Culture Phytoplankton WITHOUT air/bubbles

[jhilliard]

Hi everyone,
I recently obtained a culture, and realized shortly after that my air pump after splitting gives off very weak bubbles only to the surface which may not be enough.

I am wondering if ANY of you have ever raised phytoplankton WITHOUT air bubbles and if so how you went about it, as well as your results. I'd also like to know if you shook the bottle once a day or if you didn't even do that.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[billsreef]

[welcome]

In small volumes it can be done with just swirling once or twice a day. I'm talking around 100mls here. Much more than that doesn't tend to work well without strong aeration.

 

[jhilliard]

Hmmm, so why do you think that is? Is it because the algae covers the light over all? I'm just wondering that if you didn't even swirl them and let it stand since its algae why wont it just grow up the sides to a certain extent at least?

 

[billsreef]

Phtyo doesn't grow on substrates the same way as the nuisance algae in your tank It floats (some swim) in the water column. In larger cultures it is light penetration, combined with phtyo cells settling out, that is the problem. The strong circulation keeps the phtyo in suspension and well mixed so that all the cells get exposed to light. Without this, much of the culture would simply starve from light deprivation and end up crashing. Unless your going for large scale culturing, a dedicated air pump will be cheap enough and well worth it

 

[jhilliard]

nannochloropsis in freshwater

nannochloropsis in freshwater

The species I have is called Nannochloropsis, do you happen to know if its is true that it grows in freshwater as well? I mean I haven't seen anything online about culturing it in freshwater. Any experience in that or have you heard anything? Thanks a bunch.

 

[billsreef]

Yup, Nannochloropsis can grow in both in fresh and salt. Other than the difference in salt content of the culture water, the same culture methods apply in both scenarios.

 

[jhilliard]

Wow thats amazing

Wow thats amazing

Wow Bill,
That is truly amazing, that has given me some ideas, I mean in essence for example I'm raising brine shrimp in a 10 gallon. Instead of adding extra salt content everytime I feed the nanochloropsis to the brine, if I were culturing it in freshwater it would be almost like just topping of the salt water tank (since salt doesn't evaporate). Interesting, Ill try that.

By the way I bought the big petco pump with a dial that lets you control the power. I have it plugged into 4 bottles 1.5 liters I believe. I also have 2 1 gallon tanks with a seperate pump however I didn't put very much culture in, I was curious to see how long it might take for it to change color. Hey, here is a youtube link I just made for you to see, check out my setup and let me know what your thoughts are.

I got 2 florescents in the sides, and 2 cfl bulps on top. Also, can you tell if my culture is alive with the bubbles and all? I mean it would be much clearer in the 1.5 liters if they weren't alive right? Also the species are nanochloropsis and tetrasylmis (or however its spelled).

http://youtu.be/za4yMpAHULg

 

[Epicreefer]

Those look alive. The culture should start off fairly clear with a bit of green and in 2-3 days look green and 2-3 days later look deep green. This can vary a few days depending on inoculation quantity and growth factors. If they aren't growing give them a few more days then chuck them and start over but that rarely happens. It's nice to have all the cultures staggered so if one days cultures doesn't work you have spares to feed and seed new cultures. Tet is more forest green and changes color faster/ gets darker, while nano is more pea green and reaches a point where you expect it's still growing but can't tell without cell counts. At least that's my experience.

You should have plenty of light, i would just use half of what you are(my old setup was a dual t5 strip with bottles on each side) but if you got it use it. Algae is hard to kill as long as it has light and movement, too much light could be an issue too so don't over do it. The big problem with your first question is air exchange. Without bubbling there isn't enough CO2 transferred into the water to suport good growth. And in dark periods the algae use all the oxygen, suffocate and die off.

 

[billsreef]

Yup, they are looking pretty good. I'd use the same salinity or close for the phyto as the brine. Reason being, while the nano can grow in either, the sudden change can cause shock issues which might have it drop out of suspension when you feed the brine.

 

[miatawnt2b]

You may be able to use a lab style magnetic stirrer.
-J