Microfood culture: phytoplanktons, Rotifers, ciliates, Artemia, and copepods
- Thread starter FMarini
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Or get it from small parts.com (micron cloth)
herring_fish
Crazy Designer
CO2 Lowers Crashing?
CO2 Lowers Crashing?
Does the injection of CO2 lower the odds of phytoplankton cultures crashing?
CO2 Lowers Crashing?
Does the injection of CO2 lower the odds of phytoplankton cultures crashing?
Not really. It just lets you get denser cultures, and might speed up growth as well.
No filter sock. Generally the idea is to harvest the phyto at peak density, which should also coincide with minimal fertilizer left in the culture water that ends up in the tank.
herring_fish
Crazy Designer
I don't know about the paste but I do use the concentrated liquid and I like it quite well.
Going back to aeration, I had a culture of rotifers living four months. Then the pump started to fail. In the 6 foot tube, it went from a strong boil to a trickle and the culture died. I changed the air line to the other port but in a week the bubbles went back down to a trickle and the culture died again.
As the feeding goes higher, the population goes up and so does the amount of ammonia. With a higher population, there is a much higher need for oxygen. Without it you can get crashes. With more air, you can be less accurate with the feeding.
I think that I'm going to change from a large diaphragm pump to a magnetic piston to consistently pump the the depth of about 5 feet.
Going back to aeration, I had a culture of rotifers living four months. Then the pump started to fail. In the 6 foot tube, it went from a strong boil to a trickle and the culture died. I changed the air line to the other port but in a week the bubbles went back down to a trickle and the culture died again.
As the feeding goes higher, the population goes up and so does the amount of ammonia. With a higher population, there is a much higher need for oxygen. Without it you can get crashes. With more air, you can be less accurate with the feeding.
I think that I'm going to change from a large diaphragm pump to a magnetic piston to consistently pump the the depth of about 5 feet.
Reed's algae paste works well. The trick with that stuff is get it well suspended and don't overfeed. With this stuff, less is more
Personally I still like to culture my own as there are some benefits to live phyto that I like. Even with my preference to culture my own, I keep a stash of Reed's algae in the freezer as a back up in event of a phyto culture crash.
It's not really a paste, that's just what people call it
:wavehand:
I see you waving :lol:
Have you tried any of the new blends?
FWIW "paste" came about when we first started producing it. It was thicker then and harder to work with. Cryo-paste is what some will remember, if they go back to the 90's with phyto
Hey, your dating me there :lol:
Haven't had a chance to play with any of the new blends yet. Might be awhile with this whole moving bit before I get to play.
apuhl20
New member
OK so I have a question. Let me start by saying I am not breeding fish. I have an approximate 300 gallon system, 180dt, 2 30 frag tanks, 30g macro display hoping to have pipefish/seahorses.
I currently raise nanno phyto with no problems at all. I am throwing around the options of raising either copepods, or rotifers.
Which would be better?? Pods would be good for feeding the macro tank, but I believe rotifers would be feeding the corals? Looking for all the help and input I can get. Thanks
I currently raise nanno phyto with no problems at all. I am throwing around the options of raising either copepods, or rotifers.
Which would be better?? Pods would be good for feeding the macro tank, but I believe rotifers would be feeding the corals? Looking for all the help and input I can get. Thanks
Pods are slow growing, but better food for larger polyped corals and the seahorses and pipefish will often snack on the larger ones. Though for pods you'll want to look into growing either isochyrsus or tetraselmis, the nano is too small and not nutritious for pod culturing in general.
There are differences in size and nutritionally quality. Nanno is the smallest at 1.5 to 2 microns , and also the least nutritious of the commonly cultured algaes. Iso is a bit larger at 5 microns and has one of the best nutritional profiles...if you can culture one, this is considered the best by many aquaculturist. Tet is fairly large at 12 microns, and has good nutritional profile.
A lot of aquaculturist will use multiple species, as the mix of nutritional profiles seems to be better than a single species approach. For rots, my inclination would be a combination of half nano and half iso. For pods, I'd iso and tet.
A lot of aquaculturist will use multiple species, as the mix of nutritional profiles seems to be better than a single species approach. For rots, my inclination would be a combination of half nano and half iso. For pods, I'd iso and tet.
Hey guys,
I have a few pod cultures going, to see what works for me. The one that has taken off the most is a 10 gallon tank I started by siphoning out copepods from the glass of the refugium and later added some tigs.
In the interest of having a variety of pods, I was thinking of siphoning out more pods from the tank just in case I have more variety in the tank than in this particular culture.
If I do this again, I could include some gammarian isopods.
I'm wondering if this would be bad news for the much smaller copepods?
How about munnid isopods?
I have a few pod cultures going, to see what works for me. The one that has taken off the most is a 10 gallon tank I started by siphoning out copepods from the glass of the refugium and later added some tigs.
In the interest of having a variety of pods, I was thinking of siphoning out more pods from the tank just in case I have more variety in the tank than in this particular culture.
If I do this again, I could include some gammarian isopods.
I'm wondering if this would be bad news for the much smaller copepods?
How about munnid isopods?
SpareParts
New member
Will this work?
Will this work?
Hi - I've been successful at culturing nanno and rotifers in closed systems. I am wanting to make a continuous system. It would be something like this:
Aquarium sump --> Bubble Magus dosing pump --> UV sterilizer --> Geo Kalkwasser reactor --> five gallon bucket (or other container) --> overflow back into sump.
My thought it to use aquarium water, run it through the sterilizer to kill any zooplankton and inject it into the Geo reactor. I like the Geo reactor because it has maxijet closed loop on it that keeps everything circulating. I'd have lights installed around the reactor to encourage phyto growth. I'd use the bubble magus pump to add 1ml of F2 once per day, and 50ml of tank water 24x per day. The effluent from the reactor would overflow into 1) the main display for dosing pure phyto and 2) a container holding a rotifer culture. The rotifer culture would then overflow back into the main display or sump as phyto is added.
I have a couple of obvious concerns. Would the phyto grow without any airstone or bubbling? I was hoping the 50ml. hour injection of tank water would be adequate to provide gas exchange requirements. Also, would the running of the maxijet on the reactor destroy the phyto? I would run an airstone in the rotifer culture and probably break the whole thing down and clean every few weeks. Should I keep the lights on 24/7? Or run them like 12 hours a day and halt water injections while off?
Will this work?
Hi - I've been successful at culturing nanno and rotifers in closed systems. I am wanting to make a continuous system. It would be something like this:
Aquarium sump --> Bubble Magus dosing pump --> UV sterilizer --> Geo Kalkwasser reactor --> five gallon bucket (or other container) --> overflow back into sump.
My thought it to use aquarium water, run it through the sterilizer to kill any zooplankton and inject it into the Geo reactor. I like the Geo reactor because it has maxijet closed loop on it that keeps everything circulating. I'd have lights installed around the reactor to encourage phyto growth. I'd use the bubble magus pump to add 1ml of F2 once per day, and 50ml of tank water 24x per day. The effluent from the reactor would overflow into 1) the main display for dosing pure phyto and 2) a container holding a rotifer culture. The rotifer culture would then overflow back into the main display or sump as phyto is added.
I have a couple of obvious concerns. Would the phyto grow without any airstone or bubbling? I was hoping the 50ml. hour injection of tank water would be adequate to provide gas exchange requirements. Also, would the running of the maxijet on the reactor destroy the phyto? I would run an airstone in the rotifer culture and probably break the whole thing down and clean every few weeks. Should I keep the lights on 24/7? Or run them like 12 hours a day and halt water injections while off?
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