Growing Phyto from DT's?

ufans

Premium Member
I am raising rotifers for my baby clownfish and have been feeding the rotifers DT's phyto. I am running low and was wondering if I could use the live phyto as a culture to propagate more.
 
No, the makers of DT's got wise to that :rolleyes: Originally you could, so people did. Not much reason to buy more DT's, very bad for business :D So they made it a blend that includes chlorella (or so I'm told) and you really can't culture it anymore. At least that is what I have read, can't guarantee the accuracy of the info.
 
They run the phyto through a centrifuge to increase the cell density for their product. The phyto stays alive, and after centrifuge it no longer reproduces. This is directly from Randy Reed of Reed Mariculture (spoken about his products) but the same holds true for DT's.

You "could" get lucky, but even if you do, the three microalgaes they blend would have to go through a battle for space, which the nanno technically would win, but water quality and nutrient additions would be a delicate balancing act at best to keep the culture alive while this process took place.

With all the good and cheap cultures available, you'd be insane to try to pull it off IMO. Chances are you would fail anyway, if you're near the ocean up there, go get a bucket of seawater and throw it in a 10 gallon tank under 24 hour lighting and let the battle take place that way. It might take a while, but you'd most likely end up with a nanno culture.

My advice, call florida aqua farms or the like and get a clean starter culture and save yourself some headaches. ;)

Jason
 
For what it's worth.
I started my culture from DT's in December with out any problems.

I now have a culture that is denser then what DT's is selling. I can store it the fridge for a week and it never settles out.

My Rot's seem happy.
 
Sterilization by centrifuge is a new one on me.

One of the issues that came out of DT's 'spat' with Reed Mariculture last year was that cultures could be started from DT's (but not phyto-feast).

If there is really live phyto in DT's,, I see no reason for it not to reproduce given optimal conditions. It only takes one cell right?
 
guys- you can start a unknown culture of DTs.
Dt is live viable phytoplanktons. The problem is given a specific set of culture conditions you will preferentially grow only 1 or the 3 phytos. Most likely only N. occultus will grow using standard conditions, but you never know.
The big problem is not the centrifugation (which by the way is NOT confirmed by Dennis-but is most likely suspected as his means of removing cell culture media and > Cell number), as centrifugation only concentrates, it does not sterilze, it would be long term storage. unfortunately viable plants have a short shelf life and if you get a fresh-i'm talking fresh DTs bottle, you should be able to grow Nanno out of it, however much of the product I see in town is at least 1 month old, its has firmly settled, the viability is reduced and its ability to innoculate is greatly reduced. Infact the past 3 bottles I've purchased from different LFS in town have all been spoiled (smell them-if its fishy-its bad) even thou the expiry date is 2 months away. My last bottle spoiled my BBS culture. So YMMV
frank
 
I bought a algal disc of N. occultus with my order of f/2. I plan on setting up two seperate 2L bottles; one using DTs and another using the algal disc. I want to see which does better and may consider mixing them if they both do well.

BTW.. You should be able to distinguish which type if you have a microscope.
 
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