What are some effects you have experienced with dosing live phytoplankton?

[Miami Reef]

I received my order of a mixed culture of live phytoplankton. I want to know what effects people have observed after dosing it for a while?

I especially want to hear about copepods, algae in the tank (increase/decrease?), any filter feeders come up that haven’t really before dosing, and what effects did it have on nutrients?

Stating what types of phytoplankton you have dosed will also help a lot.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I've only dosed the freeze dried (dead) phytoplankton from ESV, but noticed no effects.

 

[homer1475]

I dose an 8 species blend I buy from a fellow reefer on here.

I dose up to 2ml/G daily. I have 2 fat mandarins, and I wash pods out of my filter socks every couple days when I change them.

I have also notice an explosion of micro brittle stars.

I keep 2 adult mandarins that only eat pods well fed in an 80G cube. I also have several pod eating wrasses.

I always had a cyano issue on my sandbed, once I got up to the 2ml/G, they disappeared, and have stayed gone.

Tank in general is just much healthier.

Only downside, I have to clean my glass every other day, instead of every couple.

 

[homer1475]

Forgot to add.......


No noticeable increase in nutrients.

I have always dosed live phyto for years, but have never actually seen a difference until I started dosing this specific blend.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I’ve changed the fertiliser in my culture to a product that contains less phosphates and no silica for a more clean culture, I’m using it in a continuous automatic dosing system that I’ve developed a few years back and I’ve been able to control nutrients fairly easy on my 25 gallon system, I’ve actually found myself dosing phosphates and nitrates a few times to balance the effects of the phytoplankton.

my recent log is below

Utilising the CNP in phytoplankton to carbon dose my system.

This thread is aimed at recording my personal system Carbon dosing method utilising live phytoplankton as a source of CNP. To accomplish my goals I will be implementing the automated continuous phytoplankton generator that I have developed in the past, this photoreactor allows me to add...

www.reef2reef.com

regarding zooplankton, it helps to recreate the lower tropic levels.

 

[JGT]

A proliferation of micro-fauna in the tank such as tunicates, sponges, feather dusters and mysis shrimp. I also have close to 40 gonis for several years which are thriving. These typically require feedings/nutrients so while I do dose iron and manganese, I have to believe that the phyto is contributing to their well-being

 

[Miami Reef]

A proliferation of micro-fauna in the tank such as tunicates, sponges, feather dusters and mysis shrimp. I also have close to 40 gonis for several years which are thriving. These typically require feedings/nutrients so while I do dose iron and manganese, I have to believe that the phyto is contributing to their well-being

How many mL/gallon of phyto do you dose?

 

[JGT]

How many mL/gallon of phyto do you dose?

1ml/gallon nightly. I have a 250 gal tank. I've been doing it manually but just got a second bank of dosing pumps so plan to automate it.

 

[kevgib67]

Prior to adding pods and dosing phyto i was cleaning my glass weekly. Then I noticed I was having to clean the glass every 1-2 days. It has been going on for a couple of months. I thought perhaps coincidence. Anyone experiencing something similar?

 

[sixty_reefer]

Prior to adding pods and dosing phyto i was cleaning my glass weekly. Then I noticed I was having to clean the glass every 1-2 days. It has been going on for a couple of months. I thought perhaps coincidence. Anyone experiencing something similar?

Are you using f2 by any chance?

 

[kevgib67]

Phyto-Feast

Are you using f2 by any chance?

Phyto-Feast

 

[JGT]

Are you using f2 by any chance?

What's your magical F2 alternative? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Phyto-Feast

Phyto-Feast

It will most likely be grown in f2 fertiliser that contains silica. silica is not used by the species of phytoplankton that we grow and most if not all silica content in the culture water will be available to aid diatoms growth in our systems. Guillards F2 standard formula was created to grow all kinds of phytoplankton and silica is a limiting factor for diatoms hence the reason to be included in f2.

what you may be seeing in your glass could just be diatoms.

 

[fryman]

I hesitate to say this but I'm skeptical dosing phyto in the amounts most people try has much effect at all. Just how many pods do we expect to survive on a few ml of phyto? And how are the pods supposed to find a couple ml of phyto diluted within a 100+ gallon tank?

I raise rotifers and copepods. If I fed them just 1 or 2 ml/ gallon per day, I'd have a tiny population with negligable yield. I actually feed 500ml per day into each 2.5 gal culture. A tiny single species tank so the pods have access to most of the food, instead of being captured by filtration or some other organisms like spirorbids.

I feed about a gallon of phyto per day into my 120gal display and still the effects are subtle. I think *maybe* I have more filter feeders like spirorbids, sponges, and feather dusters. Surprisingly I do not see tons of copepods, and I also feed at least 40,000 copepod nauplii/day into this tank.

I do it for my flame scallops. It's too early to tell if I've been successful since I've only had them 6mo.

*edit*: sorry I forgot the OP's main questions:
My phyto is a mix of testraselmis, nannochloropsis, and tisochrysis. Diatoms newly started, trying chaetoceros & thalassiosira. Pods are mostly tisbe now, have also used tigriopus but tisbe are much more prolific for me.

