I need a plankton book.

[Roy G. Biv]

This forum moves so slow. DAMMIT I HAVE QUESTIONS!

Can anyone recomend a good book?

I thought I was doing well with my production so far. I was a little disappointed today. I have been filling those little water bottles with phyto (500ml). I am starting to have a little excess to I dumped 250ml in my tank. Great, I saw a green poof for a second, at then gone!!

Also. When I feed excess rots to my tank, am I supposed to strain them through a net? Can I just dump a 2L bottle into the tank? (Display 210, Total Volume 550)
Am I going to have an ammonia spike?

Do I just discard that green crap that collects at the bottom of the rots? Is that just collected phyto?

If I have my rots in a 10g tank connected to my system, should I run the tank water through an RO prefilter? Any recomended micron?

If I do the 10g route, do I just harvest them with a net and swipe it through the tank a few times?

Wow, thats a lot.

 

[Fishboy42]

Re: I need a plankton book.

Frank Hoff's Plankton Culture Manual is a good starting-point for information about culturing plankton for aquaculture:

https://3kserver7.com/~frank/secure/agora.cgi?cart_id=1003652.32276*Pr7sx1&product=BOOKS_MANUALS

To collect and feed rotifers to fish/your reef, etc, you can use a plankton sieve (also available from FAF above). This prevents adding "dirty" rotifer water to your reef or fishtanks (basically a rotifer net). I'd avoid adding rotifer water to any system, as their culture tanks aren't generally the cleanest in-terms of the nutrients that cause problems for aquariums.

There are many different ways to successfully culture rotifers, but I think the most important thing is to establish a feeding and maintenance schedule and stick to it--that way maintaining a steady supply of rotifers is possible and your cultures are less likely to crash. Of course, multiple cultures can be good insurance against loosing them altogether.


Matt

 

[billsreef]

I'll second the recommendation for Frank Hoff's book, it's quite comprehensive and the best one out there for the subject

 

[ReidiLoverLinds]

i will third it and you can order it here http://www.seahorsesource.com/cgi-bin/shop/detail.cgi?id=900101