phytoplankton

[Darrin]

trying to start my own cultures to raise rotifers for babies... if i ever get that far...


the florida aqua farms manual said that I could kill all bacteria in 1liter of water with 2ml of bleach, and the bleach would off gas in about 24 hours with airation.

i did this, added a bit of fertilizer, and a cap full of dt's. this was 3 days ago and the water is sill clear...

what am i doing wrong.?


d

 

[billsreef]

What was your source of water? What is your lighting set up? What fertilizer?

 

["Umm fish?"]

Did you test for bleach?

 

[Darrin]

I dumped the old stuff from last week... started new cultures on thursday, just using full tank water right out of the aquarium, no bleach... two or three capfulls of DT's in a 10 gallon, and a cap full of florida aqua farms fertilizer...

it is now sunday night and i see no change in color of the water.. I wonder if the phytoplankton is dead in the bottle,,,...


d

 

[billsreef]

If your only adding a couple of cap fulls of the DT's to a 10 gallon, you might not be adding enough to get a good start. You want to add enough to get a strong green tint to the culture water. Water from your tank is also likely to have enough pods and protozoans that will eat the phyto and make it rather hard to establish a culture without sterilizing first. The bleach trick will work, but I'd add some dechlorinater before use

 

[Darrin]

ok.. lets start from scratch...


10 gallons of tank water, right out of the tank..... how much bleach to kill everything, and how much declorinator to kill the bleach?

and then can I add the dt's and fertilizer?

d

 

[FB]

Why use tank water, just make up a batch of SW using a sterile container and de-chlorinated tap water. Your tank water is probably 1.024-1.026. I grow my phyto below 1.020. This way you don't have to worry about bleach.

FB

 

[Darrin]

cause people are going to yell at me...

I don't do water changes... that would be adding salt into the system. And I dont use a skimmer either..

When my tank was running, it looked like a TOTM tank... the tornado took care of that, and i'm starting over, but I never did water changes and I never skim... tank was PERFECT... had turbos breeding, cucumbers were trying to breed... (sperm clouds).. baby seahorses...

 

[FB]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13009643#post13009643 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Darrin
that would be adding salt into the system

I don't really get how making 10 gallons of fresh SW is going to add salt to the system. If you are taking 10 gallons of sw from your tank you are going to have to replace it with something NO?

 

[Darrin]

u didnt say anything about taking OUT sw from the tank.... WHat would I do with that water? It is unusable for phytoplankton unless i put clorine in it, and then i'm stuck again...

not trying to be difficult, im just confused,....

 

[FB]

Take a clean sterile container 2L pop bottle works great, fill 2/3 full with tap water, add enough salt to make it 1.015-1.019, add de-chlorinator. Shake the bottle so it is all mixed up, add 1/3 of phyto and correct amount of fertilizer, add bubbler and you are on your way. You do not need to use your tank water. If you don't have 1/3 phyto add more water. The contents of the bottle should be at least a light shade of green.

Hope this helps.

You can also look here for more information

http://www.melevsreef.com/phytoplankton.html

FB