Chloram-x Users

[Juck]

I just got some chloram-x for use in my rotifer cultures.

How much should I use in a 5 gallon bucket of rotifers? How often do I add it? I harvest about 30% daily and replace 30% of the water.

I assume my Ammonia test kit will be useless once Chloram-x has been added?

Do any of you use this on your larval-tanks?

Thanks

 

[Kathy55g]

I use a tiny pinch every now and then. every 2-3 days, about 1/10 teaspoon. I have a smaller volume, 1-2 gallons, but the concentration of rots is around 100/ml.

 

[Kathy55g]

depends on the kit. The seachem one measures un-ionized ammonia, the bad one, and is still going to measure that even if you ionize some of the ammonia with a product like chloramx.

 

[Juck]

Thanks Kathy,,,, hopefully this will help,,, my cultures are performing terribly,,, can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong.

 

[Dman]

What is the temperature and salinity of your culture?

And you can definately use too much Cloram-X, I found out the hard way.

 

[Juck]

Hi Dman,

Specific Gravity is 1.018, temperature is usually 80f ish ,,, I have fairly vigorous aeration (no airstone). I'm feeding with IA Rotifer Diet.

I have 3 x 1 gallon and 2 x 5 gallon cultures and I can barely keep enough rotifers going to support 100 clown larvae. These rotifer densities of 100+ per ml I keep hearing about are not happening here,,, I can't get them anywhere near.

I think maybe I'm overfeeding.

 

[tmays]

You might want to start culturing live phytoplankton. It is not to hard to do, and I found that my rotifers do much better with hte live food.

 

[Juck]

Culturing live phyto is not an option,,, other folk do just fine with IA,, I need to fix whatever I'm doing wrong.

 

[tmays]

Like you said, you may be putting to much IA in the tank. I had the same problem. Thats why I use live. Try to use a little less. Good luck!

 

[Juck]

I'm trying,, but I really do suck at it.

 

[Kathy55g]

If you do not harvest 30-50% each day, the culture gets populated with old ones, that do not reproduce. Harvest heavy, and they will double each day. Then to get the concentration up, feed 3-5 times a day, just enough to get the water cloudy each time. Do not overfeed or the excess decays, and everything dies.
Check the pH. If it is too low, the rots don't do so well either. But if you are harvesting 50% of the culture including the water, and then replacing with new saltwater, you should not have a problem.

 

[tmays]

Good advice Kathy, I forgot to tell him about the harvesting thing.