Phyto

[wasp]

he isn't a member of FNZAS but was a member (no longer) on other forum.

He was banned on other forum?

[fish-unit]

:roll: Steve a

Good dude

[reef]

Ok, update on phyto dosing.

Its been almost a week.

Started dosing 40ml/100L. so thats about 800ML for my tank. almost a bottle.

3 days on i reduced it to 1/2 as my skimmer pulle dout so much i had to empty it.

Dosing has been reduced to 400ML as i my tank started to show signs of excess nutrients due to my live rock going sort of a dark green colour.

Also the fact that my skimmer was pulling out so much.

Since reducing the dose things seem to settle down.

In terms of acropora showing greater polyp extenstion is yet to be seen but red goniopora does seem to be open more than normal.

Nothing more to report

[wasp]

Wonder if you should have started with a lower dose to let the tank adapt to it?

[reef]

Wonder if you should have started with a lower dose to let the tank adapt to it?

I dont think that will do anything. nothing to adapt to. i did not does the full amount anyway.

So far have not seen any major results on all corals, but maybe i just did not notice at this stage.

My red goniopora is doing ok and is fully open, just added it so had to tell at this stage.

Spoke to steveA who also has seen no results on his acropora , his gorgonia is doing better as it is growing quicker.

will dose for another week or so and stop and see if i notice anything after i stop dosing as this might be more noticable.

[chimera]

He was banned on other forum?

stevea was certainly not banned on NZMAS. He hardly ever posts - anywhere. He certainly has one hell of a stunning tank though

[reef]

Wheres reef anyway, he can tell us who it was that helped him set his tank up

News to me.

[Guest Anonymous]

stevea was certainly not banned on NZMAS. He hardly ever posts - anywhere. He certainly has one hell of a stunning tank though

Ahh yea. He just doesn't post much. He is a very busy person (kinda like Pies). Works too hard But yea a very nice tank indeed. I am particularly fond of his large blue tang.

News to me.

Ahh ok My understanding (and I could be wrong) was he provided you with some advice when you were just getting into it? But my memory could be wrong, It was a while ago.

Do you happen to have a photo of your Red Goniopora?

[reef]

Do you happen to have a photo of your Red Goniopora?

Will get one up soon.

Phyto dosing.

As per the phyto dosing so far i have little evidence that it reduces nutrients,

It’s been two weeks of dosing and it appears that it gets utilised by only a few corals like the goniopora.

My doses have been below the recommended levels as it’s too much for my tank as my skimmer removes lots of it and my tank is showing signs of excess nutrients.

I tested the Phyto itself and it contains small traces of Phosphates but minor, will do another test on it again, the nitrate was zero when i tested it.

Some hobbyist claims that it removes PO4 and cyno which is not what i found as i dosed some in a high nutrient tank and the cyno go worse. Which makes sense as you are adding forms of nutrients.

The phtyo is useful to breed fish fry and feed brine shrimp etc, but as a regular use in a tank i am not sure yet as based on my observations to much of it will cause nutrients.

However if you have corals like goniopora and similar i would say they would utilised it however again dosing too much will could put excess nutrients in the tank if not used , just like any coral food product. put too much in and it will cause problems as excess cany be used.

Would be ideal if someone else with a fairly decent tank and common sense could try some and see if they get similar findings.

My findings are the same as when i dosed phyto about 3 years ago.

I am not being critical of the product as it does have benefits if used the right way and for a particular purpose, pretty much like any product.

[Mark]

Phyto Dosing

Would be ideal if someone else with a fairly decent tank and common sense could try some and see if they get similar findings.

This would be a good idea if someone else with a tank not quite at the perfect

stage as Reefs tank could try dosing Phyto.

Because last time i saw Reefs tank which was a few years ago i could not for the life of me see how you could get corals growing any better.

I think there must be a limit on how fast corals can grow and if your tank is doing well then adding Phyto wont improve the results any further would it.?

