Microfood culture: phytoplanktons, Rotifers, ciliates, Artemia, and copepods
- Thread starter FMarini
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eoliver123
New member
phyto question
phyto question
I recently bought a bottle of phytoplankton from my like store. After reading how to grow it at home I want to give it a try. My question is weather I can use the plankton I bought in the store to start my own culture? If any one has any feedback that would be great.
phyto question
I recently bought a bottle of phytoplankton from my like store. After reading how to grow it at home I want to give it a try. My question is weather I can use the plankton I bought in the store to start my own culture? If any one has any feedback that would be great.
Precisely what phyto did you buy? There is a wide array of phyto products avialable via some LFS, ranging from truly live cultures to preserved concentrates. The live phyto can be cultured, while the preserved stuff is dead and can't be cultured.
eoliver123
New member
The phyto I bought have to be kept in the fridge and came in a bottle. I'm not sure which they are. I can find out later today if this isn't enough info to determine what type they are.
Luis A M
Premium Member
Wise words that should be kept in mind
Particularly since we hear voices sustaining that frozen pastes can be returned to life:uhoh2:
I am now checking the product "Phycopure" from Algagen.It is a mix of live algae,some of them were motile when observed straight from the bottle.Used as innoculant,some green algae are growing.Being it a multialgal blend,one would expect that we end with one species.
herring_fish
Crazy Designer
I see most hobbyists growing phytoplankton in 2 liter bottles. They harvest by splitting the culture and adding fresh replacement salt water. Everyone reports crashes despite meticulous cleaning.
My question is, are large batches of phytoplankton any less likely to crash?
I talked to a guy that said that he grew phyto in white 55 gallon plastic drums, outside in the summer, adding a seed culture and fertilizer or just adding fertilizer. He seemed to be a casual grower but he didn't worry about crashes. Unfortunately, I couldn't talk to him long enough to get any details. I don't know if he was making constant production or just making individual batches.
My question is, are large batches of phytoplankton any less likely to crash?
I talked to a guy that said that he grew phyto in white 55 gallon plastic drums, outside in the summer, adding a seed culture and fertilizer or just adding fertilizer. He seemed to be a casual grower but he didn't worry about crashes. Unfortunately, I couldn't talk to him long enough to get any details. I don't know if he was making constant production or just making individual batches.
Luis A M
Premium Member
Bottles are fine,and they seldom crash.Check http://www.marinebreeder.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=145&t=324
herring_fish
Crazy Designer
Two At Once?
Two At Once?
Three pages back at #268, I posted a description of my rotifer tower that is a tube 6 inches in diameter and 6 feet tall. It is designed to be fed 2 gallons of total water from the main tank, spread out throughout the day automatically. That same amount of rotifer laden water returns to the display tank via gravity. Along with it comes the waste that my main tank has no problem processing so the 7 gallon plankton tower has relatively clean water cycling through it all the time.
I have been feeding it dead phyto and it works well. Lately, I got some live phyto from a local grower/dealer at a very reasonable price so I used it instead for a while. Of course live phyto makes for a cleaner running system.
Looking at my nice green tower, I thought:
1. What if I added lighting to the clear plastic tube and a little phyto fertilizer?
My algae scrubber loved its addition when I ran the light too much and over scrubbed. If I didn't add so much that I fowl the 7 gallon tower, my display tank should be just fine. I could just turn up the lights.Perhaps the live phyto and the rotifers would live together. Now we come to phyto crashes.
2. Would it still crash if the phyto density is lower and the bacteria filled main tank water is cycled through it?
If so, would it fowl the water in the tower and kill the rotifers too? If not, that addition of a lesser daily feeding of live phyto would seed the tower every day.
3. Would the bacteria from one crash hang around and continue to kill?
Two At Once?
Three pages back at #268, I posted a description of my rotifer tower that is a tube 6 inches in diameter and 6 feet tall. It is designed to be fed 2 gallons of total water from the main tank, spread out throughout the day automatically. That same amount of rotifer laden water returns to the display tank via gravity. Along with it comes the waste that my main tank has no problem processing so the 7 gallon plankton tower has relatively clean water cycling through it all the time.
I have been feeding it dead phyto and it works well. Lately, I got some live phyto from a local grower/dealer at a very reasonable price so I used it instead for a while. Of course live phyto makes for a cleaner running system.
Looking at my nice green tower, I thought:
1. What if I added lighting to the clear plastic tube and a little phyto fertilizer?
My algae scrubber loved its addition when I ran the light too much and over scrubbed. If I didn't add so much that I fowl the 7 gallon tower, my display tank should be just fine. I could just turn up the lights.Perhaps the live phyto and the rotifers would live together. Now we come to phyto crashes.
2. Would it still crash if the phyto density is lower and the bacteria filled main tank water is cycled through it?
If so, would it fowl the water in the tower and kill the rotifers too? If not, that addition of a lesser daily feeding of live phyto would seed the tower every day.
3. Would the bacteria from one crash hang around and continue to kill?
That would be like trying to raise chickens in the same coop with foxes. Single fastest way to wipe out a phyto culture is to get rots in your phyto...and I'm talking just couple of rots getting into substantial phyto cultures via minor contamination. The rots reproduce much faster than phyto.
herring_fish
Crazy Designer
True
Let's think in a lower order of magnitude. I'm not talking about growing phyto for substantial export. My thought was to encourage growth of the phyto in the tube that would help feed the rots. I would still have to dose in phyto but less.
I noticed that when I feed a lot, the green water takes a day or two to be consumed. If it multiplied a little, in the mean time, it would last longer and therefor cost less.
Yes? No?
Let's think in a lower order of magnitude. I'm not talking about growing phyto for substantial export. My thought was to encourage growth of the phyto in the tube that would help feed the rots. I would still have to dose in phyto but less.
I noticed that when I feed a lot, the green water takes a day or two to be consumed. If it multiplied a little, in the mean time, it would last longer and therefor cost less.
Yes? No?
birddog486
Member
Yeah, tell me about it. I had an 80 gallon rubbermaid filled with a great batch of thick nano. All it took was one drop of rotifer culture on my watch and 4 days to have 80 gallons of clear water and 10000000000000000 rotifers
kakalakasha
FSU Undergrad
Thinking about culturing my own copepods! And in order to do that I need to culture my own phtyto... reading through the thread it seems as if Iso is the best phyto for me if I want to stick with feeding one type of algae to my pods? And I've read that you can't mix phytos, rots, brine, copepods, etc. But what about mixing different species of pods in the same culture? Will one species outcompete the rest like with phytos or will they live in harmony and all continue to breed? Lastly, what is a good source for iso phytoplabkton? Thanks, zack
If one was only going to culture one phyto, Iso is indeed the best choice. It can be readily obtained from either Florida Aqua Farms or Aquatic Ecosytems. Pods are bit slow growing, so probably not as likely to be problematic for mixed pod species in culture.
kakalakasha
FSU Undergrad
Correct me if I'm wrong, to culture iso I need: an iso algae disk, fertilizer, and a source of light? I've read that the bubbler isn't required, just shake the bottles up daily? A question on the light, I've been trying to figure out what type of light bulb to grow with but I can't really seem to figure it out... I think I'm going to try a single culture of the iso at first and just feed it to my reef to get a hang of it before I go full scale with 4 bottles and whatnot
For the light, any decent "white" fluorescent tube will do. I like to use the ones that are closest to daylight in color temperature as possible. Just shaking can work on small cultures such as the typical subculture (generally under 100ml). Anything larger, such as 1L culture, and aeration is really needed IME. No airstone, just an open airline with nice big bubbles set for a nice rolling boil.
