Phytoplankton=Nutrients?

[SauceyReef]

i personally dont see the need to dose phyto, tank is doing great without and I like to keep it minimalistic. My tank is also designed to be self-running so I can go on holiday or away for a weekend. if I were to add more manual dosing stuff that would change

What was your goal in trying the one strain? Just a heads up I dont auto dose. I just mix the phyto in with the fish food which in turns has me dose almost every day. I go on trips and vacations for 2-4 days sometimes though and the tank is fine. Ive forgotten to add any for like a week and didnt notice any changes other than my nutrients went up a bit.

Live Phytoplankton is usually best if dosed in a automated way. Keeps consistency imo

I will agree though it is hard to get an exact balance doing it my way. I also lean towards the dynamic potency of the bottle makes it near impossible to stay consistent. Plus other factors like how long has it been in my fridge, when was the last time I shook it up, how is the tank doing currently, etc.

 

[Hats_]

Live Phytoplankton is usually best if dosed in a automated way. Keeps consistency imo

cant have the bubbling, tank is in the living room. have a whole design for a self sufficient phyto dosing/supplementing setup but the bubbler makes too much noise and the chance of contamination of the culture is a bit high

 

[Hats_]

What was your goal in trying the one strain? Just a heads up I dont auto dose. I just mix the phyto in with the fish food which in turns has me dose almost every day. I go on trips and vacations for 2-4 days sometimes though and the tank is fine. Ive forgotten to add any for like a week and didnt notice any changes other than my nutrients went up a bit.

i tried multiple strains, didnt see any difference apart from the rhodomonas one. my fish are being fed automatically as well, I just do frozen food mix with reefroids like every week or every 2 weeks

 

[SauceyReef]

i tried multiple strains, didnt see any difference apart from the rhodomonas one. my fish are being fed automatically as well, I just do frozen food mix with reefroids like every week or every 2 weeks

Again - what was your goal? If your nutrients are in check, and everything is well fed and happy you are correct you probably dont have much need for Live Phyto. I am sure something could benefit from it though. For example at the very least I know when I let my mysis shrimp soak in the live phyto, it creates a nutrient rich food for the fish and corals they would not be getting with just mysis alone. Still the most important factor for me live phyto does it drop my nutrients. I run no filtration so this is helpful.

 

[Hats_]

Again - what was your goal? If your nutrients are in check, and everything is well fed and happy you are correct you probably dont have much need for Live Phyto. I am sure something could benefit from it though. For example at the very least I know when I let my mysis shrimp soak in the live phyto, it creates a nutrient rich food for the fish and corals they would not be getting with just mysis alone. Still the most important factor for me live phyto does it drop my nutrients. I run no filtration so this is helpful.

well if youre getting at that just dosing it for nutrients then no. I just got convinced to try it and my university was otherwise going to throw it away

 

[sixty_reefer]

I will agree though it is hard to get an exact balance doing it my way. I also lean towards the dynamic potency of the bottle makes it near impossible to stay consistent. Plus other factors like how long has it been in my fridge, when was the last time I shook it up, how is the tank doing currently, etc.

cant have the bubbling, tank is in the living room. have a whole design for a self sufficient phyto dosing/supplementing setup but the bubbler makes too much noise and the chance of contamination of the culture is a bit high

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/how-to-automate-a-phytoplankton-culture.899/
This is how I used to automate, the noise wasn’t noticeable in the sump. the first one was on for over two years in a row without contamination problems. Only stoped it as I had to move the tank to a different house.

 

[Hats_]

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/how-to-automate-a-phytoplankton-culture.899/
This is how I used to automate, the noise wasn’t noticeable in the sump. the first one was on for over two years in a row without contamination problems. Only stoped it as I had to move the tank to a different house.

thx for the idea but for me the phyto ship has sailed. tank is stable now so I don't want to mess with it a lot more. and like I said my tank doesn't seem to benefit from the tank anyway. also where am I going to find the power outlets :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

the design I had only used one dosing head though if I wanted fertilizer maybe 2

 

[SauceyReef]

i dont think non consistent low dosing of good phyto would do anything bad for a tank. but hey dont mess with success! if everything is thriving just do your thing.

 

[Hats_]

i dont think non consistent low dosing of good phyto would do anything bad for a tank. but hey dont mess with success! if everything is thriving just do your thing.

it probably wont do any harm no, true. but it will cost money to set-up and maintain...

 

[Andrew Stevens]

I know this is a slightly older thread, but @sixty_reefer would you mind sharing which fertiliser you changed to? I'm currently dosing my own live phyto, and for the life of me I cannot get my phosphate down. I'm even using large quantities of rowa-phos, but I cannot get my phosphate under 0.2. Thank you.

In my experience phytoplankton alone does help in a way reduce nutrient, the decomposition of phytoplankton seems to play a important role in it.
The problem that most aquarists don’t realise it’s that they are adding more nutrients from the fertiliser used to culture the phytoplankton to their system than beneficial nutrients from phytoplankton.
Phytoplankton itself has a very low P content, that shouldn’t make a large impact in a Normal tank, the usual P and N increase is solely noticeable in several systems by the fertiliser that wasn’t consumed by the phytoplankton culture.
The only way to have better results with live phytoplankton is by using a fertiliser that has a low P to N ratio, centrifugation to separate the live phytoplankton cells from the culture water or buy freeze dried phytoplankton and rehydrate before dosing to the aquarium.

The most common fertiliser used to grow phytoplankton has a ratio of 1:1 or 2:1 N P and phytoplankton is believed to consume N P at a ratio of 16:1 or higher.
I had better results with live phytoplankton as I changed to a fertiliser that was 15:1 N P that left me with a smaller P concentration in the culture water although it was still present after the usual 7 days.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I know this is a slightly older thread, but @sixty_reefer would you mind sharing which fertiliser you changed to? I'm currently dosing my own live phyto, and for the life of me I cannot get my phosphate down. I'm even using large quantities of rowa-phos, but I cannot get my phosphate under 0.2. Thank you.

Hi, I’ve started using TNC complete, it’s only available in the UK, Tropica plant growth specialised has very similar ingredients below is the dilution of 1ml to 1litre

The N and P are organic

 

[Andrew Stevens]

Thank you!! This is so helpful.

 

[AquaLogic]

Live phyto will consume nutrients, if you're adding phyto and it's raising nutrients then your phyto is dead and decaying.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Live phyto will consume nutrients, if you're adding phyto and it's raising nutrients then your phyto is dead and decaying.

As discussed in the thread, it adds nutrients to the system overall. Whether that ends up raising or lowering nitrate and phosphate in the water depends on what ultimately happens to it. If it is skimmed out, it will take its nutrients with it, and possibly more it took up.

If it is consumed by organisms, then a portion of its nutrients will ultimately be released back to the water.

Thus, the answer may depend on the system.