phyto crash???

I have been culturing the mystery phyto and have kind of neglected it for a few weeks. I checked it today and 2 of my 3 cultures have turned to a mustard color? The original culture is a even deeper dark green then it has ever been????  Any suggestions on reviving the 2 or is it best to dump them and start over?  Any idea why 2 cultures turned to split pea soup and the original has maintained?

Don't bother it, keep it going, and it will return to it's former green. Add a drop of fertilizer to help it recover.

It goes that way when neglected, but it is so virulent that it will recover. Other algae I have worked with, do not come back after they crash. This is one of the good qualities of this particular alga, whatever it is.

Cutting phyto regularly and feeding it to your tank is the best way to keep any algae culture going.

 

Edited by Mark Peterson

...what Suzy said

Ya gotta luv those holiday colors

Suzy wrote: I would chuck it. If it starts to foam, it could be a bacterial contaminent...

The foaming is skimming! It's dead organics. The skimmate is nutrients... it's food. Eventually the living cells will use that food and grow again. Top it off to keep SG right and leave it alone. I mean you've let it go to this point already. It won't hurt to do nothing.

Why go to so much trouble for dead organics? You can buy cheap freeze dried, frozen or flaked filter food....or you can pee in your tank!

 And, why grow iceburg lettuce when you can have Romaine?

 

 Jeff, the phyto will consume the nutrients in your tank, then the corals and filter feeders will eat it. Win-Win? Your sponge inside your rock will love you and happy sponge=happy captive environment!

 

How long do you think it would take a medium sized clam to clear the water. It is a 20g with probably only 15g of water after the sand and live rock. I think that is a great excuse to leave early and head over to silcox' place today.

Sweet, Are you going to be around anytime this afternoon Shane? I needed to pick up that large toadstool from you and a clam if you have one.

This is how much the phyto greened up a 75 gal. tank:

The skimmer did nothing. After a week with a 4" Derasa and a Spiny Oyster it looked better. This pic was taken just after adding the Squamosa:

The big Squamosa cleared the water practically overnight:

Very soon, the big clam played host to seven locally raised Nemos.

Edited by Mark Peterson

Hmmm, either the clam is not as hungry as we thought or the phyto population in the tank is higher then first expected. I have noticed no real difference in the clarity of the tank yet. I did notice that the clam spit a bit of dark green from it's mouth when it closed quickly the other day. I'm sure it will clear it out eventually.

Back to my original post (regarding the phyto crash), I let the 2 original bottles of mystery phyto continue to sit and they have now turned more of a yellow similar to Suzy's pic but not as bright. Is this a normal phyto crash symptom? If the phyto was taken over by a bacteria of some sort, would it turn yellow? Is this still something that I can throw in my tank?