Fertilizer for Phyto Culturing

[tanglovers]

What have you guys found to be the best and safest phyto culturing media?

I am currently culturing a strain of DTs using Kent's Pro Culture parts A and B. The concern I have is the recommended dose on the label is 10 ml of each for 20 gallons of volume. At this recommended dose I have been unsuccessful at culturing. I have be very successful when increasing this quantities drastically. I increased to 3ml of each to a 2 liter bottle which phenomenonal results. I have now been working to get this amoun down and have gotten down to 1.25-1.50 ml of each to a 2 liter bottle. Still grows well...harvest/mature in about 10-11 days. my concern derives from using this amount of culture media and then dosing a reef tank. I am planning on raising phyto to feed rotifers and pods are in the works but will also be dosing tanks with phyto. I do not want to use a product that may yield ill effects down the road.

The guarenteed analysis of Part A is:
0% nitrogen, phosphate and soluble potash
Iron is 0.4%
Manganese 0.034%
Cobalt 0.002%
Zinc 0.0037%
Copper 0.0017%
Molybdenium 0.0009%
This is guarenteed minimums.

Part B is:
Nitrogen 15.0%
Phosphate 2.0%
Soluble Potash 0%
Vitamin B1 0.07%
Vitamin B12 0.0002%
Biotin 0.0002%

Do you think that I could get down to the recommended dosing (which if my math is right) would be 1/3 ml of each for a 2 liter bottle if I restarted my culture using an algae disk? I am looking to culture nanno. possibly an additional strain down the road.

My setup consists of a 2 light shop light setup with philips F40T12 bulbs which I believe are 5000k in a room that stays about 65 degrees with a bubble rate of 8 or so bps. The phyto I produce is a very dark green color so I think my lighting is sufficient.

Looking for suggestions/ideas. Is centrifuging the phyto down the only way to get rid of the excess nutrients? What type of centrifuge would I need to do this slowly?

Thanks!

 

[ediaz]

The way we use our phyto has not effect in our water quality, if some of the nutrients are not assimilated by the algae it is not concern for the larvae.

In the case of a reef, wich i don't have anymore, I can see your concern, anything not consumed will go into your tank.


Why don't you try growing the phyto with very little fertilizer or better feed the phyto to the rotifers and then feed the rots to the reef tank, that way you will get the algae to your corals etc. without the remais of the fertilizer in the culture water.

Just an idea hope a reefer/breeder shimes in...

Ed

 

[spawner]

I would suggest you use a lower amount of metals in your mix. Also if you hit your harvest right you'll have a lot less nutritents in your culture media. You'll have to go with a 3-4 part mix to drop your metals down, F/2 has a lot more metals then you really need or want. Kent's really has a lot of metals and they acidify their solution which can be hard on the algae.