Culturing Phytoplankton
- Thread starter CJO
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Pola0502ds
Zoa Addict
This might seem like a stupid question but can someone explain to me the benefits of phytoplankton for someone like me who only has a reef tank. I do not breed fish or anything like that. Is it a main source of food for coral? Will it help with pod population, etc.. I see a lot of threads on how to make this stuff but I don't see a lot on why you should make it.
KristiYates
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I would like to know more about this too!
justin.k.nelson
Active Member
Its not a stupid question. In the wilds of the oceans, all life has adapted to gathering food from multiple sources. This is evident with corals where they not only use algae to produce their food but also have polyps to help capture food as well. In the wild, there are multiple forms and methods for our corals to gather food but in the reef tank, we limit the food sources due to the limited capacities we have in our tanks.
In my own tank I have a mixed reef with a large size fuge area and a lone orange sponge. When I stopped dosing my phyto mix, a combination of phyto, reef roids, reef eggs from reef nutrition and zoa food, I noticed that my sponge started to lose some of its body mass and the skeleton was starting to show. Once I started back up in my regimen, I noticed that my orange sponge not only grew back its lost flesh but I also noticed an increase in pod and shrimp growth in my fuge areas.
Long story short, dosing phyto offers yet another food source that many organisms in our tiny reefs can utilize and for some critters like pods, mysis, sponges, their primary type of food source. I'm even playing with the idea using a wine bottle and a dosing pump to dose the tank throughout the day. The Wine bottle keeps the phtyo nice and cool while it waits to be dosed into my tank.
In my own tank I have a mixed reef with a large size fuge area and a lone orange sponge. When I stopped dosing my phyto mix, a combination of phyto, reef roids, reef eggs from reef nutrition and zoa food, I noticed that my sponge started to lose some of its body mass and the skeleton was starting to show. Once I started back up in my regimen, I noticed that my orange sponge not only grew back its lost flesh but I also noticed an increase in pod and shrimp growth in my fuge areas.
Long story short, dosing phyto offers yet another food source that many organisms in our tiny reefs can utilize and for some critters like pods, mysis, sponges, their primary type of food source. I'm even playing with the idea using a wine bottle and a dosing pump to dose the tank throughout the day. The Wine bottle keeps the phtyo nice and cool while it waits to be dosed into my tank.
gettaReef
Valuable Member
Yes it will help breed more pods and feeds them and everything else. Phyto is an excellent, very tiny, actual "live" food source that is present in the ocean but not so much in many of our reefs. I'm a believer that it is beneficial for pretty much everything we keep in our tanks, esp coral, filter feeders, and inverts.
justin.k.nelson, I like the idea of using a wine bottle. To keep it cool do you plan to use an actual wine bottle and keep in the fridge before dosing so it warms up slowly? Or I've heard of a type of appliance that basically is a refrigerator for your wine bottle, so it's very small and you place just one wine bottle in it; it would keep the bottle as cold as you set it I suppose and I think you still have access to the top of the bottle when its still in the device so you could dose from it. I'm not sure where those are for sale or how much though
justin.k.nelson, I like the idea of using a wine bottle. To keep it cool do you plan to use an actual wine bottle and keep in the fridge before dosing so it warms up slowly? Or I've heard of a type of appliance that basically is a refrigerator for your wine bottle, so it's very small and you place just one wine bottle in it; it would keep the bottle as cold as you set it I suppose and I think you still have access to the top of the bottle when its still in the device so you could dose from it. I'm not sure where those are for sale or how much though
justin.k.nelson
Active Member
hey gettaReef, back when I wanted to keep NPS, I found this thread where a user in essence used a medical grade enteral pump, med grad dosing pump, that pulled the food source from a bag designed for the pump. To keep the food, which was Phtyo, reef roids, reef frenzy, oyster eggs...., the food concoction needed to be cooled or kept in a very cold state. To accomplish this, they used a wine bottle chiller and placed the bag in their. Some other folks took a different approach and used a venturi style feed to pull the food from a mini fridge or single can fridge and into your system. My system mimiced the original users setup and it worked really well but the added nutrients was way too high for my system and I was dealing with cyano and other algae issues constantly. I now want to limit the amount of food and when to dose it into the tank. Here is a link to the original thread and a video they posted on youtube:
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/index.php?threads/automatic-continuous-feeder.348459/
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/index.php?threads/automatic-continuous-feeder.348459/
gettaReef
Valuable Member
Wow, that is awesome! Thanks for the info and links; lots of options for a diy project. Please keep us posted on what you come up with (or post your build thread if you have one). Thanks!
wowkingjames
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the info.....
Harris4g63
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Any recommendations on how much to dose of this diy culture for example 5ml per 10 gallons or does it matter since it's live phytoplankton
OP
OP
CJO
Valuable Member
Blends generally don't work. One strain will outcompete the others and take over. However, that doesn't seem to be the issue you're currently having. It sounds like it's getting contaminated. Make sure you're sterilizing everything correctly.
So the ones that are sold online are grown seperately then mixed together?
Yes, I sterlize with alcohol. There is no smell or foul odor, the blend just clumps to the bottom.
Back to the single strain then...
Thank you for quick reply
Yes, I sterlize with alcohol. There is no smell or foul odor, the blend just clumps to the bottom.
Back to the single strain then...
Thank you for quick reply
Zephrant
Active Member
What are people dosing for their tanks? I do about 250ml a day of Nanno to my 70g, and 200ml a day to my 10g frag Q tank. I pull out an equals amount of tank water, then dose the phyto, so I don’t raise my SG.
I've been using the instructions on Melev's Reef website. He has his own instructions and a link to another article on how to culture phytoplankton. I have been following the instructions in the latter article. I harvest about every 7 days. I started with the CF bulbs but switched to a set of small LED bulbs that I have, both work. I dose 1/4 cup in my nano (18 gallons) and 1 cup in my larger (100 gallon) setups everyday. I started culturing to keep the stuff that came in on my LR alive. I have a bunch of different feather dusters and a nice purple sponge that is getting bigger each week.
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