Live Phytoplankton
- Thread starter dmorazan
- Start date
herring_fish
Crazy Designer
But everyone that I talk to, says that crashes happen and are just a part of equation. They say that keeping things supper clean reducing the frequency but they still happen.
phyto
phyto
The little that I know is that any type of contamination either by water bottles or anything that will make the water foul will cause to crash. have to be supper clean . i use bleach to clean any thing that I use and rinse it good
phyto
The little that I know is that any type of contamination either by water bottles or anything that will make the water foul will cause to crash. have to be supper clean . i use bleach to clean any thing that I use and rinse it good
There are different species of phyto found in fresh water vs. salt water, as well as a couple that are indeed found in both. Nanochloropsis is a prime example of a phyto that grows in both. On the flip side, Isochyrsus is a prime example of a phyto that only grows in salt water. There is a difference in nutrient and lipid profiles between the two species, but it's more a species thing than a water thing as far as I know.
Yup, bottom line is crashes happen. When it comes to people claiming they have a phyto that doesn't crash, there are 3 kinds of people. The ones that haven't been growing it long enough to know any better, the ones lying about it, and the ones that have had a nice green cyano take over the culture without realizing it
The secrets to crash resistant cultures, sanitation, strong inoculation of new cultures, and redundant cultures so that one crashes it just doesn't matter
whatcaneyedo
Member
I'm surprised no one posted this right away.
The Food of Reefs, Part 3: Phytoplankton
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-10/eb/index.php
Bill, would you mind giving a brief description of the advantages or disadvantages of both Isochyrsus and Nanochloropsis?
Do you have a preference?
Do you have a preference?
In most cases you'll see a color change. Sometimes it'll start off just looking "off" or not quite right. Sometimes it just never darkens up to that nice thick culture, and other times it will turn cloudy white from a bacterial bloom. In some cases (mostly with green phyto's) cyano might invade and take over a culture. In the case of cyano take over, generally the culture takes on a somewhat different shade than usual, and can often not be noticed by hobbyist.
The best way to avoid a culture being taking over is to maintain small volume stock "sub" cultures while taken great pains (about 15 minutes a couple times per week) to restart the sub cultures using good sanitary technique and an older sub culture as the inoculant. Standard practice is to run 3 sub cultures per large culture you want to start every week. 1 is used to start the next set of sub cultures, the 2nd to scale up to a large culture, and the 3rd is the back up. Using this method for batch culturing, vs. continually starting new cultures from the old one, will keep a nice clean culture going for years. Hoff's plankton culture manual goes into very good detail on this and is a great read for anyone culturing phyto and other micro foods.
Isochyrsus has a very good nutritional and HUFA profile, along with a size that makes it a great food for rotifers, copepods and bivalves. Between the ideal size and the excellent nutritional profile, it is the gold standard in most commercial and research aquaculture facilities. In some cases, other species might be mixed in to broaden out nutrition or size of food. Tetraselmis and Pavlona being the most common for this. The disadvantage is that Isochrysus is a bit fastidious, meaning the culturist must be very good about sanitation to avoid crashes.
Nanochlorpsis has a decent nutritional profile, but not as good as Iso. Size is good for rotifers and rotifers do well on it. The big plus is that it is more forgiving of culture conditions than Iso and therefore less prone to crashing. For the first time culturist, Nano is a good one to start with for learning the basics of culturing.
As for my personal preference, I use Iso for the sake of the superior nutritional profile.
Great write up Bill; I really appreciate it.
:thumbsup:
:thumbsup:
It's actually not to complicated once you get a routine down. I figure I spend about 15 to 30 minutes a day to keep 6 5 gallon Iso cultures going and feeding those to 4 5 gallon rotifer cultures. The biggest trick is getting that routine going so that I always have a nice thick Iso culture going without driving myself crazy.
CJO
New member
That's what I'm doing right now, but only so many 2L bottles will fit below a 65 gal tank, along with a sump, CA reactor, controller, etc.! Guess I'll have to see which part of my basement my wife won't look
CJ
phyto
phyto
What do you think about growing brine shrimp in phyto and heard that if you do it correct you can grow the phyto with the poop of the brime and so you can grow phyto and brime. here is a link. http://www.ventralfins.com/livefood_BrineShrimp.html
Method #2 - ADVANCED
I actually prefer this method more than the simple method. Even though it is more labor intensive because you need to culture live phytoplankton. But in fact, the actual culturing of the brine shrimp is pretty simple because it kinda takes care of itself. Here's what you need:
"¢5 or 10 gal tank
"¢Saltwater (S.G. 1.017 - 1.024)
"¢Phytoplankton Culture
"¢Rigid airline tubing (optional but highly reccomended) + Air pump + Airline tubing
"¢Fluorocent Lighting
"¢Electrical Timer
If you are already culturing phytoplankton (microalgae) then the hard stuff is already done. Set up your aquarium as before, fill it halfway with prepared saltwater and have your airline tubing bubbling directly into the water (without airstone). This time set up the lighting on top of or beside the tank so that it shines directly into the tank from above or from the side. Set up your electrical timer so that you have 16 hrs on and 8 hrs off. Fill the remainder of the tank with your mature phytoplankton culture and seed the culture with brine shrimp.
