Live Phytoplankton overdose?

MalDyl

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The tank was first cloudy around 6 weeks ago. I have been dosing around 20ml live phytoplankton every other day. Last dose was 2 weeks ago. Tank has been this green ever since. Copepods have been loving it they are booming. Not sure as much from my Corals though.

What can I do to clear it up? I have tried 3 day blackout that did nothing the skimmer just went mad though. I can’t do UV as where I live no one sells internal or HOB UV sterilisers and amazon doesn’t ship to where I live.

I have enough oxygen in that tank. Water changes could fuel phytoplankton even more I guess

58E196DF-0771-46E4-8184-B769F363ED3F.jpeg
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

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cannot overdose phyto, I culture it myself so I have lots and I dump half a litre into my tank sometimes.

Do you have enough flow in the tank? Does not look like a lot of rock, how much rock do you have? Do you have any way to run carbon?

I would definatly be doing water changes.... the soluion to pollution is dilution!
 
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MalDyl

MalDyl

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cannot overdose phyto, I culture it myself so I have lots and I dump half a litre into my tank sometimes.

Do you have enough flow in the tank? Does not look like a lot of rock, how much rock do you have? Do you have any way to run carbon?

I would definatly be doing water changes.... the soluion to pollution is dilution!
that quote in the end. Alright that is good to hear. So I have around 10kg of live rock it’s a 90L nano tank.

I was thinking of just doing a 90% water change.
 
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MalDyl

MalDyl

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cannot overdose phyto, I culture it myself so I have lots and I dump half a litre into my tank sometimes.

Do you have enough flow in the tank? Does not look like a lot of rock, how much rock do you have? Do you have any way to run carbon?

I would definatly be doing water changes.... the soluion to pollution is dilution!
So I did some research. Some guys have bought a open UV steriliser basically the tube and dump that into their HOB filter for a few hours. I could get my hands on a Tube UV steriliser. I’ll give an update in a week or two once I receive it.
 

Jay'sReefBugs

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Have you identified this to be phyto ? A cheap microscope should be able it to identify it pretty easily . There a fourms of bacteria that give this same appearance . Normally phyto is flushed out a reef system within a few hours depending on filtration
So I did some research. Some guys have bought a open UV steriliser basically the tube and dump that into their HOB filter for a few hours. I could get my hands on a Tube UV steriliser. I’ll give an update in a week or two once I receive it.
 

Js.Aqua.Project

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From experience...https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/phyto-bloom-in-a-home-aquarium.284726/..yeah....that's phyto....if you don't care about your tank being green for a bit then I would recommend picking up some clams in your local seafood/grocery store (most are still live) and they will clear it out in a few weeks.

If you do want it done faster, perform a larger water change and borrow a UV sterilizer, it will be done in a few days then you'll want to do another water change because all that dead phyto in your tank will just turn into unused nutrients (NO3 and PO4) as it decays.

It's not going to hurt anything in the short term.
 

Court_Appointed_Hypeman

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So I did some research. Some guys have bought a open UV steriliser basically the tube and dump that into their HOB filter for a few hours. I could get my hands on a Tube UV steriliser. I’ll give an update in a week or two once I receive it.
A mean green machine from petco in your display will clear it up. That's what I used for the same issue, took about 14 hours to clear up.

I am pretty sure given the color it is phyto you are seeing, moght not be the phyto we dose and be a nuisance however.
 

jackiemon

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Any update on what you end up doing? Im planning of culturing my own phytoplankton and calculating how much I'll need/ week so I don't make too much of it.
 
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MalDyl

MalDyl

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Any update on what you end up doing? Im planning of culturing my own phytoplankton and calculating how much I'll need/ week so I don't make too much of it.
UV steriliser basically killed it all. 24 hours later water was crystal clear. I think with the amount of copepods and corals, they couldn't keep up with the amount phytoplankton that were reproducing. So I just ended up growing my pods population to a decent amount and add 5ml phytoplankton everyday. Water crystal clear.
 

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