Phyto overdose causing dinoflagelletes???

Addicted2Reef’n

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 21, 2022
Messages
127
Reaction score
26
Location
Louisville
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have had recently dosed what I would call a heavy load of phyto. I dosed 50ml to a 36 gallon tank so probably 2ml/ per gallon of water volume. Also I have an oversized skimmer and only 4 fish with light bio load. I notice that usually the phyto will coat the glass and I scrape off no problem. Now after I did these large doses back to back I found stringy algae hanging off wall and acros. It’s a reddish brown stringy algae full of bubbles. I will try and add a picture when home. From searching online it looks exactly like Dino’s. I brew my own phyto so I was thinking that I dosed some leftover F2 fertilizer in with phyto causing nutrient spike and thus algae problems.
However I tested nutrients and my phosphate was .02 and my nitrate was 1 ppm….
My theory is that the phyto did its job and sucked up the nutrients but too many nutrients thus causing the possible Dino issue ?
Does this theory hold water ? Or is there something else in the phyto that caused the algae ?
 
OP
OP
A

Addicted2Reef’n

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 21, 2022
Messages
127
Reaction score
26
Location
Louisville
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Biggest question is am I ok to continue to dose phyto at a much lower rate and is that recommended ? The phyto is tetrasillimis
Btw- the timeline from dosing phyto to the “explosion of a small to medium size algae problem “ was the span of a week.
 
OP
OP
A

Addicted2Reef’n

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 21, 2022
Messages
127
Reaction score
26
Location
Louisville
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So after thinking about this problem I want to put this out as the most likely culprit. I DONT think it was the phyto. I remember my last batch of phyto I dumbed up and topped off my phyto container with tank water. So basically I introduced nuisance algae floating in tank to fertilizer and light and although I didn’t see or smell any difference in the final batch. I conclude this was where I messed up horribly and where the nuisance algae came from. Now I dump the phyto and go lights out and introduce competition such as copepods and bacteria and hope the tank will restabilize. It’s a fairly young tank at 3 months old but the dry rock was cycled for 7 months before setting it up. I only had a small case of the uglies with some tufts of hair algae but I hope my refugium will pick up pace and absorb any extra nutrients out of tank.
 

ChrisfromBrick

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 29, 2024
Messages
1,026
Reaction score
1,287
Location
Brick, NJ
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
phyto would probably combat the algae, if anything. That with pods will help the tank. I don’t think overdosing does anything but turn your tank green for a bit.
 

Aquariumaddictuk

Discus Sensei, Reefing Padawan
View Badges
Joined
Feb 7, 2023
Messages
516
Reaction score
596
Location
Cambridge
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Phyto won't cause it.
I have my tank a ludicrous overdose of phyto & pods to combat Dino's & it worked well.
Plenty of tanks run ULNS without dinos also & you're above that nutrient wise.
Are you carbon or bac dosing?
Any cyano?
 

HAVE YOU EVER KEPT A RARE/UNCOMMON FISH, CORAL, OR INVERT? SHOW IT OFF IN THE THREAD!

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%

New Posts

Back
Top