phytoplankton, how much?

[pomme]

phytoplankton, how much?

i have just been in to my local maidenhead and realised that they sell phytoplankton in there.

i was thinking of adding this to my tank but was wondering if i could grow it myself from a small amount from them?

my idea was to get around 500ml from them and put it in a glass jug and fill the rest up with tank water and place a marine white light next to the jug. and then dose throughout the night using a peripump, and then in the mornings top up the jug with tank water? would this work or not or have i missunrerstood the stuff i have read?

and what sort of amount should i add to my 100 gal sps tank?

all help appreciated,

thanx
andrew

[Spanky]

Andrew

Before you start dosing phyto there's some things you need to think about.

1) SPS don't eat phyto. That would be like feeding plants to plants.

2) Phyto needs a nutrient source to be cultivated. People usually use one of the low in copper, zinc, etc liquid house plant fertilizers. They need a lot of phosphates.

3) Dosing phyto is like dosing phosphate, be very careful or you can end up with long term phosphate problems.

[pomme]

oh but i thought by dosing phyto, i would be dosing the lowest in the food chain and this wuld help the whole tank?

what do sps eat then?

[Spanky]

You already have that situation set up and going in a reef tank. You have excess phosphate and in turn you have phyto when the lights have been on. Phyto is a great "export" for phosphate BTW if you use wet skimming to remove it.

Hard corals have zoox and between the animal and the plant (dino/zoox) they do carbohydrate sharing (sugar). What they need is a source of protein (nitrogen). They usually get most of that from bacteria (highest in nitrogen) that they farm.

Between the live rock produced detritus, bacterial detritus, etc you have more than enough nutrients in a reef tank for SPS corals without trying to feed them.

You should be worried about exporting excess nutrients with SPS, not adding them.

[Ray1214]

One other problem I see. I use Phytoplankton to gut load brine shrimp for dwarf seahorses, and for clams and other filter feeders.

Here is my best way for success.

Do not use tank water!! Use about a 20-80 percent mix of fresh mixed saltwater (20 percent) and 80 percent of RO/DI water. I use Algae feed from Florida aqua farms but you can use Schultz plant food with similar results.

Sterilize everything, and I mean everything. If you cultivate rotifers or other microorganism, one rotifer in a phyto culture means = no phyto bunch of rotifers.

It takes about two weeks to make the first batch, but every "cut" from that batch takes about 3-5 days to mature. Yes you end up with a lot very quickly.

Tank water has too many nutreints already, it will cause the culture to crash.

Cultures will CRASH with no warning, it happens, get over it.


I take two (2-litre) soda bottles. I drill two small holes into the cap. One hole is to fit a hard airline tube that reaches to near the bottom of the bottle. The other is a pressure relief (believe me, you need it). I use the 1/4 inch airline tubing from the LFS, (I think it may be 1/16 or something but it is the size that perfectly matches airline tubing..) In the soda bottles, that have been sterilized (i use a 10 percent bleach solution and rinse a whole lot), I add about a half of a cup of fresh mixed saltwater (I use kent's reef crystals) and fill the rest up to the curvy part near the top with RO/DI water. With Schultz's plant food, I use about 10 drops of plant food and drop it into each bottle. I then take about a tablespoon of Phytoplankton and add it to each bottle. , make sure you have enough room for the extra volume and for air when you are done. I then insert the rigid airline tubing and cap, attach that to an airline hose and pump. I let it run continously.
Here is one secret: Use lights. I use a dual 20 watt flourscent setup with old bulbs. I have it mounted sideways on my work bench and they provide the bottles with both warmth and light (phyto is a plant) for growth. The lights are directly on the bottles, close enough to almost touch. I leave them on 24-7 Remember the first batch will take about 2 weeks. It will go from light green, to clear to green to glowing dark green (mature). But afterwards, take a mature batch, split it into 3 bottles. Always use about a 1/3 to start the new cultures from your mature cultures it will take about 5 days or so. (use the 20/80 water from before to finish filling up the bottle with 10 more drops of algae food)

Feeding critters:

Gutloading feeds: live mysis, live brine, live rotifers.
I add enough to the water to turn it a green haze. If you actively bubble the water to make sure you have water movement, the green will disappate from the critter's feeding. I gutload my brine shrimp this away. I used this technique on Mysis but I have only run across live mysis twice so I am not sure if they aregetting benefit from gutloading or if the seahorses just get the benefits of live mysis.

Feeding Clams:
I took a soda bottle, cut the bottom off, put a tube into the top. Put this over a clam, then I would inject enough phytoplankton to put a green haze to the water. The water clears up in about 20minutes. Once a week.

Feeding other filter feeders including feather dusters:
I take a baby bird injector, add a piece of rigid tubing as well as a flexible piece, suck up some phyto and gently dispearce it near a filter feeder like a flame scallop or feather duster (my big hawaiin ones act like they are reaching out towards it, kinda neat)

Ray