A Case For Dosing Phyto

I used phyto and my cyano when away after a few weeks of use. Ran out and didn’t use it for a month and cyano came back with Dino on top. Got more phyto and both went away after a few weeks. Also used it on a pico I was having trouble with cyano and same thing it cleared it out. I’m now a believer in phyto.

Phyto seems more trouble than it’s worth

I've been harping for years that ppl stop wasting their time and money on nannochlooropsis.

I personally always enjoyed keeping a live phyto strain and dosing it to my tank. I’m currently keeping Tisochrysis, prior to that it was Tetraselmis.
Now, I have never observed a direct benefit in my corals from adding live phyto. But, that really isn’t the intent. The intent is: it’s the base of the marine food chain.
As he says here, they provide valuable and sometimes scarce resources like golden fats which trickle up that food chain. They’re first consumed by other microorganisms, ciliates, euglenoids, planktonic crustaceans, protozoa, rotifers, and different nauplii. Those organisms are then consumed and feed yet more links in the chain, such as adult pods, filter feeders, inverts, and even some corals. Then those are eaten by fish and some other corals.
Adding phyto is to create a more robust food web that diversifies your system and grows the carrying capacity for the lower trophic levels. Which all trickles up. And supporting those lower levels ensures the system has a robust population of ‘clean up crew’ across all kinds of unseen niches. Which then drive nutrient cycling in the tank.
Your tank runs on the things you can’t see. Phyto can be a healthy component of supporting those smaller organisms. Which eventually trickles up to the fish and coral. It’s a wholistic approach. That creates very few negatives, if done well.
The downside is labor and cost. Bottled phyto has a limited shelf life and are dead cells that are slowly decomposing. While live phyto is a healthy, living cells. But, they require far higher labor to maintain it. As a hobbiest’s, I find I have the attention span to culture only one or two strains at a time.
Regardless, I adore that TSA is encouraging this and providing three reliable and valuable strains to this hobby.

Phytoplankton is abundant in coral reefs. While we might not see a huge change in coral growth, it does indirectly benefit reefs. copepods and mysis shrimp reproduction increase which then feed fish and corals. Phytoplankton also helps remove some of the phosphate and nitrates, these nutrients then gets removed via skimmer. I dose daily as phytoplankton is abundant in the coral reefs. Why not try to mimic their natural environment

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His definition is not what inflammation is

I’ve literally saw no difference from my corals but a boost in my pod population