Phytoplankton and nitrate/phosphate reduction?

CLINTOS

CLINTOS

New member
Is this possible or at least can nitrate/phosphate be controlled while mass dosing?

and how much more can I add because last time imo I could of added alot more but stopped because people said I would crash my tank

I'm asking because over the last seven years I still can't figure out on why I can add 3/4 cups of phytoplankton daily to a 20G with no ill effect on coral or fish

I also want to increase pod population to the extreme safely in small tanks so I can in the future possibly add baby mandarin's to each small coral prop system if I ever find a way to breed them

the only answer I get is that phyto is bad and will increase nitrate/phosphate and that I should stop can anyone explain on why I am able to do this?
 
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To answer your question, Yes it can lower N and P.

As long as you the phytoplankton is not added in water containing high levels of N and P.
 
I was afraid of that happening when I first started mass phyto dosing but with pure home made phyto and a tank with low nutrients lots of coral and lots of pods,filter feeder's etc and strong blue artificial light I was able to have crystal clear water while mass dosing the trick is to slowly increase over time as pods/filters feeders etc increase and using the same purity of phytoplankton consistently I started on a 20G with 1/8th cup daily then increased everyfew weeks by 1/8 cup daily until I was at around 3/4 cup daily in 3 month's

then I stoped there I was hoping to duplicate this on my 90G 3 plus cups daily
 
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I saw that you culture your own phyto and have a question:
I've been dosing DTs but I have everything I need to culture my own. What's been holding me back is that to culture the phyto I'd have to add fertilizer (which I got -Florida Aquafarms).
Isn't the fertilizer mostly nitrates? If I switched from DTs to homegrown would I add massive amounts of nitrates (fertilizer) to the display tank?
 
euromomtx said:
I saw that you culture your own phyto and have a question:
I've been dosing DTs but I have everything I need to culture my own. What's been holding me back is that to culture the phyto I'd have to add fertilizer (which I got -Florida Aquafarms).
Isn't the fertilizer mostly nitrates? If I switched from DTs to homegrown would I add massive amounts of nitrates (fertilizer) to the display tank?
Click to expand...

BINGO!!!!

In order to culture it the water must be nutrient rich. What I used to do at first was only add fertilizer when I started a new batch of culture and before using it in a reef I would filter out some water and test nitrate and Po4. A po4 photometer comes in very handy with this project. I have also filtered out all/most of the water before use and that I think would be the best. Only problem is it is very tedious and boring task.

So if only the culture is added to the aquarium, minus N and P filled water. The phyto would take up N and P from the aquarium water and would lower nutrient in the tank. I have thought of this many times, but feel that it is not so practical.
 
How do you filter/separate phyto and water? I think DTs uses some sort of centrifuge system but surely that's not that easy to come by at home?
 
I think that when a phytoplankton culture depletes the nutrients in the water, it turns a lighter green or a tan almost. It does NOT get less dense, you still have very little visibility, but the color changes from a dark green to a light green.
 
here's my new station that I plan on using on 3 coral prop tanks and hoping maybe a few 10G cultures of tiggerpods/Nitokra lacustris

I just need to buy culture,filter screen etc

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when I cultured phyto before with 1G container's I used 5ml of f/2 fertalizer,53 micron filter,density stick,rodi water,dual normal output 40 watt plant light's,dual output jetstream 3500 pump 1 output for each 1G container and split cultures every 7-9 day's

does this sound right or can I do anything like use more or less fertilizer,more/less days etc?


I'm wondering if a coffee filter would work or if it's worth using after the 53 micron screen?
 
GMaquarium said:
You can use a simple lab grade filter paper, or filter funnel.
Click to expand...

Wow I never thought of that! The algae I would want to culture has the following size:
Approximate cell size: 1 µ wide x 4-8 µ long.

Do they make filter paper for something this small?
 
Joe Pusdesris said:
Why tigger pods? I do not see any advantage over rotifers.

Coffee filter is roughly 25 microns, if I remember correctly.
Click to expand...

I'm looking to feed the culture to mandarin's I'm hoping to keep 2 mandarin in a 90G with less then 80 lbs of rock,no refuge/no skimmer
 
CLINTOS said:
I'm looking to feed the culture to mandarin's I'm hoping to keep 2 mandarin in a 90G with less then 80 lbs of rock,no refuge/no skimmer
Click to expand...

Clintos I think you are going to run yourself ragged with this approach. I have a pair of Mandarins and they eat A LOT. Before I ever put them in the 125g display tank I had them in my 10g QT tank until they were weaning off relying on live and really eating frozen food well.
Check out these links:
http://en.microcosmaquariumexplorer.com/wiki/Breeding_the_Green_Mandarin
http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=176&t=1217
 
euromomtx said:
Clintos I think you are going to run yourself ragged with this approach. I have a pair of Mandarins and they eat A LOT. Before I ever put them in the 125g display tank I had them in my 10g QT tank until they were weaning off relying on live and really eating frozen food well.
Check out these links:
http://en.microcosmaquariumexplorer.com/wiki/Breeding_the_Green_Mandarin
http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=176&t=1217
Click to expand...

I have a mandarin in my 90G with a really fat belly right now and every where I look there are copepods,mysids,amphipods I was hoping to add a second do to the mass amount's of pods etc I have I was hoping that the mass dosing of phyto I will slowly increase bi-weekly would do to increase pods even more for a second mandarin I also have a good home for him just incase my tank can not sustain him with the side culture as well

I figured I would use in the long term on my prop tanks about 2G or less a week of phyto I'll have 2G weekly for a culture will this be enough for 10G of Nitokra lacustris?
 
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