Aaargh, my phyto cultures keep crashing

[garyinco]

I wanted to be tidy so I bought one of the AquaMedic culturing vessels with the light.

I think on my first go I got about 8-10 quarts before a crash. Since then I can not get more than 3-4 qts before it crashes again. I've been buying the culture petri dishes from FAF. And I'm using FAF's MicroAlgaeGrow. I'm non-biologist familiar w/ being sterile in the prep, etc.

After reading as much as I could I made sure I had a good amount of air bubbling thru. I boil all the 1.019 salt water before adding the MicroAlgaeGrow. After each crash I have soaked the AquaMedic reactor for at least 24 hours of straight hydrogen peroxide. Same results - 3-4 qts and it crashes.

In between the peroxide and the cost/waiting from FAF I'm spending way more than just buying store-bought phyto, not to mention the co$t of the AM reactor and the supporting equipment.

I've got another shopping cart full of petri dish cultures at FAF along with some of their submicron air pump filters (my setup is in my utility room so maybe me and my clothes are throwing off some anti-phyto contaminants). I hope the air filters help. I've used the phyto, and pods, to help beat down a dino infestation so it's important to me to keep a good flow of phyto going into the tank.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd certainly appreciate them. I'm debating whether to use up my last on-hand petri dish in the AM reactor, or using a 2-liter bottle and trying Melev's suggested MiracleGrow routine.

 

[laga77]

I too had a problem with maintaining a phyto culture. It would do good for about a month and then crash. I changed two things. I use SW at 1.026 and cut the amount of MicroAlgaeGrow in half. It has been eight months now and no crashes. I have two half gallon glass jars under two 100W 6500K CFL bulbs. I can harvest every 2-3 days. I am not that careful about cross contamination of the cultures either. Also, if the culture starts to look like it is clumping up, run the liquid through a 100M sieve to remove any solids.

 

[garyinco]

Well, I'll definitely give that a try. So, you're adding 1/2 milliliter to a gallon of saltwater and using that to start and split/replenish your culture?

 

[laga77]

I usually pour out a little over half to three quarters of my 1/2 gallon container, refill with fresh SW and then add 10 drops of MicroAlgae Grow. Alternating jars, I can harvest almost every other day.

 

[Rybren]

As an aside. How much do you dose?

I've been dosing my the fuge for my 120 for about a month or so and am using about 10ml per day. The pod population is incredible.

 

[garyinco]

Rybren, in my case it varies by the brand I use. My homegrown stuff as much as 200ml a day. With the bought brands it also varies. I've read that a lot of the commercial preparers will use centrifuges to spin out the phyto and cut down on the cost of shipping large volumes of water. So I just follow their directions. Slowly building to what they recommend as a max.

My favorite commercial brand is AlgaeBarn's as I'm about 17 miles south of them and when I get it - it is very fresh. They don't seem to spin it out and it is nowhere near the dark color of a lot of brands. I have to think a good amount of it is still alive.

I have a number of filter feeders including a very nice Christmas tree rock and they are doing well. My tank walls cloud up frequently but I don't care. The dinos have receded and I can't find any signs of them. My pods are doing good. Anything to squelch the dino explosion. If your pods are going great I don't know that I'd change anything you are doing. Why tempt success?

 

[Rybren]

Yeah, I guess you're right. I don't really have much in the way of filter feeders in the DT, but the sump is packed with tube worms, various sponges, Foraminifera, and of course, pods.