Photoplankton clumping

[laga77]

After three attempts at culturing nano, each has turned out bottles where the nano clumps up into large pieces and leaves the water clear. From what I have read this is from contamination of the culture. I use half gallon glass milk bottles that get washed in the dishwasher and then spend a couple of minutes in the microwave. I use ro/di water. What exactly is causing the contamination? Is it something from the tank or is it everyday household bacteria? What should I be trying to keep out? Thanks

 

[gogo7]

hey laga, are you using air? i culture mine on a window sill without an air pump.
stir it every day. it should be fine. you fert up every five or seven days, 1 drop of ferts per 100mls fsw, never more than double your culture.
most nanno is contaminated with chlorella. don't worry about it.
you can drop the sg on nanno right up to fresh water.
i've been using the same unwashed 2litre pop bottle for dunliella for over a year.

 

[laga77]

I am using plenty of air. The bottles are in front of a 24 inch plant grow florescent fixture which is on 20 hours a dayand temp is around 70F.

 

[billsreef]

What are using for fertilizer, and how much? When you wash the bottles, are you using detergent?

 

[laga77]

I am using Micro Algae Grow 1ml in half gallon. Bottles are scrubbed out with bottle brush to remove algae stuck to glass. Put in dishwasher with other dishes with detergent on sanitizing cycle. I then rinse bottles with tap water and then with a half cup of water, microwave for a couple of minutes until boiling. Plastic caps have 1/4 inch hole for airline and very small hole for air vent. They are treated same as bottles. I have been mixing water at 1.020 in the buckets I use for the tanks. After starting culture from disc, and getting up to four bottle. Everything goes fine for a month and then clumps. It has never turned yellow.

 

[gogo7]

your ferts are right, everything seems fine. the only other question i'd ask is when do you split? 7,9 12 days? i split when i need it. sometimes within days of fertilizing. so i don't think that's your problem.
are you using the plankton culture manual? there's a pretty thorough trouble shooting section. i think you're doing the right things.
have you tried any other species?

 

[laga77]

With four bottles it is probably in the 7-9 day range. No I do not have the manual, just what I find online. I have ordered tetraselmis,and Isocrysis to try. The cultures will be used mostly for feeding my copepod culture and sometimes my two reef tanks. The only thing I can think of at this point is the contamination might be coming from the buckets. I am going to dedicate one bucket for just phyto and see what happens. Also, can temperature be an issue? The other night the phyto got down to 68F

 

[billsreef]

Temperature flucations can be an issue. Though having the cultures run good for a month, then crash does sound more like contamination, which is common when trying to run the same culture for prolonged periods. Reading the "Plankton Culture Manual" is quite worthwhile. Especially the part about maintaining clean subcultures, which is what many of the pro's do. The idea is to run 3 small (about 50 to 100 ml) cultures using sterilized media (SW and fertilizer), easily done in via pasteurization in the microwave (bottle and all). Inoculate each one with your original clean source, put a foam stopper (packed floss will also work) in the top and place under a light. At such small size, no aeration is needed, which can be a source of contamination, just swirl twice a day. Use those subcultures to start new cultures, and use one of the subcultures to start a new set of clean subcultures. Do all the subculture work away from any other culture activities to cut down potential contamination when working with them It is a bit more work, but you always have good cultures this way, and ample reserve if one crashes.

 

[gogo7]

both my nanno and my duna are on a cold window sill. 62' yesterday. i keep a couple of ounces in the fridge to reanimate when i feel i might need it...the way bill described, i use bottled distilled and nuked old tank water. once in a while i setup a freshwater nanno culture on the side. this is handy for ato and auto feed. duna will convert as well. setting up subcultures is good idea.
i think working with other species is also good idea. tetra should be easy, myself, i couldn't get iso to take... i got a coupla gallons, but it crashed and didn't come back. you've inspired me to try so new stuff... when you see the different colours of green, it's kinda cool...
as for the clumping, i would physically stir your nanno daily until it comes back. try adding a drop per mil of ferts directly into a subculture, without the extra water.

here's some dunaliella cultures. the one in my hand is about 64', the one in the back ground kept about 76' ish. under par 30 and 20wfl

i haven't cleaned the bottle in possibly a year. it is duna under the microscope.
my nanno is at 64' right now as well.
i really don't think it's temp. it could just be that you need to get a good subculture going.

 

[laga77]

Thanks. Manual and subcultures it is.