Phytoplankton

[jpitts101]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12446128#post12446128 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bosshog
Is it common to get two different strains out of cultures from the same bottle of DT's? I started culturing my own 14 days ago. The first bottle is deep green. The second is deep brown, I thought it was a crashed culture but it doesn't smell off and keeps getting darker. The third bottle started out green but now has a definite brown tinge to it, it seems to be following the same evolution as the first. The fourth bottle is still green, it's only been running for 3 days though. From reading this thread it sounds like green/brown cultures are good food for the tanks. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Everything in my culture station is the same too.

Thanks for replies.

My first trial with phytoplankton was with DT's and the exact same thing hapened. I got a green strain ( nanno) and a Brown strain ( phaeo ). Keep both strains going, the brown algea is very good for clams. The nanno is a good all around. Both strains are very hardy and hard to crash.

 

[bosshog]

Thanks JD. That's what I figured I should do. Just wanted a confirmation.

 

[DTagrin]

I am the owner of DT's Plankton Farm and I am not going to debate with my critics on reef central.
I do however have something to say and then I will leave you to your discussion.
There has always been debate about my product.

All feeding will cause an increase if nitrates and phosphates. I believe in feeding along with nutrient export in reef aquariums.
Nitrates in a reef tank that is being fed, will fluctuate. I never worried about nitrates unless there was a specific problem in an aquarium.

There has been real science applied to the question about the quality of phytoplankton in the aquarium hobby. This research was done at Stony Brook University.
http://somas.stonybrook.edu/~MADL/faculty.html
It was peer-reviewed and published by Zoo Biology. I suggest that anyone who is interested in feed clams, or just the issue of quality (and deception), read this article. http://somas.stonybrook.edu/~MADL/pubspdf/Emma-clamgrowth.pdf

One issue has always been how well the stores and/or the distributors take care of my product. Yesterday, I had a hobbyists contact me about a spoiled bottle. I contacted the store and found that they got an entire shipment of spoiled product from their distributor. I contacted the distributor and found that they had assigned the job of shaking up the phytoplankton to a new employee. The distributor and stores have disposed of the spoiled product and a new shipment is being sent to the distributor. The distributor is taking care of making certain that the employee now does the job properly. This was all because a consumer contacted me instead of complaining on the internet. My phone number is listed on my website, 815-899-0132. My email address is dtagrin@dtplankton.com
Please note that I do not check for mail on reef central.

Dennis Tagrin
DT's Plankton Farm