Contaminated Phytoplankton?

[tastydog]

How does one tell if their phytoplankton cultures are contaminated with a bacteria culture?

Can one "screen" out the phytoplankton with a 10micron sieve or something to rescue it from the contaminated water?

I am currently using .75 ml of bleach to sterilize the water and container before starting a new culture.

One of them I have let go for a while now and just kept feeding. It is a deep forest green now.

The other new one, a piece of plastic from the hole I drilled in the lid got in there, and it appears to be "contaminated" or growing stuff on it. I can see it getting bigger each day.

Can I just use this phytoplankton to feed my rotifer cultures anyway? I can screen out the rotifers for feeding to brine and the tank.

Brandon

 

[DJREEF]

Nope. Once it's innoculated, it's just a matter of time. Just use it until it runs out or starts stinking.

DJ

 

[billsreef]

One of them I have let go for a while now and just kept feeding. It is a deep forest green now.

It's very rare for a phytoplankton culture to survive in that manner. Typically what happens in that scenario is cyano taken over, quite often a nice deep green cyano.

Probably best to start over again with an innoculant of a known pure strain of your desired phyto.