Is this fish safe, am I breeding phyto maybe?

[prsnlty]

I set up a 20 long frag tank with 20g sump several months ago to breed some pods and possibly a little macro. As you can see in the first picture we've got some seaweed going on in one chamber of the actual DT. There is one big rock in there and a little bit of sand. I had ordered from algae Barn some pods and placed them in the tank and pretty much ignored it after that. I haven't done any water testing or anything lol. A couple of days ago I went in the room to add some top off water to my 5 gallon ATO bucket and all the water was green. There is no hair algae or any other kind of stringy algae in the system. I also placed a small amount of cheato from the seahorse tank (once it cycled) which in turn I inadvertently added flatworms into the system so I never used it for anything. I tested the water today and here are the numbers;
Po4 0
No3 7.5
Alk 6.7
Ca 440
mg 1470
Temp 78.5
I had planned on putting a six line in this tank to take care of the flatworms so I'm wondering if it's fish safe? Although I do know I need to bring the alk up a little bit but seems ok.

Is all this green water possibly phytoplankton?

I strained some of the water through coffee filter and took an up close picture as best I could with my phone camera and an add-on macro lens. I wish I had a microscope! So what do you guys think?


This setup has 4 t5 2 blue+ and 2 atinic, mag 7 return, tlf 150 reactor with gfo and rox below it.

 

[Daddy-o]

Have you been adding any Phyto to feed the pods! If it were my tank, I would get about 6,000 Apocyclops pods from AlgaeBarn and they should feast on that.
Mark

 

[prsnlty]

Yes i did. I used Ocean Magic live phytoplankton. The tank was clear up until a couple of days ago like I said. There's still plenty of pods in there of different types. I'm wondering if the phytoplankton might be breeding and outnumbering the pods.

 

[ngoodermuth]

I would try to get that cleared up a bit before putting a fish in. A couple water changes should do it. Maybe put it in bottles and sell it

Edit. Fact checked myself, and I was wrong. They actual produce oxygen, not consume it. However, blooms could still be toxic to fish.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/phyto.html

 

[prsnlty]

I would try to get that cleared up a bit before putting a fish in. A couple water changes should do it. If only because that phytoplankton is using lots of oxygen. Maybe put it in bottles and sell it

Lol I sure wish I could do that but in good conscience I wouldn't because I know there's flat worms in that tank [emoji12] which is why I wanted the fish. I don't mind there being that much phytoplankton because I'm sure my other tanks would enjoy it as well and part of the reason that I was feeding the tank the live phyto and pods. I started this for my seahorse tank haha.

 

[Annette Garcia]

If you put a six line wrasse in that tank you can say good bye to the pods.

 

[prsnlty]

 

[prsnlty]

If you put a six line wrasse in that tank you can say good bye to the pods.

Yes I know... hoping it likes the meaty flatworms more.

 

[Daddy-o]

Well it looks like you have a Nannochloropsis bloom. Good news is that your corals will love it. I feed my corals 20 ml of live phyto every day. Phyto needs light so you could lower the lighting. Also do you have good water movement at the surface with air added to the tank? I currently have 5 culture buckets going with pods and rotifers and it typical takes them a day or so to make water like yours clear.

 

[prsnlty]

Well it looks like you have a Nannochloropsis bloom. Good news is that your corals will love it. I feed my corals 20 ml of live phyto every day. Phyto needs light so you could lower the lighting. Also do you have good water movement at the surface with air added to the tank?

Honestly I wasn't trying to breed phyto lol but I like the bonus of having it [emoji12] this is actually my frag tank that I have no frags in. I was going to put frags in there however I inadvertently added the flatworms. So basically this tank has been ignored other than a once in a great while feeding of live phyto and keeping up with the ATO. Since both my seahorse tank and this frag tank have flatworms it wasn't a problem feeding the seahorse tank from this one. However I would like to take care of the flatworms in both systems. I tried two times already with flatworm exit in the seahorse tank and it didn't work. It only reduced the population but they came right back. I've been looking for a blue velvet nudibranch or two but haven't found any available as of yet. This is why I wanted to add a six line.

The only flow aside from the mag 7 (which is great flow in a 20 gallon tank) and a jebao wp25 on half speed. Otherwise it blows the water out of the tank on the other end. No air though...

 

[Annette Garcia]

Do you have the white flatworms or the red flatworms

 

[Annette Garcia]

There are approximately 14 different non-parasitic forms that have been seen in aquariums...Some of these feed on small copepods, others feed on diatoms and others act as scavengers...The most commonly encountered flatworm in the reef aquarium are the small, semi-transparent, whitish ones belonging to the suborder Maricola. These are usually found in newly setup aquariums with live rock. They have a length of 5-10 mm with a rounded anterior end and fork-shaped rear end. Mainly active at night, they are usually found crawling along the glass or rock but they can swim short distances when disturbed. These small worms should not cause any undue alarm as they are actually quite helpful and will usually disappear within a few months as their food supply diminishes. If they do not, it could be that you are overfeeding the aquarium

 

[prsnlty]

Do you have the white flatworms or the red flatworms

They are Acoel flatworms. The look similar to arrowheads. They're a tan or tannish brown color.

 

[prsnlty]

There are approximately 14 different non-parasitic forms that have been seen in aquariums...Some of these feed on small copepods, others feed on diatoms and others act as scavengers...The most commonly encountered flatworm in the reef aquarium are the small, semi-transparent, whitish ones belonging to the suborder Maricola. These are usually found in newly setup aquariums with live rock. They have a length of 5-10 mm with a rounded anterior end and fork-shaped rear end. Mainly active at night, they are usually found crawling along the glass or rock but they can swim short distances when disturbed. These small worms should not cause any undue alarm as they are actually quite helpful and will usually disappear within a few months as their food supply diminishes. If they do not, it could be that you are overfeeding the aquarium

The short video clip I attached in this thread shows the kind I have

 

[prsnlty]

Here's a few more pictures of them

 

[prsnlty]

In the 20l frag tank I'm not feeding anything except every once in a while live phyto for the pods that I am breeding for the 45g seahorse tank (twv about 60g). The seahorse tank is fed more mysis than he eats because he is very slow at it. The rest is eaten by a fairy wrasse (who doesn't like flatworms unfortunately) and one spot blenny. What they don't finish the hermits do. Both of these tanks have been running less than a year.

 

[Daddy-o]

I have a Mandarin Goby and a Dwarf Flameback Angel and all they do is eat tiny critters.

 

[Daddy-o]

In the 20l frag tank I'm not feeding anything except every once in a while live phyto for the pods that I am breeding for the 45g seahorse tank (twv about 60g). The seahorse tank is fed more mysis than he eats because he is very slow at it. The rest is eaten by a fairy wrasse (who doesn't like flatworms unfortunately) and one spot blenny. What they don't finish the hermits do. Both of these tanks have been running less than a year.

How much phyto are you adding per day? For 20 gallons of water I currently add 10ml of Phyto Feast Live (the Best!!) twice a day. Better with small feedings of Phyto more often. Your critters look like Red Planaria? You aren't adding F2 or other fertilizer to the water?

 

[prsnlty]

When I mean once in awhile I mean like maybe once a month LOL Approximately 30ml

 

[prsnlty]

That's why I was very surprised to see this in my tank