Auto Dosing Phytoplankton for Optimum Benefit.

[Reef By Steele]

Earlier this year I had a customer ask me a question that I had been considering for some time.

“Can you auto dose phytoplankton?”

Sometimes it is hectic and dosing phyto while feeding seems like a no brainer, but sometimes it was just too much extra, or the nights we didn’t have time to do a normal feeding. Yet consistency is the key to so many things in our hobby. And Phytoplankton provides so much nutrition and other benefits to our tanks. For details about the benefit of live phytoplankton check out this thread, https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/phytoplankton-the-reef’s-super-power.1050825/

This is Eugene's @ebgclef tank, and because he travels and didn’t want to lose the progress, he had achieved through consistent dosing we brainstormed for a solution. And now we have an answer, YES! There are intricate challenges to auto dosing phytoplankton, but through thoughtful planning and experiment we have developed a working system. Doesn’t phytoplankton need to be refrigerated? No, live phytoplankton can last 2-3 weeks at room temperature (we recommend not over 10 days), refrigeration does extend the storage capacity to up to 3 months industry standard (we recommend 4-6 weeks as we love our phyto fresh). Doesn’t phytoplankton settle, yes that is why you need to shake stored phytoplankton at least every three days so the settling doesn’t smother and kill the cells trapped below. This means the phyto must be agitated to keep it in suspension so that the dosage stays consistent. My first thought was to aerate it like I do with our harvest, but that also promotes evaporation. As this customer, Eugene, and I discussed these challenges he suggested a magnetic stirrer. In his system he uses the stirrer under a dosing chamber he already had on hand, a drawback is that the chamber is square, so some settling occurs in the corners. We have alleviated this with a round dosing chamber. With this setup, he has lowered his nitrates from mid 30’s to 1-2 ppm. Eugene does see them rise if he runs out of phyto between shipments, which reinforces just how effective dosing live phytoplankton is. Eugene dilutes our phyto 3 to 1 with saltwater then doses 4x the volume, to be able to run the dosing pump all day to avoid long term setting in the lines, but it can be dosed at full strength as well to simplify things.

I too want to get consistency and remove one more (actually 6 more) task from my routine. So, I was finally able to source all the components needed and developed a kit that we installed on our systems this week. Simple and easy to install. Can be used with an existing single dosing pump, or with the single programable pump that we located. Simple and quick set-up described below and how it works.



Attach either the PVC or RO line to intake of an available dosing pump on one end and the bulkhead connection on the dosing vessel.

Connect 5’ feed line to output of the dosing pump and route to tank or return pump chamber of sump/refugium (to bypass skimmer, UV) allowing the phytoplankton to be broadcast throughout the reef.

Calibrate and prime the dosing pump setting it to deliver the daily amount to the tank. We recommend either continual dosing, or multiple smaller dosages to keep the lines filled with fresh fluids or running a reverse cycle to clear the line.

Every 7 to 10 days remove the dosing vessel rinse with distilled or RO water and refill.

Phytoplankton Dosing Kit

Automate your Phytoplankton Dosing Routine to maximize the benefits your tank receives!

reefbysteele.com

 

[adamg77]

This is awesome. I love phytoplankton and have been dosing 3mL every hour and once a week or so just dump a ton of it in my tank till the water has a green tint to it.

I’m a very firm believer in your product as it was started my tank with. My snail population has exploded as there is nothing currently to predate on them but I believe it is because the constant supply of phytoplankton the food chain in my tank can thrive.

 

[Reef By Steele]

This is awesome. I love phytoplankton and have been dosing 3mL every hour and once a week or so just dump a ton of it in my tank till the water has a green tint to it.

I’m a very firm believer in your product as it was started my tank with. My snail population has exploded as there is nothing currently to predate on them but I believe it is because the constant supply of phytoplankton the food chain in my tank can thrive.

Thanks for the shout out. @Ocean_Queenie and I never tire of hearing positive things. We truly love and appreciate our R2R community.

