phyto, coral snow, and you

[Mschmidt]

Simply put, how would coral snow interact with coral snow?

To put it more complicatedly, when dosing coral snow (the diy version if that matters any), phyto, and for the fun of it we'll throw in rotifers, how would they interact with each other? would the snow make the phyto less effective? would the phyto make the snow better food for coral? Where do rotifers fit in the mix?

If you were dosing the three would you make the snow in the phyto bottle (largely kidding here), space them out an hour, 12 hours, day, week, month (now truly kidding)?

then what would the order be?

gonna tag @ReefLegends in this because winning (runner up) his giveaway is the reason I have to ask this.

 

[strich]

I'm not an expert but...
I would imagine no issues what so ever. The Rotifers will eat some of the phyto, which the coral will eat.

I don't yet have the personal experience to back this up but I feel a constant dosing of Phyto -> Pods -> Rotifers would do wonders for corals.

 

[doubleshot00]

I dose coral snow by itself with MB7 (only cause i bought a huge jug of it). Phyto i dose is always late evening. I have no data to back it up but what i do.

 

[Mschmidt]

I'm not an expert but...
I would imagine no issues what so ever. The Rotifers will eat some of the phyto, which the coral will eat.

I don't yet have the personal experience to back this up but I feel a constant dosing of Phyto -> Pods -> Rotifers would do wonders for corals.

that was my plan, but how would the flocculent play in the mix?

 

[Mschmidt]

I dose coral snow by itself with MB7 (only cause i bought a huge jug of it). Phyto i dose is always late evening. I have no data to back it up but what i do.

my snow has the rest of the starter bac from the fridge (nite out I think). everything happens in the evenin, cuz that's the time I have.

 

[Troylee]

that was my plan, but how would the flocculent play in the mix?

It’s great at carrying bacteria and coating surfaces such as rocks and your glass to keep the nasties away.. idk the effects with phyto or rots as I don’t use either of those in my tanks.

 

[twentyleagues]

I would think coral snow will pull any suspended material out of the water column so it "should" pull phyto out. Beneficial? More beneficial? Less? not sure.

 

[Pistondog]

USed to heavily dose phyto, a lot ended up in skimmer. Recently started diy coral snow.
i dont think the phyto would be bothered by the coral snow, but have no evidence for this.

 

[Mschmidt]

From what I've read it's preferable to kill the return for a few hours when dosing phyto, so I plan on doing that, but if it's off, I figure I might as well dose the rest of the things that want it off.
Or I keep it on a four-day rotation: phyto, rots, nothing or pods (I plan on adding the whole bottle right away though), snow, rinse, repeat.

 

[strich]

I would definitely recommend testing different combos and trying to record the results!

 

[Pistondog]

From what I've read it's preferable to kill the return for a few hours when dosing phyto, so I plan on doing that, but if it's off, I figure I might as well dose the rest of the things that want it off.
Or I keep it on a four-day rotation: phyto, rots, nothing or pods (I plan on adding the whole bottle right away though), snow, rinse, repeat.

I was dosing dilute phyto 24/7, so shutting off return pump not an option.

 

[strich]

I was dosing dilute phyto 24/7, so shutting off return pump not an option.

I'd like to hear more about that. How did it go? Why did you stop? Was this via dosing pumps?

 

[Pistondog]

I'd like to hear more about that. How did it go? Why did you stop? Was this via dosing pumps?

We made 1 to 3 gallons of phyto weekly. When a batch was done, it was added into the awc 10 gallon reservoir with a 1/2ml of f2, and fsw to top off the 10g. This container had a pump to agitate and a light for 8 hours a day, to keep the phyto viable.
We used the reservoir for 1 gallon awcs via versa pumps per day, spread out every other hour.
We did it for 2 years, but did not see a great benefit. The downside was the glass required cleaning every other day, and the skimmer was pulling some phyto. Nitrates were not measurable.
Still doing tne awcs, but without the phyto.

 

[strich]

We made 1 to 3 gallons of phyto weekly. When a batch was done, it was added into the awc 10 gallon reservoir with a 1/2ml of f2, and fsw to top off the 10g. This container had a pump to agitate and a light for 8 hours a day, to keep the phyto viable.
We used the reservoir for 1 gallon awcs via versa pumps per day, spread out every other hour.
We did it for 2 years, but did not see a great benefit. The downside was the glass required cleaning every other day, and the skimmer was pulling some phyto. Nitrates were not measurable.
Still doing tne awcs, but without the phyto.

To be clear, you mean doing constant phyto made your main tank glass fill with algae all the time? What do you think was the reason? Too much uneaten phyto I guess?

 

[Pistondog]

To be clear, you mean doing constant phyto made your main tank glass fill with algae all the time? What do you think was the reason? Too much uneaten phyto I guess?

Not all the time. Just required cleaning more frequently.