So, you wanna grow phytoplanton?

 I've always considered them different. I think of phytoplankton as a unicellular algae that is great for larvae and zooplankton, while the stuff I scrape of the glass is a snack for my fish!

i think suzy and i will disagree on this one.  corals do directly consume phytoplankton, it can be anywhere from 30-70% of their diet depending on the type of coral.  with SPS being on the low end and softies being on the high end supposedly.

so there _is_ benifit to your corals directly from feeing phytoplankton,  but as suzy said it also feeds zooplankton which can feed fish and crabs and other things which phyto won't help directly.  the other portion of any corals diet is zooplankton, so what they're not consuming in phytoplankton you would hope they are successfully consuming in zooplankton (which consumes nearly 100% phytoplankton for its diet).

oooh! i didn't know you were thinking about a chile coral. I think they are epretty delicate and really could benefit from live phyto?

 The one thing about adding live phyto is that it competes for nutrients in the tank so the algae that grows on the glass grows slower, and nuisance algae have a harder time getting food. You can add phyto paste or DT's to feed but they actaually add to the bioload where live phyto just goes around the tank sucking up NO3, PO4 until something consumes it, which happens pretty quickly, I think.

 I think it is a good thing and easy to do if you have space. I actually have a room dedicated to growing it, and I do not even have any fry babies....right now anyway!