 

[Brad Wilkins]

This is my set up for phyto under my tank. 100mils of tank Water is drawn in through dosing pump via my second UV set to slow rate for ich and bacterial control. It enters my first 800mile container diluting the amount of phyto. I have 4 more containers all linked with air hose for bubbling and a hose connecting each container as over flow/siphoning with T's on each to suck water through and back to the first container for 2 seconds to purge the line of any air that has been produced from photosynthesis, that may stop the siphoning. Container 5 is connected to my dosser which takes 100miles to my algae reactor to feed pods with the excess flowing back into my tank each evening when the lights go out. I run a two foot 24w 6500k T5 cool light on one side and a warm light T5 on the other side for 16hr. I feed guillards f2 fertilizer into the first 3 chamber.
It's been an experiment and has been running for two months straight so far and looking good.
The photo below is when i first started my culture so a little light on colour, but to date its pretty dark green in the last three containers and i cant see the bubbles so ready for dosing.

 

[adamg77]

This is my set up for phyto under my tank. 100mils of tank Water is drawn in through dosing pump via my second UV set to slow rate for ich and bacterial control. It enters my first 800mile container diluting the amount of phyto. I have 4 more containers all linked with air hose for bubbling and a hose connecting each container as over flow/siphoning with T's on each to suck water through and back to the first container for 2 seconds to purge the line of any air that has been produced from photosynthesis, that may stop the siphoning. Container 5 is connected to my dosser which takes 100miles to my algae reactor to feed pods with the excess flowing back into my tank each evening when the lights go out. I run a two foot 24w 6500k T5 cool light on one side and a warm light T5 on the other side for 16hr. I feed guillards f2 fertilizer into the first 3 chamber.
It's been an experiment and has been running for two months straight so far and looking good.
The photo below is when i first started my culture so a little light on colour, but to date its pretty dark green in the last three containers and i cant see the bubbles so ready for dosing.

Do you have more pictures of all the tubing? I’m very interested in this setup.

 

[Brad Wilkins]

I'll do my best. Ill give you mixed photos of the tubing and setup as well as a diagram. Hopefully you can make heads and tails of it all. The only reason i have them banked up like this is so i can fit them under my stand. 800mils each so thats 4 litres or 1.06 gallons tucked away nicely. But you can configure it how you like. I would suggest linking at least 4 bottles together, one with full strength phyto out to your system and the other three with the diluted phyto in with F2 fertiliser so it can multiply in the 24hrs and over two week period before it is topped up the container out with UV sterile tank water. All so you don't want the out container dosing unused F2 into your system best it do its job in the in container. I fertilise every two weeks just under 1mile each container except for the out. Again this is in no way a tried and true method for success but it seems to be working for me. Hope this helps.

 

[adamg77]

Thank you for the pics! I will do some studying. I’d love to automate this as much as possible!

 

[Doctorgori]

I’ve tried to autodose but culture contamination and excess F/2 in the tank led to “ green glass” wherein that normal harder brown stuff you scrap turned my glass into a bright green mass
… hardly suggesting excess fertilizer in commercial products however

 

[Brad Wilkins]

The problem is whether the phyto can be sustained long term with tank water without crashing du to bacteria taking over, hence through a UV. There is little information out there and heaps of speculation so give it a go and see how long you can keep it going. Crashes happen all the time with phyto cultures so even if you can keep it going for a coupe of months you will be wining with it being automated. Just make sure you keep some phyto separate and refrigerated for emergency. Then you can clean, sterilise and grow a new culture if it dose crash.

 

[Brad Wilkins]

I’ve tried to autodose but culture contamination and excess F/2 in the tank led to “ green glass” wherein that normal harder brown stuff you scrap turned my glass into a bright green mass
… hardly suggesting excess fertilizer in commercial products however

Thats why i suggest linking several containers together and only using F2 in the first couple of container. By the time you dose from the last container hopefully the f2 is all used up and all you are dosing is phyto.

 

[Doctorgori]

Thats why i suggest linking several containers together and only using F2 in the first couple of container. By the time you dose from the last container hopefully the f2 is all used up and all you are dosing is phyto.

that culture curve is a biggie , you can sorta get a feel with your own diy bottles but timing peaks and crashes might be tricky … I failed anyway

 

[Brad Wilkins]

Ive just purchased 6 fairly cheep USB Magnetic stirrers $15 each and a USB banking station and USB smart adapter/timer as the Air pumps aren't stoping the phyto from clumping. Pretty sure that will do the trick of keeping the phyto suspended as they are the perfect size for my setup and only 14.6cm / 5.75 inches wide. Was looking at USB mini pumps that are a lot cheeper but being made for fresh water i kinder went cold as i can guarantee they wont leach in salt water and a food grade plastic covered magnet is easy to sterilise. I can just have the air pumps on low and silent. At the moment they're hammering away and its pretty loud. Ive also upped my dosing to 200mils a night, in and out to keep up with production. I'll probably up it again depending on how quickly the phyto grows.

