When to feed phytoplankton

[Mighty Quinn]

Hi Everyone,

I have a quick question for those of you who add live phytoplankton to your tanks.

Is there a preferred time of day to add phytoplankton to a tank? Since phytoplankton is photosynthetic, is seems that adding when the lights are on would be beneficial as the phytoplankton would consume some nitrates and phosphates before being consumed by the filter feeders and zooplankton. However, the population of zooplankton in the water column is normally higher at night, so it seems like it would be best maximize the phytoplankton additions in the evening.

At present, I add 10 ml of Phyto-Feast live phytoplankton concentrate to my 25 gallon tank daily: 5 ml in the morning about 1 hour before lights on, and 5 ml in the evening about 1 hour before lights out. I trying to understand if there is a better feeding regimen that I could try.

Any comments on this issue are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Q

[capncapo]

Many of the critters that eat phyto are nocturnal feeders so the night is when to want to feed it.

[The steven liu]

Depends on what your phyto is targeted towards. If you are feeding mainly for the tridacnae clams, you can feed them any time as they filter the water 24-7. same apply to all the feather worms. if you are feeding sps then I'd recomment feed within 1 hour before or after your light goes out. make sure you unplug your skimmer or your feeding will pretty much go wasted.

[bertoni]

I feed it in the morning because I turn off the skimmer for a few hours, and prefer more aeration at night. During the day, photosynthesis helps with O2, etc.

[BillnJennh]

I hate to hi-jack your thread for a post or two, but can someone point me toward a resource for making my own phyto. I don't have anything specifically that needs it, but I'd like to be able to feed the little fdusters and any pods, so that they will make more zooplankton for the corals. Thanks

[bertoni]

Check the sticky notes at the top of the breeders forum.

[BillnJennh]

Thanks bertoni, I forgot about that forum.

[LAB]

So when feeding phytoplankton one needs to turn off filtration and protein skimmer to get full benefit? Thanks :) LAB