anyone who grows there owe phyto help please

[monkeyman14554]

bought some refrigerated phyto to start a culture... after its been bubbling for a few days i am noticing alot of die off.. looks like paste in the bottom of the bottles.. so was wondering should i let it settle and just take the light green top part out or just leave it in there.. will the phyto care.. i was very surprised at the amount of die off.. i feel bad for people who feed this phyto directly to there tanks... unless they got something that will eat the dead phyto.. the expiration on the bottle was march.. anyway any thoughts would help.. also say a correlation between the ones with more fertilizer had allot more die off. one of the 2 littlers i just put like 5 ml of the phyto and that container is the only one i am not seeing alot of die off of course i suppose its not getting any darker so it all could have died... anyway should it start getting darker right away and should i skim the top of the bottles with die off in the bottom..

 

[billsreef]

What specific phyto did you buy? Other pertinent questions are what kind and how much fertilizer, what's your lighting, and how strong is the aeration? The stuff clumping, is still green, or turning some other color?

 

[doctorgori]

What specific phyto did you buy? Other pertinent questions are what kind and how much fertilizer, what's your lighting, and how strong is the aeration? The stuff clumping, is still green, or turning some other color?

...I was thinking about asking the same thing....
that "Tahitian Blend" will start off olive , then turn to light green after a few weeks.... I'm thinking with some of the blended products one type ends up dominating

...

 

[billsreef]

With the blended products, it's almost always the nano that dominates.

 

[monkeyman14554]

so was dark green and turned almost clear and now it is turning green again.. problem is all the die-off looks like dandruff in the bottom of the containers...like 2 inches in the bottom... so do i just skim off the green and re culture.. at least it is growing again.. not sure how to continue any ideas

 

[monkeyman14554]

the specific brand is reef nutrition.. reed mariculture inc is the name of the company.. reef nutrition is the brand name almost gave up and after i realized how much die off there was i stopped feeding it to my tank.. glad to see something survived.. and so everyone knows i also took some formula 1 or 2 flake food and put it in one of the containers and it also cultured... weird..i am growing four containers in a 5 gallon bucket with a daylight home depot fluorescent above it

 

[billsreef]

How much did you add at first? Usually the nano in the reef nutrition will take off pretty quickly. That stuff it pretty concentrated, so it would only take a few drops to maybe a couple of ml's to start a 2L culture. You also noted a correlation between the ones with more fertilizer clumping quicker...and over fertilization can indeed shock phyto and cause culturing issues. Also helps to have the aeration strong, I like a nice rolling boil in my cultures.

 

[monkeyman14554]

thanks you have been alot of help.. well as i have never done thid before and could only find limited information i used more then 30 cc to start the culture and 30 60 and 90 cc of fertilized at full diluted strengh in the three diffrent containers 2l bottles.. the last one had like 4 drops of the phyto mix and 30 cc of the fertilizer have seen no growth or doeoff in that container the rest all have what looks like instand mashed potatos in the bottom.. going to let the slug settle tonight and just use the green water and restart the culures.. this was more chanllenging then i thought it was going to be for a bio chem major smilling but at least i have some green water now witch is def groing thanks again been on this since dec 17

 

[monkeyman14554]

wow i should not write posts while i am drinking... happy new year everyone and sorry about all the typing errors on the above post

 

[vapor1]

I dunno about the fertilizer you are using, but it seems like a lot to me. I am growing nanno and tetra in separate 2 liter bottles and I only start a 2 liter with 1 1/2 ml miracle grow.

 

[billsreef]

To give you an idea of fertilizer amounts, with Guillards f/2 media, I use 1ml per 2L of culture water The phyto inoculation only needs to be enough to give a strong tint to the culture water to get started.

 

[monkeyman14554]

cool thanks again to everyone

 

[GreshamH]

the specific brand is reef nutrition.. reed mariculture inc is the name of the company.. reef nutrition is the brand name almost gave up and after i realized how much die off there was i stopped feeding it to my tank.. glad to see something survived.. and so everyone knows i also took some formula 1 or 2 flake food and put it in one of the containers and it also cultured... weird..i am growing four containers in a 5 gallon bucket with a daylight home depot fluorescent above it

Its very easy for phytoplankton to get airborne and contaminate a culture. Most people culture phytoplankton in sterile containers and filter their air as so no stray cells make it into the culture. In other words, your one culture probably inoculated the other.

To give you an idea of just how concentrated Phyto-Feast is...

Atypical dense phytoplankton culture runs ~1g/l dry weight.
That equals .1%.

Phyto-Feast is ~2.5%

I HIGHLY suspect you simply used far too much PF. Try using a single drop.

Neither Phyto-Feast Concentrate, nor Phyto-Feast LIVE are sold as a starter culture, just a direct feed. If you want to grow anything other then nanno, you will want to get a single strain from some place like Florida Aqua Farms or Aquatic EcoSystems.

Gresham H
Reef Nutrition / Reed Mariculture