How much phyto should you feed and how often?

[Laith]

do you guys pause your skimmer and filter socks and such when feeding phyto? If so, how long?

I don't.

 

[Mark Novack]

A dollop once or twice per day. I add it mainly for pods and young clam. Whatever profits from it profits.

 

[Koh23]

I believe that there is no exact science, at least, not with home grown phyto.

Mostly, concetration is unknown, and it varies from batch to batch, i highly doubt that most of us acctualy do any kind of testing, really not sure what ine can possibly test.....

So, leap of faith, just pour it, and hope for the best.

From my observation, with 200ml daily on 500(600)l tank, corals do seem happier, but this is just personal opinion, not a fact.... Benefit to pod population remain to be seen.

Only real, measurable thing i noticed, my po4 finaly rise to measurable leveles, currently at 0.05.

Again, any positive or negative effect of this remain to be seen....

 

[PeterEde]

Phyto is too small to get caught in filter socks. A filter sock is usually 150-200 microns and phyto averages 5-15 microns depending on which one. I imagine it can get caught up in the skimmer. When I dose, it is during feeding time, so the returns are off, the MP's are throttled back and I just let it spread throughout the water column.

My skimmer catches and amplifies after a day. Starting to think I should culture it in my skimmer

 

[HVRK23]

I actually don’t feed phyto but J am going to follow this thread a little more closer now regarding all the positive feedback.

 

[BAMatter]

About 2 drops per gallon in my tank, daily, in both my tanks. I experimented with it in my 32 gallon tank and the pod population exploded, so started dosing my 75 gallon. I like the Reef Nutrition Phyto Live, however will be culturing my own soon hopefully.

 

[Piscans]

i culture my own, i feed it a couple times a week. i have a little tupperware cup thing that i just scoop in the tank and then replace with new water. all the corals & invertabrates like it.

 

[BAMatter]

What time of day does everyone dose phyto?

 

[Susan Edwards]

What time of day does everyone dose phyto?

Night. After lights out as I add ab+ to it for the corals

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I believe that there is no exact science, at least, not with home grown phyto.

Mostly, concetration is unknown, and it varies from batch to batch, i highly doubt that most of us acctualy do any kind of testing, really not sure what ine can possibly test.....

So, leap of faith, just pour it, and hope for the best.

From my observation, with 200ml daily on 500(600)l tank, corals do seem happier, but this is just personal opinion, not a fact.... Benefit to pod population remain to be seen.

Only real, measurable thing i noticed, my po4 finaly rise to measurable leveles, currently at 0.05.

Again, any positive or negative effect of this remain to be seen....

The place I get my indestructible phyto from has the concentrations listed on each of their containers.

Store 2 — Holdfast Aquaculture

www.holdfastaq.com

But I guess that would be minimum, because the culture definitely grows sitting aerated on my window sill. I usually have to split the cultures.

 

[ReefGeezer]

I use phyto for Pod food. 20-ish ml 3-4X per week.

 

[Koh23]

Well, yes, if someone grows phyto for selling...

My comment was for home growing, where each batch is probably slightly different, probably mosy people are guided by culture color to "guess" density....

 

[Spare time]

0. non. Zero.
Doesn't your tank produce phyto?phytoplankton?!
This is the grimme on the sides of the tanks. The biofilm.
D

What? Biofilm is a mix of stuff, and phytoplankton is free floating

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Yes a mix of stuff. Including phytoplankton.
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Grim*

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Well, yes, if someone grows phyto for selling...

My comment was for home growing, where each batch is probably slightly different, probably mosy people are guided by culture color to "guess" density....

I will have to ask them how they figure minimum density. I am curious now. They mostly grow for mussels and oyster rearing and have a formula for feeding.
Like I said their stuff is bulletproof, the only culture I had go down was a TET culture during our heat wave (sitting in the window sill I am sure the glass bottles hit over 37 deg C ) the ISO on the other hand no issues.. LOL

 

[Koh23]

Yes, they have way to measure culture density, for sure, they sell this stuff and they must have constant "value" product.

Home manufacturers, hardly, simply no need for each batch to be exact, or have predetermined density that must be....

 

[Mhamilton0911]

If you want to get science-y, there is a simple stick to measure density, the Secchi method. Basically, you lower a stick with a bullseye until you can't see it anymore, the corresponding measurements indicate how dense the culture is.

Microalgae Density Measurer – Florida Aqua Farms

For my own uses, I don't measure density, just go by color, when it's so dark I can't see through it it's ready, I go about 10 days between harvest. I could harvest earlier at 7 days, but this works for my needs.

Harvested 2 days ago

 

[Susan Edwards]

MIne isn't so dark, yet if I go over 6-7 days it sometimes crashes. Maybe I need to add more fertilizer around day 5

 

[Koh23]

Yes....

When turns darker green, add some more fertilizer....