Dosing Phyto using the drip method?

[chippwalters]

I'm curious if it would be possible to dose a bottle of phyto using a drip method. The idea would be you have a dozen or so small bottles of phyto in your fridge, and each couple of weeks, take one out, shake it up, turn it upside down and put it in a simple fixture and let it gravity drip feed the sump over the next couple of weeks. Then, each couple weeks, you replace the depleted bottle with a new one.

Issues would be:

1. Does it go bad? If it does, does it matter? What is the shelf life?
2. Will it clog? Is there a simple way to keep it from clogging?
3. How accurate is a drip model? Is there a better way to dose than drip assuming you don't want to purchase dosing pump?

 

Because the bottle is only to be consumed, there is not a need to continuously keep it alive, so I don't think contamination is an issue-- unless I'm missing something?

My overall thought would be to create outside the sump a large batch of phyto, then bottle and refrigerate, and then use up each bottle, one by one which should last months. Just wondering if there's a problem with this concept and if so, what issues are there and is it possible to overcome them.

My reasoning is that if you build a phyto reactor and you're having to maintain a weekly fresh saltwater reservoir, along with fertilizer supplements, perhaps it's less work to just dose a new bottle of phyto every couple weeks. Still looking for feedback. Thanks!

[DevilDuck]

I was thinking along these same lines too. Get a small mini fridge, phyto container, mixing plate, and dosing pump.

 

My guess one problem is the phyto in the tubing will sit room temperature and spoil. Youl need to keep the tubing as short as possible. 

[Ratvan]

I have considered freezing this into ice cubes and then use some form of gravity fed method to drip this into a tank, of course room temperature would play a large part in this 

[Clown79]

Phyto is meant to be kept in the fridge and frozen after a certain date, so no it wouldn't work.

 

A lot of people get tiny ice cube trays and freeze it, then defrost a small cube when they need it.

 

 dosing phyto everyday isn't the instructions on most products. 

 

Its like 1-2 ml per gallon every other day to 2 days.

 

Dosing too much phyto leads to high phosphates.

[chippwalters]

6 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Phyto is meant to be kept in the fridge and frozen after a certain date, so no it wouldn't work.

 

A lot of people get tiny ice cube trays and freeze it, then defrost a small cube when they need it.

 

 dosing phyto everyday isn't the instructions on most products. 

 

Its like 1-2 ml per gallon every other day to 2 days.

 

Dosing too much phyto leads to high phosphates.

Opinions differ on this. Non-live algae can work: