I decided that I would try to "save money" (in theory anyway) by growing my own phytoplankton instead of buying it. After reading this article as well as a few blogs from hobbyists who successfully grew their own phyto I attempted to set up a mini-phyto growing station using acrylic tubes in a 5gal home depot bucket. I just need a moderate amount of phyto to feed my livestock, I'm not trying to start a phyto growing business or anything here.
We don't buy soda in 2-liter bottles so instead I made my phyto stations out of 12" long x 3" OD acrylic tubes (should be easy to clean). I have air bubbling in with a 16hr light cycle and it's sitting in a closet. I don't have any special temp control on the setup but I believe it stays a pretty consistent ~76deg in the closet. I have a CFL bulb hung about halfway in the center of the bucket so it's approx. in the middle of the cultures & on a 16hr light cycle. For fertilizer I used 1 ml per L of the FAF F/2 fertilizer.
On my first attempt I used petri-dish cultures from Florida aqua farms, but after a couple of weeks the water looked perfectly clear so I figured it didn't work. I tried again with liquid cultures of Tetraselmis & Nanochloropsus (also from FAF).
I started the cultures Friday night. This morning the Nanochloropsus tube appeared light green in color, which is more green than it started but not as green as I expected. The Tetreselmis doesn't appear to have fared as well, but the water does have a light green tint so I haven't given up hope yet. At any rate, I highly doubt either culture will achieve the nice dark green color I've seen in the articles & blogs I've read, at least not by this week-end.
Salinity: According to the article Nanochloropsus grows best at 22-25 salinity, while Tetraselmis prefers 30-40. So I used 25 for the Nan & 35 for the Tet. I tested salinity of the culture water from FAF & it measured almost 40 on both cultures. I expect the salinity difference may have shocked the phyto, but the Nan appears to be doing better and had the biggest salinity difference. Also I don't understand why FAF's salinity was so high. I test salinity using a refractometer which is calibrated using standard 35 ppt solution.
Light: I'm currently using a 9-watt "daylight" (5000 K) CFL bulb. I couldn't find a higher kelvin CFL bulb at my local home depot. I initially tried a higher wattage bulb but it seemed REALLY bright so I think it might have been too much. The 9-watt looks more reasonable, but I have no idea if it's sufficient or maybe too much light. Keep in mind the bulb is right next to the culture. The article I read suggested 48" T8 bulbs (6500K), but I didn't want to take up that much space. Using the 5-gal bucket is really compact & would be great if it works since I don't need a large quantity of phyto.
I have a couple of concerns/questions I hoped someone w/ expertise in this area could help me with:
1) Is it normal when starting the culture for it to start out slow?
2) Should I be using a different salinity?
3) How do I know if I have too much/too little light?
4) Should I split the cultures as planned this week-end or let it go a bit longer?
5) Anything else I should know or any major flaws in my plan?
Thanks for any help you can offer.
We don't buy soda in 2-liter bottles so instead I made my phyto stations out of 12" long x 3" OD acrylic tubes (should be easy to clean). I have air bubbling in with a 16hr light cycle and it's sitting in a closet. I don't have any special temp control on the setup but I believe it stays a pretty consistent ~76deg in the closet. I have a CFL bulb hung about halfway in the center of the bucket so it's approx. in the middle of the cultures & on a 16hr light cycle. For fertilizer I used 1 ml per L of the FAF F/2 fertilizer.
On my first attempt I used petri-dish cultures from Florida aqua farms, but after a couple of weeks the water looked perfectly clear so I figured it didn't work. I tried again with liquid cultures of Tetraselmis & Nanochloropsus (also from FAF).
I started the cultures Friday night. This morning the Nanochloropsus tube appeared light green in color, which is more green than it started but not as green as I expected. The Tetreselmis doesn't appear to have fared as well, but the water does have a light green tint so I haven't given up hope yet. At any rate, I highly doubt either culture will achieve the nice dark green color I've seen in the articles & blogs I've read, at least not by this week-end.
Salinity: According to the article Nanochloropsus grows best at 22-25 salinity, while Tetraselmis prefers 30-40. So I used 25 for the Nan & 35 for the Tet. I tested salinity of the culture water from FAF & it measured almost 40 on both cultures. I expect the salinity difference may have shocked the phyto, but the Nan appears to be doing better and had the biggest salinity difference. Also I don't understand why FAF's salinity was so high. I test salinity using a refractometer which is calibrated using standard 35 ppt solution.
Light: I'm currently using a 9-watt "daylight" (5000 K) CFL bulb. I couldn't find a higher kelvin CFL bulb at my local home depot. I initially tried a higher wattage bulb but it seemed REALLY bright so I think it might have been too much. The 9-watt looks more reasonable, but I have no idea if it's sufficient or maybe too much light. Keep in mind the bulb is right next to the culture. The article I read suggested 48" T8 bulbs (6500K), but I didn't want to take up that much space. Using the 5-gal bucket is really compact & would be great if it works since I don't need a large quantity of phyto.
I have a couple of concerns/questions I hoped someone w/ expertise in this area could help me with:
1) Is it normal when starting the culture for it to start out slow?
2) Should I be using a different salinity?
3) How do I know if I have too much/too little light?
4) Should I split the cultures as planned this week-end or let it go a bit longer?
5) Anything else I should know or any major flaws in my plan?
Thanks for any help you can offer.
