Phytoplankton=Nutrients?

SauceyReef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 23, 2021
Messages
1,902
Reaction score
1,506
Location
Akron, Ohio
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
i personally dont see the need to dose phyto, tank is doing great without and I like to keep it minimalistic. My tank is also designed to be self-running so I can go on holiday or away for a weekend. if I were to add more manual dosing stuff that would change
What was your goal in trying the one strain? Just a heads up I dont auto dose. I just mix the phyto in with the fish food which in turns has me dose almost every day. I go on trips and vacations for 2-4 days sometimes though and the tank is fine. Ive forgotten to add any for like a week and didnt notice any changes other than my nutrients went up a bit.


Live Phytoplankton is usually best if dosed in a automated way. Keeps consistency imo
I will agree though it is hard to get an exact balance doing it my way. I also lean towards the dynamic potency of the bottle makes it near impossible to stay consistent. Plus other factors like how long has it been in my fridge, when was the last time I shook it up, how is the tank doing currently, etc.
 

Hats_

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 15, 2023
Messages
363
Reaction score
291
Location
Assen, Netherlands
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Live Phytoplankton is usually best if dosed in a automated way. Keeps consistency imo
cant have the bubbling, tank is in the living room. have a whole design for a self sufficient phyto dosing/supplementing setup but the bubbler makes too much noise and the chance of contamination of the culture is a bit high
 

Hats_

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 15, 2023
Messages
363
Reaction score
291
Location
Assen, Netherlands
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
What was your goal in trying the one strain? Just a heads up I dont auto dose. I just mix the phyto in with the fish food which in turns has me dose almost every day. I go on trips and vacations for 2-4 days sometimes though and the tank is fine. Ive forgotten to add any for like a week and didnt notice any changes other than my nutrients went up a bit.
i tried multiple strains, didnt see any difference apart from the rhodomonas one. my fish are being fed automatically as well, I just do frozen food mix with reefroids like every week or every 2 weeks
 

SauceyReef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 23, 2021
Messages
1,902
Reaction score
1,506
Location
Akron, Ohio
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
i tried multiple strains, didnt see any difference apart from the rhodomonas one. my fish are being fed automatically as well, I just do frozen food mix with reefroids like every week or every 2 weeks
Again - what was your goal? If your nutrients are in check, and everything is well fed and happy you are correct you probably dont have much need for Live Phyto. I am sure something could benefit from it though. For example at the very least I know when I let my mysis shrimp soak in the live phyto, it creates a nutrient rich food for the fish and corals they would not be getting with just mysis alone. Still the most important factor for me live phyto does it drop my nutrients. I run no filtration so this is helpful.
 

Hats_

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 15, 2023
Messages
363
Reaction score
291
Location
Assen, Netherlands
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Again - what was your goal? If your nutrients are in check, and everything is well fed and happy you are correct you probably dont have much need for Live Phyto. I am sure something could benefit from it though. For example at the very least I know when I let my mysis shrimp soak in the live phyto, it creates a nutrient rich food for the fish and corals they would not be getting with just mysis alone. Still the most important factor for me live phyto does it drop my nutrients. I run no filtration so this is helpful.
well if youre getting at that just dosing it for nutrients then no. I just got convinced to try it and my university was otherwise going to throw it away
 

sixty_reefer

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 8, 2018
Messages
5,875
Reaction score
8,015
Location
The Reef
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I will agree though it is hard to get an exact balance doing it my way. I also lean towards the dynamic potency of the bottle makes it near impossible to stay consistent. Plus other factors like how long has it been in my fridge, when was the last time I shook it up, how is the tank doing currently, etc.

cant have the bubbling, tank is in the living room. have a whole design for a self sufficient phyto dosing/supplementing setup but the bubbler makes too much noise and the chance of contamination of the culture is a bit high


This is how I used to automate, the noise wasn’t noticeable in the sump. the first one was on for over two years in a row without contamination problems. Only stoped it as I had to move the tank to a different house.
 

Hats_

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 15, 2023
Messages
363
Reaction score
291
Location
Assen, Netherlands
Rating - 0%
0   0   0

This is how I used to automate, the noise wasn’t noticeable in the sump. the first one was on for over two years in a row without contamination problems. Only stoped it as I had to move the tank to a different house.
thx for the idea but for me the phyto ship has sailed. tank is stable now so I don't want to mess with it a lot more. and like I said my tank doesn't seem to benefit from the tank anyway. also where am I going to find the power outlets :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

the design I had only used one dosing head though if I wanted fertilizer maybe 2
 

SauceyReef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 23, 2021
Messages
1,902
Reaction score
1,506
Location
Akron, Ohio
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
i dont think non consistent low dosing of good phyto would do anything bad for a tank. but hey dont mess with success! if everything is thriving just do your thing.
 
Back
Top