phytoplankton backup culture

[ckoral]

I recently started a phyto plankton culture. I really do not need to run two batches, but I do for redundancy. This way I have another culture if one batch crashes.

My question is, I see FAF stores and ships a culture in some sort of gellitin petrie dish. Can I freeze phyto ice cubes and start a culture from that, or make my own gellitin suspension?

It would be nice to have a backup culture on hand that I could depend on. Does anyone do this?

 

[GS-Rock]

it all depends on what type of phyto you are keeping, not all are the same there are 3 different tpyes of phyton that i know of, one of them can be grown in fresh water (nanochloropsus) but to try to answer your question tetraselmus i think can be frozen.

 

[ckoral]

nanochloropsus is what I am using. Any way of "suspending" it in time?

 

[ckoral]

400 grams of reef crystals per gallon - so it is not fresh water.

 

[graveyardworm]

Pretty sure that just plain ole refridgeration will keep the phyto for several months anyway. Every so often you need to swap it out. Just take some of your current batch make sure it isnt contaminated, and replace your emergency culture.

 

[GS-Rock]

it will keep for a good 6 months in the fridge, just be sure to shake it up really good at lease once a week

 

[ckoral]

so my harvested batch in the fridge can always be used as a starter culture. I guess that makes sense.

Thanks.

Anyone growing rotifers? Looking for a goot step by step tutorial on growing rotifiers.