Adding algae to beat algae: Have you ever used phyto to deal with unwanted algae?

[revhtree]

Adding algae to beat algae!

Have you ever used phyto to deal with unwanted algae? If so how did it go and for what algae?

 

[RichReef]

If you use live it will use nutrients while growing and or reproducing. If you overdose it will help nothing. Will make it worse if you aren't careful. It helped me and my pod population exploded.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Alot of people are adding copepods and phyto since the BRS micro biome series started. Spent way more money on it this year than i ever did before. Nice plug for Dinkins. I gotta give them a try.

 

[djf91]

Just started dosing live, home grown Nanno myself on a doser. Hoping to help lower nutrients just a bit, get rid of some cyano/GHA, and boost microfaunal/copepod populations. Interested to see others experiences.

 

[i cant think]

I honestly didn’t even know that you could do this.
Maybe I’ll try it in the future but for now I don’t mind fighting through nutrients.

 

[ocncheffy]

I just ordered a phytotank to start culturing my own! I have a dino/hair algae issue that I hope this helps resolve using a natural method. I can already tell my milli's polyp extension is much more extended than before.

 

[Derrick0580]

I recently started this due to gha. But the gha is also my fault for overdosing live phyto to begin with!

 

[rhostam]

I bought a bunch of stuff to make my phyto culture setup. I just couldn't get things to grow appropriately. I also bought phyto from various sources, and while it helped my pod population, I can't say it helped the fight against nuisance algae. My biggest problem is GHA which is rampant, and I can't seem to make inroads. Then again, I had a phosphate explosion that undoubtedly has saturated the rock! LOL, I'm not the right person to ask.

 

[shakacuz]

i usually buy pods and phyto from algae barn and reef nutrition. helps with maintaining my pods but have very little anecdotal evidence or experience with clearing out algae

 

[ReefGeezer]

I voted "other". I think using Phytoplankton to beat algae is difficult at best.

First, while it does bind N&P, it it short lived and returns all that it has bound, along with a big dose of organic carbon, to the water column when it dies and decomposes. That additional carbon can cause other issues in addition to the hair algae. Some is consumed by organisms inside the tank, who will use a little of the bound N&P, but will return a majority of the N&P back into the tank where it can be used by the hair algae. AND... finally, the Phytoplankton dose adds P to the tank in the form of the fertilizer used to culture it which could actually help hair algae grow. Only the live Phyto that is skimmed out actually exports N&P from the system that might help make things tougher of the hair algae.

I voted other because I use Phytoplankton as a food source to encourage growth of Pods and other creatures that like them. I think they all play a part in keeping overall available nutrients low so that algae never gets started, or is at least held in check. I just think that that where its value lies. I think that once hair algae needs to "be beat", there are much more effective methods. I prefer manual removal and, if needed, carbon dosing.

 

[Jedi1199]

I've been dosing Phyto to feed the pods and hopefully grow out the colony. I don't know if its working or not to be honest. The algae is growing, I can see there are pods in the refugium, but I am not seeng an impact on the algae in the display.

This could be a result of not enough pods? I don't know how many come in that little bottle. maybe a thousand or so?

 

[ReefGeezer]

I've been dosing Phyto to feed the pods and hopefully grow out the colony. I don't know if its working or not to be honest. The algae is growing, I can see there are pods in the refugium, but I am not seeng an impact on the algae in the display.

This could be a result of not enough pods? I don't know how many come in that little bottle. maybe a thousand or so?

I didn't think I had that many pods either. My Fuge has a black mat sponge that keeps stuff from flowing through to the rest of the sump. On day I decided it needed to be cleaned. I dropped it into a bucket of diluted peroxide. The mat's surface immediately started to team with arthropods and (I assume) copepods trying to escape. I killed a bunch that day. Now, I just rinse that mat above the refugium. I did find I could see some of the life at night with a red light. Pods are small though, I don't know if I'm really seeing them.

 

[Dinkins Aquatic Gardens]

I've been dosing Phyto to feed the pods and hopefully grow out the colony. I don't know if its working or not to be honest. The algae is growing, I can see there are pods in the refugium, but I am not seeng an impact on the algae in the display.

This could be a result of not enough pods? I don't know how many come in that little bottle. maybe a thousand or so?

It all depends on where you buy your pods. Each bottle that we sell has 4,000+ pods (actually, it's usually twice that many).

 

[Reef Rhino]

YES and it helped - I think.

And I will complicate the question by adding that I am also adding Live Rotifers every day. Daily harvest and dump into the tanks. I think that they may then consume the live Phyto and then also are then consumed by the various corals. Some of this is hope and conjecture because I see little posted on whether live rotifers make good coral food.

My display tank is clear of all algae except some that grows on the glass and occasional valonia patches. The sump did have some Bryopsis taking hold, in part due to some odd spectrum grow lighting.

 

[melbournedan]

been using phyto (&copepods) ever since my cycle, yet to have an algae outbreak.

 

[CoralB]

Yes I’ve used it for that nut didn’t notice much difference with the algae but maybe a increase of pods

 

[BigSkyRich]

Adding algae to beat algae!

Have you ever used phyto to deal with unwanted algae? If so how did it go and for what algae?

I voted as use with no benefit to reducing my GHA. I did have some issues with my reactor/GFO and have gotten that back up to speed and hope when I do my next water change/manual removal, I will start seeing results. As an aside I do use Phyto on a very regular basis and feel it is beneficial to not only my corals but also for the pods that I try and keep in large numbers in the tank and in my refugium.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I voted no, phyto doesn't do anything to algae.
It may feed things that will eat and discourage algae from easily growing, but it by itself does nothing to algae. It's a money maker though, as you can see, that it does do. You can culture gallons of your own phyto to get around the overhead cost. I do use phyto but not for "getting rid of algae" it's the simplest form of food we can add for things we can't see.

Here's a sweet little article, it doesn't mention algae removal. But it does mention cyano bacteria.

Plankton Revealed

Tiny plankton form the base of the ocean food web, which further supports all other aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems across the planet.

education.nationalgeographic.org

 

[Reab]

I agree with most others here. I have doses for pods and also in an attempt to curb some algae but it didn’t do anything to the algae in those instances. While it helps the pods reproduce, in the end it is just another good source that is being added to the tank. There are much better ways to fight algae in my opinion

 

[Kmst80]

I recently started this due to gha. But the gha is also my fault for overdosing live phyto to begin with!

I Am in the same boat. Changed to a low phosphate fertilizer now so I hope that will help too.