 

[Reef By Steele]

that culture curve is a biggie , you can sorta get a feel with your own diy bottles but timing peaks and crashes might be tricky … I failed anyway

I think what Brad is doing is basically a phyto generator and his setup is really cool. I would be concerned about contamination even when running through a UV just because it is recycling tank water. Using sterilized saltwater from like an auto top off reservoir would seem safer. Only other drawback I see is that you can only use one strain of phyto. Nanno is rich and great for many uses, but super high fats (which is why it settles less than tetraselmis etc. Not as automatic, but I would suggest culturing phyto separate from tank and replenishing the dosing container with a more robust blend. You will read about blends overtaking a different strain, but that isn’t eating the other strain, but rather one using up the nutrients faster or darker strains blocking lighter strains from the light source. But definitely a lot of thought and work put into that system and it seems really cool.

 

[Brad Wilkins]

I think what Brad is doing is basically a phyto generator and his setup is really cool. I would be concerned about contamination even when running through a UV just because it is recycling tank water. Using sterilized saltwater from like an auto top off reservoir would seem safer. Only other drawback I see is that you can only use one strain of phyto. Nanno is rich and great for many uses, but super high fats (which is why it settles less than tetraselmis etc. Not as automatic, but I would suggest culturing phyto separate from tank and replenishing the dosing container with a more robust blend. You will read about blends overtaking a different strain, but that isn’t eating the other strain, but rather one using up the nutrients faster or darker strains blocking lighter strains from the light source. But definitely a lot of thought and work put into that system and it seems really cool.

Thanks Mate Yes your concerns are valid. Im hopping the low rate from that specific UV will cover me but it only takes a bit of uneaten food to get through and one bacteria in side it to crash a culture. But you have to try they's things As for phyto strains for sale in Australia.. Well there is non. The bottle i bought doesn't even have the strain on it.

 

[Reef By Steele]

Thanks Mate Yes your concerns are valid. Im hopping the low rate from that specific UV will cover me but it only takes a bit of uneaten food to get through and one bacteria in side it to crash a culture. But you have to try they's things As for phyto strains for sale in Australia.. Well there is non. The bottle i bought doesn't even have the strain on it.

As I said it looks awesome. You could though bring replacement water from an additional container with clean saltwater (I sterilize it with bleach and neutralize with vitamin c powder, ascorbic acid). Sorry they don’t have more availability. Wonder it it’s legal to get disks as they are dry?

 

[hsp]

Earlier this year I had a customer ask me a question that I had been considering for some time.

“Can you auto dose phytoplankton?”

Sometimes it is hectic and dosing phyto while feeding seems like a no brainer, but sometimes it was just too much extra, or the nights we didn’t have time to do a normal feeding. Yet consistency is the key to so many things in our hobby. And Phytoplankton provides so much nutrition and other benefits to our tanks. For details about the benefit of live phytoplankton check out this thread, https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/phytoplankton-the-reef’s-super-power.1050825/

This is Eugene's @ebgclef tank, and because he travels and didn’t want to lose the progress, he had achieved through consistent dosing we brainstormed for a solution. And now we have an answer, YES! There are intricate challenges to auto dosing phytoplankton, but through thoughtful planning and experiment we have developed a working system. Doesn’t phytoplankton need to be refrigerated? No, live phytoplankton can last 2-3 weeks at room temperature (we recommend not over 10 days), refrigeration does extend the storage capacity to up to 3 months industry standard (we recommend 4-6 weeks as we love our phyto fresh). Doesn’t phytoplankton settle, yes that is why you need to shake stored phytoplankton at least every three days so the settling doesn’t smother and kill the cells trapped below. This means the phyto must be agitated to keep it in suspension so that the dosage stays consistent. My first thought was to aerate it like I do with our harvest, but that also promotes evaporation. As this customer, Eugene, and I discussed these challenges he suggested a magnetic stirrer. In his system he uses the stirrer under a dosing chamber he already had on hand, a drawback is that the chamber is square, so some settling occurs in the corners. We have alleviated this with a round dosing chamber. With this setup, he has lowered his nitrates from mid 30’s to 1-2 ppm. Eugene does see them rise if he runs out of phyto between shipments, which reinforces just how effective dosing live phytoplankton is. Eugene dilutes our phyto 3 to 1 with saltwater then doses 4x the volume, to be able to run the dosing pump all day to avoid long term setting in the lines, but it can be dosed at full strength as well to simplify things.

