DIY Phyto Fertilizer

[Random Aquarist]

I'm planning on starting a phyto culture and was wondering if anyone knew how to make fertilizer to feed the phyto.

[Driftwood]

If you read up on Phyto they will all suggest what you should use for fertilizer. Some use a special phyto fertilizer produced for the reef hobby and some use miracle grow plant food.

From this: http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/phyto.shtml article:

"Miracle-Gro® Water Soluble All Purpose Plant Food; i.e., the blue stuff. I've found that no other fertilizer works quite as well as this stuff. It's water soluble, easy to find, and its blue colour serves as an indicator of when you should add more (as the blue fades, add more)."

[Tigger240]

umm it works - but i wouldnt reccomend it. florida aqua farms carries phyto fert.

[Pattylucylaura]

I have heard of useing skimmate.

[DrBDC]

It's so cheap there isn't really anyway to make a diy version cheaper than the Micro Algae Grow bottles. 1 bottle for 6.99 retail I picked up at Inland Aquatics last Jan has made me 4 2 liter bottles a week and I'm not even half empty yet. Or is it half full? :lol:

[Nyles]

Yup, I have been using it for a long time and never had a problem. You can go with the GOOD stuff but I have had no problems with the miracle grow. I had a tough time fining the right stuff though.

There is arguments both ways. I have done lots of splits off MG and never had a crash from it. I keep the equipment clean and steralize between every split.

[Theexp]

I too was thinking about skimmate, becuase won't it contain nitrates and phosphates and all that stuff that is used in fertilizers, free and easy, i've never tried it but it'd seem to work.

[melev]

So let me get this straight. You want to take what exactly from the skimmate and add it to the new bottle of phyto culture? The paste, or the liquid? How much?

This seems pretty gross to me, as skimmate is brown in my collection cup.

http://melevsreef.com/pics/06/11/48hrs_skimmate.jpg

[DrBDC]

Bornemann(sp?) has a thread over on another board where I'm guessing they decided to analyze what's in skimmate and one thing I noticed was copepods. That would eat and crash out a phyto culture real quick. You might make a round or two before they increased the numbers enough.

Really though the correct stuff is soooooo cheap it's like trying to find a better deal on free air at a different gas station.

[lovethereefer]

i dont know though when i go to a gas station that charges a quarter i find another gas station where it is free out of principle

[GreshamH]

Even the liquid version is a bit pricy. IMO just get a packet of F/2 nutrients (10,000 liters per packet). It's what they use to make the waterred down version spoken of in this thread :)

[Random Aquarist]

Can someone translate this page (http://ccmp.bigelow.org/CI/f2_family.html)'s F2 phyto blend for me?

[Random Aquarist]

bump

[Nyles]

I don't think its worth your time, just an opinion. But f2 is cheap. After you gather all those chems you would have to do a group buy to make it worth your while.