Isochrysis in Crisis

[dela]

Hi guys, I've got two Iso cultures going in 2L bottles.

I noticed both cultures were clumping excessively at the top. Not sure if this is a sign of too much aeration or just a culture going bad for some other reason.

Now one is clumping even more and starting to lighten up.

I was going to run the water through a rotifer strainer and then possibly through a coffee filter in the hopes of restarting the culture.

Any thoughts on how to save a culture?

 

[GROSSR]

Having been doing phyto for a long time, all you need to do is get some live phyto. While a good portion died, there are still live phyto cells in there. Those good phyto will reproduce.

I don't think I would strain it, I would try to pour a small portion in another small bottle with clean culture water and see how it goes. Try to do this with multiple small bottles until you get a culture that has no clumping.

My recent batch all 3 2 liter bottles clumped. I poured out about 40oz of 180oz of what I think is good phyto and put that 40oz into 3 2 liter bottles. Low in density, but looks good. Just checked today and no clumping in the new 2liter bottles.

rich

 

[dela]

Thanks Rich,

I have some 16 oz bottles I was going to use but never did. Will try out what you suggest.

Kind of sounds like the process that was needed to get them started in the first place.

Mark

 

[dela]

I ended up filtering the bad culture through the rotifer seive. It pulled everything out and left the water almost clear. I doubt that culture will come back, but I added a little extra fertilizer.

Then I split the other culture, which was in better shape, into four cultures. I'm really glad I had two cultures!