Phyto Feeding routine?

[lanshark]

Having a mixed reef tank and feeding nori to the tangs, homemade food feed to the tank nightly, etc.. I thought I'd inject a treat of DT Phyto to my 175G mixed reef tank. Instructions say, one table spoon per 50 gallons of water. That would be three tablespoons. I chose to feed two. I mixed with a pint of ro/di water and then put into sump return opening. I've only done this twice in last four days. Glass is browning up with algae inside 48 hours? My nitrates were <10ppm a week ago. Is this phyto polluting my tank? Excess nitrates?

Like to hear from folks regularly feeding phyto and how much vs. tank net water volume?

[Peter Eichler]

What is it that you think you're treating by feeding the phytoplankton in the first place? It's possible you're adding a little phospahtes with phytoplankton, also if it's not fresh and the phyto is dying that will contribute nutrients as well.

[ludnix]

Any way you look at it you're addind addition nutrients to the tank which will likely result in algae blooms at first. I would try 4tsbs once a week and see how your tank reacts. Everything I have read suggests that growing phytoplankton is purely for increasing the beneficial pods population in the tank which your corals may feed on. If this is the case I imagine you would want to take it slow and watch the results over time.

[PattersM]

I'd do the mixing with saltwater not RO. If the phyo are the live type the RO will likely kill them due to osmotic shock, if dead you may still be bursting them as they swell in the RO water.

[andrewk529]

i feed the prescribed amount of DT's directly into my main tank once a week. i also shut off all mechanical filtration for at least 4 hours afterward.

[Vauche]

I'll second what andrewK does (usually, sometimes I miss), but I also don't have the cleanest tank on the block either, (some would call it a mess I'm sure)!

[lanshark]

Thanks all for the insight. I would agree probably 70% or more would not care. I know there is something in there that will benefit, such as, brain corals, mushrooms, varments, little things swimming around in my refugium.... It is DT's premium live phyto.... I think I'll take the once a week idea and reduce the recommended dose ....

[fishchef]

I have used DT's for about a year. An associate that just opened up a reef store who I met when I joined a local club, who was an officer, suggested smaller amounts daily for all the above benefits. I now add .5 tsp to a 125 and I have switched to Reef Nutrition live. Its far more green/ concentrated. There was this Flowerpot coral that I've had for over a year and looked like it was fading. It definitely has perked up since I changed and my NO3 has not increased.

[DTagrin]

This is the process I use to clean my phytoplankton;

1) Phytoplankton is concentrated using our proprietary process which does not damage the living cells.

2) Clean saltwater is added to double the volume of the concentrated phytoplankton. This reduces the amount of culture media to 50 %.

3) Phytoplankton is concentrated for a second time.

4) Clean saltwater is added to double the volume of the re-concentrated phytoplankton. This reduces the amount of culture media to 25 %.

5) Phytoplankton is concentrated for a 3rd time.

6) Clean saltwater is added to triple the volume of the re-concentrated phytoplankton. This reduces the amount of culture media to just 8.3 %.

7) Phytoplankton is concentrated for the last time to density of the product, which is at least 20 times the density of un-concentrated phytoplankton.

The result is washed live phytoplankton cells that will not cause any buildup of nutrients or metals in your reef aquarium.

[d2mini]

How do you re-concentrate it?

I've been adding two table spoons of Reef Nutrition Phytofeast every other day to my 130g because I have a lot of sponges. But I don't want excess algae blooms either.

[DTagrin]

We concentrate DT's in a continuous process and add clean saltwater at each of the stages indicated. I broke it down to separate steps to show what is being done. The actual process is proprietary.

[d2mini]

Oh, i wasn't even paying attention to who was posting.
I thought someone was buying your product and then doing something further to it.
Sorry, DT.

[MatthewAD]

Smaller feedings more often.

Anything that uses phyto will want it on a regular basis, rather than a huge bolus infrequently. What they don't eat is going to die and = more nutrients.

Look at this article, a different set of corals, but still applicable for filter feeders. They are using continuous feedings of phyto and rotifers for non-photosynthetic corals (the difference will be they are exclusively filter-feeding) quote from the article: "Negative reactions have been observed with higher concentrations of food, suggesting the continuous infusion is important."

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-02/feature/index.php

Someone I knew had a daughter that did a science fair experiment with Tridacna clams and phyto. They had 4 clams, would take 2 out of the tank and put them in a small tank full of live phyto, they would take the other 2 out and put them in a small tank with NSW (control group). At the end of the experiment (don't remember how long) the phyto clams were 33% bigger.

Matthew