I too want to get consistency and remove one more (actually 6 more) task from my routine. So, I was finally able to source all the components needed and developed a kit that we installed on our systems this week. Simple and easy to install. Can be used with an existing single dosing pump, or with the single programable pump that we located. Simple and quick set-up described below and how it works.



Attach either the PVC or RO line to intake of an available dosing pump on one end and the bulkhead connection on the dosing vessel.

Connect 5’ feed line to output of the dosing pump and route to tank or return pump chamber of sump/refugium (to bypass skimmer, UV) allowing the phytoplankton to be broadcast throughout the reef.

Calibrate and prime the dosing pump setting it to deliver the daily amount to the tank. We recommend either continual dosing, or multiple smaller dosages to keep the lines filled with fresh fluids or running a reverse cycle to clear the line.

Every 7 to 10 days remove the dosing vessel rinse with distilled or RO water and refill.

Phytoplankton Dosing Kit

Automate your Phytoplankton Dosing Routine to maximize the benefits your tank receives!

reefbysteele.com

Great idea! I was thinking about this a lot as I find myself having these nice Red Sea ReefDose 4 for Ca, Mg, and KH but then messing around with manually adding phyto, Copepods, and Brine Shrimps. I currently dose from my fourth pump, Quantum Bio-Enhance, which doesn't require stirring or refrigeration. I wondered if I could use the fourth pump to dose Phyto+Copepods by attaching a new bottle daily with the mix (I add ATO water anyway and empty the skimmer daily.). Do I need to stir if I do this daily? When is the best time to add Phyto and Copepods? Is it better continuously or in a few bulks? Lastly, if I dose Phyto into the return pump chamber, it will survive the pump, I assume. Can the same be said about the Copepods and Brine Shrimps?

 

[Reef By Steele]

Great idea! I was thinking about this a lot as I find myself having these nice Red Sea ReefDose 4 for Ca, Mg, and KH but then messing around with manually adding phyto, Copepods, and Brine Shrimps. I currently dose from my fourth pump, Quantum Bio-Enhance, which doesn't require stirring or refrigeration. I wondered if I could use the fourth pump to dose Phyto+Copepods by attaching a new bottle daily with the mix (I add ATO water anyway and empty the skimmer daily.). Do I need to stir if I do this daily? When is the best time to add Phyto and Copepods? Is it better continuously or in a few bulks? Lastly, if I dose Phyto into the return pump chamber, it will survive the pump, I assume. Can the same be said about the Copepods and Brine Shrimps?

The pumps definitely won’t hurt the Phyto. Pods are best dosed at least an hour after lights OFF. Pods move through the pumps on any healthy system with a refugium so shouldn’t hurt them this way. I wouldn’t personally dose pods that way as I believe it is better to add them in the dark with pumps off for 30-60 minutes so they can settle into the rocks. As for brine shrimp, they should be fed with the fish foods. Baby Brine Shrimp really only hold their nutritional value for 24-36 hours, and adults should be gut loaded with phyto and or Selcon so they could be fine being dosed daily with the phyto.

The best time to dose phyto would be during the light cycle while the corals are active so they can make the most of the phyto.

 

[hsp]

Thanks! Yes, I feed freshly hatched Brine Shrimps or feed them with Spirulina for a few days and feed them larger for immediate consumption. So, you think the Phyto into the return chamber is fine, which is good to hear. I agree that the best time to dose Phyto is while the corals are active so they can make the most of it. Should it be a few bolus doses, or is it better to "drip" slowly?

 

[Reef By Steele]

I don’t know that it matters. A more continuous dosage would have some present most of the time, but when I hand dosed I added it all at once. I have chosen the slower over several hours approach just so the Phyto doesn’t sit I. The line for an extended time.

 

[hsp]

I don’t know that it matters. A more continuous dosage would have some present most of the time, but when I hand dosed I added it all at once. I have chosen the slower over several hours approach just so the Phyto doesn’t sit I. The line for an extended time.

Makes sense regarding the line. I was wondering what improves utilization by the corals. Thinking about the ocean, it is clear that nobody gets phyto only once a day.