers are supposed to be smart like a Google Nest!

 

[JonoH]

I currently have a lot of frags, SPS and LPS. None of them are big. And I have 2 clams: a small Crocea and a 5" Squamosa. It's possible they're not consuming it fast enough at this time.

I assume everyone shuts off the skimmer for X amount of time after dosing Phyto? My skimmer goes nuts right after dosing and then for hours after. I should note though that when I first installed the skimmer, it would go bonkers when I added regular frozen food. One cube of brine shrimp and the skimmer immediately went crazy. It stopped doing that soon after; there's no noticeable increase in foaming when I add frozen foods now. Is the skimmer adjusting itself? Maybe it will adjust to Phyto as well, although I don't think skimmers are supposed to be smart like a Google Nest!

I think you might be onto it, your frags have a lot less consumption than what a full colony would have, I would simply lower your dose.

 

[afboundguy]

Wow I was not expecting those numbers!

I usually dose close to the NPS column even though I don't have a ton of NPS but I dose that much and my pod population explodes and so does all the small sponges.

 

[DmitryB]

Wow I was not expecting those numbers!

I usually dose close to the NPS column even though I don't have a ton of NPS but I dose that much and my pod population explodes and so does all the small sponges.

I do need to keep the pod population up because I have 2 tiny Mandarins (aquacultured) and as of two days ago, two grown Anthias!

 

[Reef By Steele Verified Sponsor]

Wow I was not expecting those numbers!

I have to say that your skimmer is either overactive or not at quite right. I dosed 1000ml per day in a 180 gallon full volume 160 gallon RedSea before it blew its front seam. And never had that issue. I did it during feed mode which would shut down return and skinner for 45 minutes.

 

[DmitryB]

Wow I was not expecting those numbers!

I have to say that your skimmer is either overactive or not at quite right. I dosed 1000ml per day in a 180 gallon full volume 160 gallon RedSea before it blew its front seam. And never had that issue. I did it during feed mode which would shut down return and skinner for 45 minutes.

The skimmer is definitely a work in progress. It's been a bit of a PIA.