how do I clean the bottom of a rotifer tank??

[Hendersonracing]

Ok had my rotifers about a week now...there is alot of gunk? roti-feast on the bottom...anyway how do I get it clean without syphoning the rotis out??? also I started out with a ton in the tank I have been feeding a few baby clows and my rotis are gettin slim looks like...I thought when you feed the rots tey should multiply???I have been doing wc 2 times a day and feeding 2 times a day? Is there a certain point were you drain the tank and start completely over?

 

[Hendersonracing]

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[GreshamH]

Roti-Feast is a concentrated Rotifer product, do you mean Rotifer Diet?

 

[Hendersonracing]

I think its roti feast its a yeast smell for the rotifers? came from Florida Farms? am I using the right stuff or is phytoplankton better? Ive been culturing it also? Just trying to get ready for my next batch of eggs!

 

[BlueCoast]

I use a turkey baster or rigid airline tubing for sucking out the detritus from the bottom. A few rotifers get sucked up, but well worth it for what gets pulled out. I am culturing in 1 gal jugs, not a tank though.

Careful with the roti-feast, food like that can foul water quickly.

 

[ReidiLoverLinds]

nooo do it this way it is the easiest.... let the contents settle and dump the clean rots off the top into a clean bowl. do this until you get as much as you can out and clean all the crap out of the container and replace the rots. you must do this at least every other day. you would be best off to culture in a few jugs instead of a tank. that way you wont be skrewed if the culture crashes and they are alot easier to clean. hth

 

[shakara_b]

Are U feeding rots separately? I keep six 1L containers filled half way up and I feed approx 5ml of rotifer diet( diluted to 1 part diet to 6 to 8 parts water) every two days or just before the water gets clear. If I feel like a colony may crash, I remove 2/3 of the water w/ rots and add newly made water to the container. I strain the 2/3 I removed and feed it to my tank or give it to someone I know who needs them. I vary rarely clean my containers as the gunk in the bottom will usually contain cysts or a few rots. The key is to watch how much you feed them when not using live phyto. Too much will foul the water. I try to keep a tint to the water, sort of like a light green tea. (Something like Snapple) I hope this helps. PEACE.

 

[GreshamH]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12007926#post12007926 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Hendersonracing
I think its roti feast its a yeast smell for the rotifers? came from Florida Farms? am I using the right stuff or is phytoplankton better? Ive been culturing it also? Just trying to get ready for my next batch of eggs!

No Roti Rich is what your using. Roti-Feast is whole dead rotifers in suspension and made by Reef Nutrition.

 

[Hendersonracing]

yes roti rich thanks.....I think im going to remove them and start up a few different cultures...what is best the roti rich or phyto plankton which I have alot of???

 

[carman9941]

no need to start over, just use an airline and a sieve and drain them into a vessel, rinse the tank out and DRY it completely and you new saltwater bring to proper temp and add air stones and your good to go, I would recommend doing this every couple of weeks, you can use a coffee filter as well as a sieve sp?

 

[Hendersonracing]

I have a sieve so that should be ok...another quastion what do I feed my new brine shrimp? they are 1 day in a vessel and I heard day 2 to feed phyto?

 

[GreshamH]

If you intend to feed the artemia to something else I would use phyto, but if you want to start to grow them out at day two or so they'll eat a lot of different things....even Roti-Rich Once they begin feeding, they are just really as nutritios as to what you feed them. Not a lot of nutrition in yeast, but they'll grow just fine on it.

I don't have any experience using yeast based feeds so I can't really lend any personal experience as to if phyto or yeast based is better for feeding rotifers. I've had extremelly good success using phyto pastes though

 

[ReidiLoverLinds]

You want to continuously cull your rotifers to keep the population young and able to carry the maximum amount of eggs. If you let the population establish and start getting too 'old' your rots will produce less and inevitably crash. I also think it is essential to keep the containers really clean because i dont want that muck to end up in my fry tanks. Rotifers only start to produce cysts in a culture when they dont have enough food or conditions are not favorable. they do this so if the population crashes it can still rehatch and the species can go on.

 

[Lifes A Beach]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12021919#post12021919 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReidiLoverLinds
You want to continuously cull your rotifers to keep the population young and able to carry the maximum amount of eggs.

How do you cull the rotifers?

 

[GreshamH]

Harvest up to 50% daily of the volume thru a sieve using a syphon or drain. Since you'll have a continues supply, you could feed the rest to your reef tank

 

[Hendersonracing]

its seems I am getting less and less rotifers in my culture and I split about 25% a day? and feed phyto & roti rich? so Last night I put together 3 cultures of rotifers

 

[ReidiLoverLinds]

culling means to take some out of the culture and either feed out or discard. After you take some out always replace with clean salt water so that the rots will have room to grow. One rotifer can literally become a thousand rotifers in a matter of days. that is why they are so favorable as food for fry. Keeping the culture clean and using something like amquel + to keep the ammonia in check, along with constantly harvesting and replacing with clean water will insure you a productive culture.

 

[Hendersonracing]

do you add amquel every few days? or test first?

 

[ReidiLoverLinds]

I treat the clean replacement water with amquel + so fresh amquel+ is continuiously added and old is taken away when i sieve out the rotifers. I then toss the water.

 

[tedr]

I have tried using yeast, roti-rich, other typse of non living cultures, only to find it junk up my containers. I now use only phyto and DT. Less junk/gunk to worry about, and the rotifers seem to do much better. I also use 6 1 gal containers as insurance against crashes. I'll alternate water changes to 2/3 containers at a time.