THAT'S IT!!.... THAT'S IT??.... No feeding?? No Water Changes???... well.. okay... MINIMAL feeding and MINIMAL water changes as compared to method 1. Here's how it works....
1. Lighting 16hrs on / 8 hrs off provides energy for photosynthesis.
2. The phytoplankton in the tank photosynthesizes the light and uses the nutrients from the waste products from the brine shimp.
3. Brine shrimp eat phytoplankton, grow, reproduce & produce baby brine shrimp... they also poop... which provides nutrients for the phytoplankton to thrive
And so the cycle continues.........
This process is somewhat self sustaining. But be careful to keep checking on it. When the brine shrimp population explodes, there will not be enough phytoplankton to feed them (the tank becomes clear), which means you have to pour in a new batch of newly brewed phytoplankton. Be on the lookout for evaporation. Keep the tank topped up with DISTILLED or RO water. Do not use saltwater to top up evaporation loss. This will cause the water to become saltier and saltier over time & may kill everything. Every 2 weeks, i reccomend giving it a 48 hr total blackout where the lights are completely off. This allows the brine shirmp to deplete the phytoplankton in the water column enough for you to see through the tank and vacumn all the gunk that will settle at the bottom of the tank. Then top up with a new batch of phytoplankton. As before, remember to harvest when the population explodes in order to avoid overcrowding.
phyto
What do you think about growing brine shrimp in phyto and heard that if you do it correct you can grow the phyto with the poop of the brime and so you can grow phyto and brime. here is a link. http://www.ventralfins.com/livefood_BrineShrimp.html
Method #2 - ADVANCED
I actually prefer this method more than the simple method. Even though it is more labor intensive because you need to culture live phytoplankton. But in fact, the actual culturing of the brine shrimp is pretty simple because it kinda takes care of itself. Here's what you need:
"¢5 or 10 gal tank
"¢Saltwater (S.G. 1.017 - 1.024)
"¢Phytoplankton Culture
"¢Rigid airline tubing (optional but highly reccomended) + Air pump + Airline tubing
"¢Fluorocent Lighting
"¢Electrical Timer
If you are already culturing phytoplankton (microalgae) then the hard stuff is already done. Set up your aquarium as before, fill it halfway with prepared saltwater and have your airline tubing bubbling directly into the water (without airstone). This time set up the lighting on top of or beside the tank so that it shines directly into the tank from above or from the side. Set up your electrical timer so that you have 16 hrs on and 8 hrs off. Fill the remainder of the tank with your mature phytoplankton culture and seed the culture with brine shrimp.
THAT'S IT!!.... THAT'S IT??.... No feeding?? No Water Changes???... well.. okay... MINIMAL feeding and MINIMAL water changes as compared to method 1. Here's how it works....
1. Lighting 16hrs on / 8 hrs off provides energy for photosynthesis.
2. The phytoplankton in the tank photosynthesizes the light and uses the nutrients from the waste products from the brine shimp.
3. Brine shrimp eat phytoplankton, grow, reproduce & produce baby brine shrimp... they also poop... which provides nutrients for the phytoplankton to thrive
And so the cycle continues.........
This process is somewhat self sustaining. But be careful to keep checking on it. When the brine shrimp population explodes, there will not be enough phytoplankton to feed them (the tank becomes clear), which means you have to pour in a new batch of newly brewed phytoplankton. Be on the lookout for evaporation. Keep the tank topped up with DISTILLED or RO water. Do not use saltwater to top up evaporation loss. This will cause the water to become saltier and saltier over time & may kill everything. Every 2 weeks, i reccomend giving it a 48 hr total blackout where the lights are completely off. This allows the brine shirmp to deplete the phytoplankton in the water column enough for you to see through the tank and vacumn all the gunk that will settle at the bottom of the tank. Then top up with a new batch of phytoplankton. As before, remember to harvest when the population explodes in order to avoid overcrowding.
