Will phytoplankton grow naturally in my tank?

[BonelessEvil]

I hear a lot about phytoplankton reactors and dosing it when you introduce copepods, or feed clams, etc. still, once I pour a bag of the green liquid into my aquarium, will it continue to grow naturally? Or do you have to keep resupplying the tank. If so, why?

For example, once copepods are dosed to the tank, they propagate and remain.

 

[sde1500]

No, it won't really. Its just not an environment that supports it. Too closed of a loop, and not the right resources (food). Light helps sure, but if you have the nutirents in the tank to support it, you have the nutrients in the tank to support a nasty macro (probably GHA) bloom as well. I wouldn't compare phyto, simple single cell algaes, to pods either. Search around here for tanks that have had phyto blooms in them, they go dark green or brown, not a look we aim for.