Live Phytoplankton - Six Species Blend

Phytoplankton is the basic building block of the ocean food chain. It feeds corals, clams, copepods and other filter feeders. Our live phytoplankton has great benefits for your reef tank, both for feeding your corals and copepods as well as adding biodiversity to your tank.

Our live phyto blend contains six strains of phytoplankton in order to provide balanced and well rounded nutrition for your tank’s inhabitants. Corals are like all other animals - they need a wide variety of minerals, vitamins, and fatty acids for optimal health. Simply feeding one or two species of phyto won’t provide the diversity of nutrients that our six species blend offers.

Each bottle/jug from Dinkins Aquatic Gardens contains six species of phytoplankton:

Nannochloropsis
Tetraselmis
Pavlova
Isochrysis galbana
Thalassiosira weissflogii
Phaeodactylum tricornutum

Each phyto species is cultured separately and then combined upon bottling.

Our Process:

Dinkins Aquatic Gardens uses lab-grade sanitation procedures every step of the way. First, we culture each phytoplankton strain separately in seven-gallon wide-mouth carboys. Once a batch of phyto finishes, we soak the carboy and rigid airline tubing in Alconox overnight, then scrub it by hand the following morning. After a very thorough rinse, we allow it to dry.

Once the carboys are dry, we thoroughly clean the inside with isopropyl alcohol and allow that to dry for about half a day. Late that evening, we fill the carboys with five gallons of saltwater and the appropriate amount of F/2 fertilizer from Florida Aqua Farms.

Our saltwater is made using seven-stage RODI water mixed with Hw-Marinemix Professional Salt. This lab-made salt is very high quality and mixes completely clean with no residue.

Once the saltwater is added, we then use bleach to chlorinate the water, which disinfects it. Next, we hook up the rigid tubing to our air pumps. The air from the pumps is filtered through 0.2 micron filters to remove any airborne contaminants. We let the chlorinated water bubble all night to thoroughly sanitize the water, the F/2, the rigid airline tubing, and the inside of the carboy. The following morning, we treat the water with sodium thiosulfate to remove the chlorine. Only after all this is done do we add one gallon of starter culture and begin the process of growing our new batch!

Dosing Size for Phyto

Dosing recommendation is 1 ml per gallon daily. We recommend buying enough Phyto (storing it in the fridge) for at least a month.