I have not noticed a significant impact on nitrate or phosphate

 

[sixty_reefer]

What's your magical F2 alternative? Inquiring minds want to know.

I used miracle gro for a few years with good results although I didn’t like the formula I now use TNC that is only available in the United Kingdom the US alternative is tropica plant growth specialised.

here is the content of NTC and Tropica specialised content if it was dosed 1ml per 1litre of culture water and its effects if all escalated into a 25 gallon reef.


1 litre TNC

25 gallon TNC

50 gallon TNC

1 litre tropica

25 gallon tropica

edit: I have never used tropica and not sure on what the Sulfur content will affect a marine aquarium. @Randy Holmes-Farley Do you see any potential problems with this products, if the contents escape into a reef aquarium?

 

[kevgib67]

It will most likely be grown in f2 fertiliser that contains silica. silica is not used by the species of phytoplankton that we grow and most if not all silica content in the culture water will be available to aid diatoms growth in our systems. Guillards F2 standard formula was created to grow all kinds of phytoplankton and silica is a limiting factor for diatoms hence the reason to be included in f2.

what you may be seeing in your glass could just be diatoms.

Thank you, so what would you recommend as a replacement? I appreciate the help.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I hesitate to say this but I'm skeptical dosing phyto in the amounts most people try has much effect at all. Just how many pods do we expect to survive on a few ml of phyto? And how are the pods supposed to find a couple ml of phyto diluted within a 100+ gallon tank?

I raise rotifers and copepods. If I fed them just 1 or 2 ml/ gallon per day, I'd have a tiny population with negligable yield. I actually feed 500ml per day into each 2.5 gal culture. A tiny single species tank so the pods have access to most of the food, instead of being captured by filtration or some other organisms like spirorbids.

I feed about a gallon of phyto per day into my 120gal display and still the effects are subtle. I think *maybe* I have more filter feeders like spirorbids, sponges, and feather dusters. Surprisingly I do not see tons of copepods, and I also feed at least 40,000 copepod nauplii/day into this tank.

I do it for my flame scallops. It's too early to tell if I've been successful since I've only had them 6mo.

I agree that small doses and single doses may not help the tropic levels although at 2.88 ml/gallon with spaced out doses it seems that it’s possible to keep rotifers thriving in a system.

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I had to remove standard filtration to not remove them from the system. Although it seems possible.

 

[Miami Reef]

I hesitate to say this but I'm skeptical dosing phyto in the amounts most people try has much effect at all. Just how many pods do we expect to survive on a few ml of phyto? And how are the pods supposed to find a couple ml of phyto diluted within a 100+ gallon tank?

I raise rotifers and copepods. If I fed them just 1 or 2 ml/ gallon per day, I'd have a tiny population with negligable yield. I actually feed 500ml per day into each 2.5 gal culture. A tiny single species tank so the pods have access to most of the food, instead of being captured by filtration or some other organisms like spirorbids.

I feed about a gallon of phyto per day into my 120gal display and still the effects are subtle. I think *maybe* I have more filter feeders like spirorbids, sponges, and feather dusters. Surprisingly I do not see tons of copepods, and I also feed at least 40,000 copepod nauplii/day into this tank.

I do it for my flame scallops. It's too early to tell if I've been successful since I've only had them 6mo.

*edit*: sorry I forgot the OP's main questions:
My phyto is a mix of testraselmis, nannochloropsis, and tisochrysis. Diatoms newly started, trying chaetoceros & thalassiosira. Pods are mostly tisbe now, have also used tigriopus but tisbe are much more prolific for me.

I have not noticed a significant impact on nitrate or phosphate

What a helpful answer! Seems like the smartest way to get pods is to just culture them instead of adding phyto to a large tank!

 

[Garf]

I received my order of a mixed culture of live phytoplankton. I want to know what effects people have observed after dosing it for a while?

I especially want to hear about copepods, algae in the tank (increase/decrease?), any filter feeders come up that haven’t really before dosing, and what effects did it have on nutrients?

Stating what types of phytoplankton you have dosed will also help a lot.

I’ve dosed dead and live in the past, can’t say I noticed anything. I concluded cleaning the film algae off the glass had just as much effect. Just growing pods separately again now, and lobbing them in as fish food. The pods that filter feed in the water column don’t do well in tanks in my view. The pods that graze don’t eat dosed phyto, as far as I’m concerned.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Thank you, so what would you recommend as a replacement? I appreciate the help.

The only way to achieve a “clean” phytoplankton culture is by growing it at home or use freeze dried phytoplankton, folks seem very carefully as what is added to they’re system although it’s easy to forget that phytoplankton needs a fertiliser to grow and in most cases the culture water will still be rich in the fertiliser content. I believe that the option I shared above may be a way to start improving phytoplankton fertilisers to the hobby containing ingredients that are beneficial to a mature reef as they are dosed In the culture water, All we need is Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium as macro nutrients and some trace elements to grow a healthy phytoplankton culture and the closer the fertiliser is from the 1:16 ratio P to N the better imo. for that reason I was never able to have a zero phosphates reading in any live phytoplankton culture before dosing to a system as most fertiliser available have a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio P to N