growing / culturing phyto

[sneeyatch]

i've been reading different threads about phytoplankton, and i'm interested in doing this myself, then moving on to rotifers and eventually rearing pods.

anyway, i'm a huge fan of melevsreef, and read his articles about doing it. now i have some dumb questions...

he mentions using tap water, which is fine with me, but i assume he's de-chlorinating it? there's never any mention of it in the articles.

he also talks about using miracle grow. sounds kind of strange to me, but i guess it's reef safe and there's nothing else i would have to do to it in order to sterilize things?

like i said - they sound dumb, but i figured i would ask here first instead of trying to hunt / bother marc about it.

thanks

 

[Kathy55g]

Mark loves to be bothered. Go ahead.

Mark's way works for him with the water he gets in Dallas. Mark's way has not worked for most anyone else I have heard of. For what he is using his phyto for, he is doing just fine.

If you want to grow fish on it, you need the proper balance of nutrition, and terestrial fertilizers won't get you there. Guillard's f/2 is not expensive, though not as readily available as miracle grow. It is called Micro Algae Grow at florida aqua farms.

If you want to be pretty sure of what you are growing, you will need some reasonably sterile bottles and sterile 20 ppt salt water. Just so you do not grow something you do not intend to grow. Easy to do, search for Third Attempt breeding clownfish under my name, it is spelled out ad nauseum.

 

[jacob30]

Hey Todd I have the Plankton Culture manual you can borrow if you like (makes for some exciting bedtime reading). Also I can bring by some of the F/2 for you to the next meeting and we can talk about phyto culture a bit and what it is best used for.

Kathy has some good tips of growing phyto. Check out the thread she listed.

 

[sneeyatch]

hey jacob - if you could bring it, that would be cool. i haven't had a chance to hunt down kathy's thread yet. i just peek in and out during the day at work

thanks - see you sunday.

 

[Cuervo]

I noticed FAF offers a 2 day course for $375 on growing Phyto and Roti's. I only live about 2 hours from them, it might be fun to go check it out!

 

[GreshamH]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8425454#post8425454 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kathy55g

If you want to grow fish on it, you need the proper balance of nutrition, and terestrial fertilizers won't get you there. Guillard's f/2 is not expensive, though not as readily available as miracle grow. It is called Micro Algae Grow at florida aqua farms.

Or it's just called F2 nutrients at other places

 

[David M]

"Or it's just called F2 nutrients at other places"

What a shameless bid for a plug OK I'll say it, check out Reed Mariculture for all your phyto culturing needs

I ordered some Oto yesterday around 9AM online and payed for two day shipping. It was here at 9:00 this morning Maybe I'm starting to get some respect up there :smokin:

 

[Kathy55g]

When you are good, you are good.