How to avoid Phytoplankton crashes

[spmedi]

Anyone ever culture in a sun tea type jar to be used continously? Pour out your dose, fill back up w/ water (w/ additives) etc?

Thanks,

Also how much should one dose? Similar to DT dosing?

 

[melev]

That is how I grow mine, spmedi. I have a 2g jar.

 

[spmedi]

Thanks.

PS - Can't sleep? lol

 

[acroman]

the tea jar method could work well as long as the culture doesnt get contaminated. as long as the water you are adding is bleached or boiled, and nothing falls in when you add/remove, you should be fine.

 

[snabss]

ok couple of updates.

1- the culture i started with DT stopped truning greener after a week or so. and the shade of green was not as green as i would have wanted it to be. plus there were particles of something white in there, looked like bleached algae to me!.
so i spilled that culture

2- i received the algae dish from forida aqua farms. so i will start a new culture with that. i will use one dish to start two cultures (just to be on the safe side). my question is how long should i keep it bubbling? as in how many days would it take to reach a point where i can use it in my tank?

3- i ordered the algae density meter from them as well. but they didnt send any chart i will call them tomorrow. in the mean while if any of the fellow reefers has the chart and if its easy to scan it, can you send me a copy? would really appreciate.


now off to find a new soda bottle

 

[melev]

I have the chart on my site. It is on the phytoplankton page. If you can't find the link, let me know.

Splitting the cultures at 5 to 7 days is pretty common, and by the third generation it would be about as dark as you can get it.

 

[snabss]

so i should split it after say 7 days regardless of how green it is ?

got the chart, thats for that.

another quick question. should i use the whole disk in one bottle or divide it between two? would it take too long if i divide it between two? i just want to have a backup (i was stupid not to order more than one culture dishes)

 

[frazier]

so it's better to use tap water then RO?? can you use Ro or maybe half and half?? so i can buy some salt water from LFS and mix it to what?

 

[billsreef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9111673#post9111673 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snabss
so i should split it after say 7 days regardless of how green it is ?

got the chart, thats for that.

another quick question. should i use the whole disk in one bottle or divide it between two? would it take too long if i divide it between two? i just want to have a backup (i was stupid not to order more than one culture dishes)

I wouldn't let it go past 14 days without splitting. If it goes too long it will use all the f/2 nutrients and crash

As for splitting the disk, what size cultures are you setting up? You might want to start with say two 16 oz soda bottles to make two seperate stock cultures and than step those up when they get a nice dark green.

 

[billsreef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9112313#post9112313 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by frazier
so it's better to use tap water then RO??

All those algae promoting nutrients that we use RO/DI to filter out for our reef tanks are quite beneficial to algae cultures

 

[jpitts101]

but arent all the heavy metals and chemicals bad? i've only been cultureing for a few months but have heard that is a big NO NO to use tap water. im cultureing Nannochloropsis, tetraselmis and a strain from DT's and havent had any problems with rodi.

 

[billsreef]

If your tap has enough heavy metals and chemicals to be a problem, I hope your not drinking it :eek1:

 

[jpitts101]

i guess its similar to everyone else's. but most of us treat out reef better than ourselves. if thats the case then why not fill out tank with tap? it wont hurt anything, is that what your saying?

 

[melev]

Tap water works fine to grow phytoplankton. The algae needs those items to grow. We want it to grow.

However, in our tank, we don't want algae to grow, right? So we use RO/DI water for the reef tank.

I'm just a hobbyist, so I try to reason out some of this stuff, and make assumptions based on gut instinct sometimes rather than based on scientific proof. My gut (and it could be wrong, right? ) tells me that the phyto uses up the stuff in tap water, and we dose phyto in small amounts. That is why I've never worried about it.

 

[jpitts101]

hey adam/travis, you need to read this, they are telling people to use tap water to make phyto, melev is saying that the phyto will take all the chemicals and heavy metals out of your water. i've been following this thread for awhile and lots of it contridicts what we do. you may want to chime in. just thought you should read it.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=9114437#post9114437

 

[jpitts101]

sorry that was meant for a pm for a fellow reefer that says you should never use tap in anything reef related. i wanted him to chime in and give his side.

 

[melev]

I thought you were trying to put us in an endless loop.

 

[jpitts101]

no sorry, i just want to have adam, which is a fellow reefer and taught me how to culture phyto to chime in and get another side of why we dont use tap. sorry for the confusion .

 

[melev]

Adam was just here speaking to our club this month, along with Micheal from Extreme Corals. The talk and demo was excellent, and it did make me rethink my current methods.

What was more of a shocker was how little phytoplankton we have in our oceans today vs what was there less than 10 years ago.

 

[jpitts101]

i dont enough about this topic to argue about it but i dont understand how phyto can take nutrients out of freshwater such as heavy metals and chlorine and use them benificially??