Experiment: Dumped 2000ml of Phyto into Tank

[slingfox]

I have a small scale phyto setup growing tetraselmis in two 2000ml beakers. I harvested half of the beaker volume this week and instead of putting the phyto into bottles I dosed my 140 gallon tank with 2000ml of freshly harvested phyto. To give phyto time to circulate I turned off my skimmer, UV sterilizer, RedSea rollermet, and Poseidon 200 ozone generator (runs for 25 minutes each night at the second lowest setting).

After 48 hours I tested my phosphates and they declined from 0.270 to 0.236. I turned on the protein skimmer, rollermat and UV sterilizer to clear up the water column. After 4 hours the water clarity was the clearest I have ever seen it! I judged this by looking down the long end of my 5 ft tank. I could see from one end to the other with basically zero visual distortion. My water is usually very clear given that I run ozone and a rollermat but the clarity here was noticeably better than after my weekly 10% - 15% water change + DIY coral snow.

I wanted to post this mini experiment in case anyone else with a phyto setup wanted to do large scale phyto dosing.

I have 3/4 of a gallon of copepods coming from Dinkins Aquatic tomorrow. I will plan to dose all that at once. Not sure what to test for. I just hope some of the copepods survive my wrasse gang.

 

[rennjidk]

I'd be interested to see if your tank turns into a phyto reactor over the next couple of weeks.

 

[CrimsonTide]

Keep us updated on this experiment. I love to hear how phyto helps people. It seems to do some weird crazy witchcraft in tanks.

 

[slingfox]

I'd be interested to see if your tank turns into a phyto reactor over the next couple of weeks.

I doubt that will happen since I assume my rollermat + skimmer + UV + ozone and are to clear out much of the feee floating phyto. I have been dealing with high phosphates and wanted to see if a large does of phyto would affect the phosphate reading in any way. The phyto dose did lower phosphates (albeit modestly)---the surprise was a nice increase in water clarity.

Growing phyto is very cheap and easy (I only wash out my beakers once every 2-3 month) so maybe this is what I will do with the excess.

 

[slingfox]

Keep us updated on this experiment. I love to hear how phyto helps people. It seems to do some weird crazy witchcraft in tanks.

One nice thing is it seems like you can't really overdose phyto. It is also very easy to grow (ie, less than 10 minutes to harvest once every 1-2 weeks since I just use large open mouth beakers with saran plastic wrap on top to reduce evaporation).

 

[Borat]

I like chemical and biological experimentations on our marine pets!!!

 

[elysics]

I'd be interested to see if your tank turns into a phyto reactor over the next couple of weeks.

I don't think that is possible in a healthy tank, too many things that eat phyto, not enough nutrients