Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Wow would have expected more. I’d just keep moving to DT or whichever bin you’re scrubbing clean. I’m time it will do wonders.

I'm running it in the first brute where water comes from the display. I'll keep running it 24/7 for a while. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Phyto Dosing Amounts

Anyone try to quantify the phyto in commercial, diy, or hobbyist purchased phyto? Seems tricky, except perhaps by high dilution and absorbance. At least that gives a comparison, but not necessarily an optimal dosing amount.

Potency claims and directions for amounts vary greatly. Are they based on reality?

If you make it yourself or buy it from a friend, how do you determine how much is a good amount to dose daily?

 

[twentyleagues]

Phyto Dosing Amounts

Anyone try to quantify the phyto in commercial, diy, or hobbyist purchased phyto? Seems tricky, except perhaps by high dilution and absorbance. At least that gives a comparison, but not necessarily an optimal dosing amount.

Potency claims and directions for amounts vary greatly. Are they based on reality?

If you make it yourself or buy it from a friend, how do you determine how much is a good amount to dose daily?

I dont have a scientific answer for you. I go kind of by the phyto color/"thickness". If its thin and light green I dose more if it dark green and thick I dose less. I'd have to look at my notes to tell you the volume of what I was actually dosing from my notes from last year early this year to tell you the amounts though. TBH I didnt see any thing bad or good come from dosing though. I was trying to culture pods separately and those crash/got tossed into the tank when I ran out of phyto from a local "cheap" source.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I dont have a scientific answer for you. I go kind of by the phyto color/"thickness". If its thin and light green I dose more if it dark green and thick I dose less. I'd have to look at my notes to tell you the volume of what I was actually dosing from my notes from last year early this year to tell you the amounts though. TBH I didnt see any thing bad or good come from dosing though. I was trying to culture pods separately and those crash/got tossed into the tank when I ran out of phyto from a local "cheap" source.

OK, thanks. My reason for dosing it are two fold:

1. To make sure the various pods in the tank grow fast enough to feed the mandarin
2. To feed the various nonphotosynthetic filter feeders I have (sea fan, sponges).

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yellow Tang Issue?

I started a thread in the fish forum on a weird yellow tang issue.

Yellow tang issue

What the heck is this on my yellow tang? Some sort of parasite?

www.reef2reef.com

 

[twentyleagues]

Phyto Dosing Amounts

Anyone try to quantify the phyto in commercial, diy, or hobbyist purchased phyto? Seems tricky, except perhaps by high dilution and absorbance. At least that gives a comparison, but not necessarily an optimal dosing amount.

Potency claims and directions for amounts vary greatly. Are they based on reality?

If you make it yourself or buy it from a friend, how do you determine how much is a good amount to dose daily?

I dont have a scientific answer for you. I go kind of by the phyto color/"thickness". If its thin and light green I dose more if it dark green and thick I dose less. I'd have to look at my notes to tell you the volume of what I was actually dosing from my notes from last year early this year to tell you the amounts though. TBH I didnt see any thing bad or good come from dosing though. I was trying to culture pods separately and those crash/got tossed into the tank when I ran out of phyto from a local "cheap" source.

OK, thanks. My reason for dosing it are two fold:

1. To make sure the various pods in the tank grow fast enough to feed the mandarin
2. To feed the various nonphotosynthetic filter feeders I have (sea fan, sponges).

Phyto does make pods grow the population for sure. I would also think the nonphoto stuff would benefit. I have not dosed phyto since jan-fed of this year. I picked up an red ball sponge in march about the size of a ping pong ball its now a little bigger than a golf ball. No phyto or powdered foods. It is in my sump just after the fuge so I am guessing it is possibly feeding off doc or other particulate matter, I dont use mechanical filtration other than a skimmer. Skimmer is right before return pump.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The parasite looks like a cirolanid isopod. It just fell off. I do t think it was on long. Maybe a fin is not a good point to bite.

Cirolanid isopod? Help?

