Phyto growers out there?

[pledosophy]

I have been growing small amounts of phyto and pod cultures for awhile but want to ramp it up with some different species and increase volume.

I currently grow Nanno but just ordered Iso. I also ordered the F2 to get off of Miracle Grow.

I have been growing in two liter bottles but was thinking of switching to a 20g with a drilled drain.

Any advice on success you have had? How important is temp?

 

[gogo7]

hello pledosophy, i grow phytos.
nannochloropsis, dunaliella and a green 'iso'. i suspect my green iso is actually nanno. i got it from my lfs. the nanno and duna are from florida aqua farm plates.
i grow on the window sill here in canada, in 2 litre bottles. it gets cold. temps do affect growth, but a warm sunny day and some ferts bring the cultures back to life. i don't stick to any set regimen. just fresh culture water with the ferts. one drop f2 per 100mls is my basic recipe.
tips.... nanno and duna can be converted to fw and back quite easily. this is useful if you wanna use your phyto as a top off water.

 

[billsreef]

Iso is a bit finicky. The important thing with temperature is to keep it stable. Keep the air strong enough for the culture to be a nice rolling boil. Also good to run multiple cultures, as one will crash, so the redundancy is good

 

[pledosophy]

Do you think it would be better to try several two liters or one large culture?

If i go the two liter route I could always put them in a 20g and toss in a heater to keep the temp stable.

 

[gogo7]

you don't need a heater. and two litre bottles are best. crashes happen, separate cultures is a must.....use smaller water bottles to separate and refrigerate phytos just in case you do have a crash. its good to have a back up. air is not a neccessity, if you shake them daily. nanno will settle more than others.
use a marker to date the bottle after fertilizing.

 

[billsreef]

Do you think it would be better to try several two liters or one large culture?

If i go the two liter route I could always put them in a 20g and toss in a heater to keep the temp stable.

I'd go with several 2L bottle batch cultures over a single 20g culture. That way if one crashes, you still have some

air is not a neccessity, if you shake them daily.

Once you step up to a 2L culture with Isochrysus, you really do need strong aearation if you want a good culture. Going be very hard to get a decent iso culture that size without it, and it will be more prone to crashing.

 

[gogo7]

yeah, bills right about iso.....it's extremely fickle