Is this supposed to happen? DT's Live phytoplankton....

[stnmtn01]

Hi everyone,
This is kind of a stupid question, but hey! I dont know any better so what the heck..
I'm currently using DT's live phytoplankton and its causing everything in my tank to turn green..Its getting all over my glass and rocks.. I use about a cap-full a day....It gets very green on the glass and i'm tired of cleaning it every day so i can get a clean view of my tank... Anyone have any suggestions..BTW..During feeding I turn off all powerheads for about 10-15 minutes...any suggestions or will it go away on its own... :?

 

[steve-s]

What you need depends on the size of the tank but I would not suggest using it more that twice a week. It's not really going to benefit your tank inhabitants by adding more and will most likely cause you some serious nuisance algae issues.

Right now you have "green water" which means either an abundance of phytoplankton in the water or an algae bloom. Either way I would suggest adding some carbon and doing a few water changes. Once that stuff runs it's course, it will foul the water quality.

Do you run a skimmer/

Cheers
Steve

 

[brndfrb]

Do not use it every day. You wil lhave a massive algea bloom. Us no more than twice a week.

 

[SquishyFish]

Skimmers will pull DT's out of the water. If your not shutting the skimmer off you can add it more than twice a week. But that just means that your skimmer is pulling it out....which is a waste.

It will also depend on the size of your tank and the amount of corals.

Everything is relative...

Squishy

 

[steve-s]

Skimmers do not pull this stuff out as much as you might think. That aside, very few if any corals will benefit directly from phytoplankton.

Cheers
Steve

 

[SquishyFish]

Really...thats not what my skimmer says. I can does this stuff and leave the skimmer running and the foam is decidedly thicker. Not to mention everyone I have spoken too, almost with out exception, says that skimmers pull it. I would love it if you were right since it would mean i could stop turning my skimmer off everytime I dose it. Any info to back it up?

Squishy

 

[steve-s]

Any info to back it up?

Personal experience only but I am sure yours is no different Anything else would be anecdotal at best.

Cheers
Steve

 

[SquishyFish]

Yep...I'll check the back of the bottle when I get home. Wonder if it says anything about turning off skimmers or filters.

 

[Biggen]

I'll check the back of the bottle when I get home. Wonder if it says anything about turning off skimmers or filters.

Actually the bottle says something to the effect of "protein skimming does not remove much of this product" or something like that. So they don't seem to worried about it.

I agree with Steve, from what I can tell, very little gets pulled out of my system. I add two capful every other day. My clam seems to love it anyway. Although I probably won't buy it again as I really don't see any MAJOR results with it like I thought I would.

 

[jamal-188]

I"m not real sure I see any major results either but I don't have too many corals/clams that require much of it. Not sure if I"m just wasing my money?

 

[stnmtn01]

I currently have a 29g with a hang on Berlin skimmer. ( have to empty the cup every other day) Not sure what model though.. I have 25lbs of LR, and as for corals I have yellow polyps, button polyps, a gonipora, star coral, and a tree sponge..

 

[SquishyFish]

Cool..That just means that I can stop shutting the filters off.