Apologies... New here. I posted this and then saw this forum. Can't figure out how to delete the other post. Please help! I believe, based on what research I have done, that this is a Cirolanid isopod. What can I do?

www.reef2reef.com

 

[twentyleagues]

The parasite looks like a cirolanid isopod. It just fell off. I do t think it was on long. Maybe a fin is not a good point to bite.

Cirolanid isopod? Help?

Apologies... New here. I posted this and then saw this forum. Can't figure out how to delete the other post. Please help! I believe, based on what research I have done, that this is a Cirolanid isopod. What can I do?

www.reef2reef.com

It does. Its crazy it's the same color as the fish though. Do you think it came in on the live rock?

 

[Subsea]

Randy,
After dosing photoplankton in mature tank, I expect the green tint to clear in a few hours. I also dose live phytoplankton in the day time.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Wow that is somewhat unsettling. Have you scooped out out yet?

 

[X-37B]

Phyto Dosing Amounts

Anyone try to quantify the phyto in commercial, diy, or hobbyist purchased phyto? Seems tricky, except perhaps by high dilution and absorbance. At least that gives a comparison, but not necessarily an optimal dosing amount.

Potency claims and directions for amounts vary greatly. Are they based on reality?

If you make it yourself or buy it from a friend, how do you determine how much is a good amount to dose daily?

I use esv dried phyto. I mix it with my frozen when I feed. I also dose it at night 1-2 times a week.
They give dosing instructions and I use 50% of recommended.
Never dosed live but have used esv for over 8 years now.
It's worth a look.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Wow that is somewhat unsettling. Have you scooped out out yet?

The isopod fell off when I wasn’t looking. I’m hoping he will soon be mantis food. lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy,
After dosing photoplankton in mature tank, I expect the green tint to clear in a few hours. I also dose live phytoplankton in the day time.

Yes, that has been my experience. I don’t see any by morning.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It does. Its crazy it's the same color as the fish though. Do you think it came in on the live rock?

I expect so.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I use esv dried phyto. I mix it with my frozen when I feed. I also dose it at night 1-2 times a week.
They give dosing instructions and I use 50% of recommended.
Never dosed live but have used esv for over 8 years now.
It's worth a look.

Thanks. :)

 

[BeanAnimal]

The isopod fell off when I wasn’t looking. I’m hoping he will soon be mantis food. lol

Sleep well... With a knife maybe.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sleep well... With a knife maybe.

I wonder what urgent care would think if I had a bright yellow isopod stuck on my arm. lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Frozen Phyto

Oops, moving the mini fridge around to put the uv bulbs into the return Brute must have messed with the temp setting somehow. The temp was 18 deg F and the Reef Nutrition Phyto feast live was frozen.

Probably not so live now, but it is thawed and ready to dose tonight. I wrote to RN to make sure dosing is not a problem, but haven’t heard yet. Can’t imagine it’s much worse than dosing their dead phyto, so I’m proceeding under that assumption. :)

 

[Subsea]

Frozen Phyto

Oops, moving the mini fridge around to put the uv bulbs into the return Brute must have messed with the temp setting somehow. The temp was 18 deg F and the Reef Nutrition Phyto feast live was frozen.

Probably not so live now, but it is thawed and ready to dose tonight. I wrote to RN to make sure dosing is not a problem, but haven’t heard yet. Can’t imagine it’s much worse than dosing their dead phyto, so I’m proceeding under that assumption. :)

@Randy Holmes-Farley
I suspect lightly frozen does not kill phytoplankton.

A future upgrade for me is to include a continuous drip phytopkankton reactor.

Dana Riddle started one, then was interrupted by a hurricane and family matters. I intend to feed phytoplankton reactor with aged tank water sanitized with uv sterilizer. Then allow overflow to drip into refugium.

 

[JoJosReef]

Sorry Randy, haven't been following your new build (and thus not learning much). I really like your rocks and choice of mixing corals, sponges and macros! Those pink neptheas are going to look awesome when they start fanning out more. I love a happy Koji Wada:

Ignore the leopard. She's full of herself.