[reef]

i could not for the life of me see how you could get corals growing any better

Thanks for the compliment, but there are few tanks that get far better growth than me due to my tank being overcrowded with corals which compete with each other, also my calcium/kh levels are not consistent as i dose these manually and always forget, so my levels are not optimum which makes huge difference in growth,

All to change once it gets upgraded to a 5000L tank in the near future.

Testing another tank that is fairly low in nutrients will give another view to see if they get the same results. I am sure they will as adding food to a tank that is no utilised will result in waste being in the tank.

There are few people dosing phyto consistantly and you can see from there tanks that they have high nutrients, some even say they have 2ppm phostphates which is huge, ok for some corals but not sps.

[puttputt]

Pretty fair assessment reef, I tend to agree that it is not for sps, however dosing as a tonic almost once or twice a month in an sps tank has shown benefits for me, and my tank is low nutrient.

One question though, Phyto is a live food, and i presume stays alive in a reef tank situation, How can it pollute a tank if it stays alive until eaten. I can understand an algae bloom where they multiply and your tank goes green), but polluting because of over dosing?

[OCEANDOSE]

Just to give the thread another kick………

The amount of nutrients remaining in Oceandose phyto after culture are to low for hobbist testkits to pickup, You(Reef) have actually measured the quantities using a photometer(an upmarket scientific refractometer with a brain.) The results he got were

0.0 PPM Nitrate

0.03 PPM Phosphate

And trace metels wern’t tested(as far as I’m aware but will also be undetectable).

The culture medium used is basically 1/3 Nitrate, 1/3 phosphate and the remainder is made up of various metals and vitamins.

Now in your 2500L tank you would need to dose well over a dozen bottles in a single shot to get any detectable increase in nutrients…..

So I’m very curious as to how your liverock went a dark green colour(quote) when all you were ever sent to dose in total was 2L, which also should have only lasted you a couple days at the recommended dosage(40ml/100L every 2nd day), not the 2 weeks you say you dosed the product for.

So not surpising you didn’t see many results…ever heard the expression “shooting an elephant with a bb gunâ€

But thanks, I guess that’s your review

[tHEcONCH]

It must have been a jealous elephant - it went green :lol:

[reef]

So I’m very curious as to how your liverock went a dark green colour(quote) when all you were ever sent to dose in total was 2L, which also should have only lasted you a couple days at the recommended dosage(40ml/100L every 2nd day), not the 2 weeks you say you dosed the product for.

So not surpising you didn’t see many results…ever heard the expression “shooting an elephant with a bb gun

I mentioned that i did not dose the recommend level as my tank was showing signs of nutrients, based on rock work going dark green, skimmer pulling out so much that it almost overflowed the cup. Caulerpa algae going nuts,

What does this mean? It means excess nutrients/food in my tank being removed and excess being waste in the tank.

I agree that is too short a time frame to trial but i can tell already that things were only going to get worse for my tank. Too much of a risk on my acropora. Image if i dosed the correct amount.

Noticed today that rock work is clearing again with dark slime algae disappearing from the rocks.

Stopped dosing last week ane looking for changes in the tank

As mentioned this is the same thing that happened many years ago using Phyto.

Not knocking the product in anyway, just stating my observations. Same thing will happen if i overdosed coral food etc.

I might still dose phtyo once a week to give a variety of foods to the organisims.

Maybe doses need to be far lower? How do you get to the dose you state on the bottle.?

Been dosing phyto to my baby brine shrimp. they do last longer.

Unlike the ocean, reef tanks are a closed system so you have to limit food. Have you heard the expression 'too much of a good thing is no good.'

As mentioned get somelese to dose the same amount in a low nutrient tank and see what happens after say 1 month of continued dosing with out any water changes.

[reef]

Viewing reef central and came across this thread re phyto plankton.

Might be a thread worth following and see what results they have had when dosing.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1403288

[reef]

some plankton info.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-10/eb/index.php