rotifer help

[gopens]

i recieved 2 quarts of live rotifers last week. i added the 2 quarts of live rotifers with 6 quarts of microwaved water from my display tank (cooled down of course). i added a small heater and have a small light on the tank 24 hours a day. i am also using an air pump with a tiny amount of circulation. i feed roti rich twice a day.
everythinf seems to be doing great. but my question is how do i clean the 5 gallon aquarium. there is a brown slime starting to build-up on the aquarium bottom. i am sure this needs to be clean to keep the leves good. also should i be topping of water. hopefully i explained my self clearly. i need to make sure this culture doesn't crash. my clowns laid eggs yesterday so i need my rotifers soon. also should i cull the culture every so ofter. thanks for the help.

 

[GregDoug]

Yes, keep topping off with fresh water... and to remove the bottom gunk, use a credit card to scrap the bottom, and a turkey baster to suck up the line of mess you create

 

[GreshamH]

If your not using live phyto to feed them you do not need that light.

You should be culling ~30-60% of your culture daily to keep them at a ripe breeding age.

 

[FMarini]

Like Gresham mentions, you should consider removing approx 1/3 of your rotifer culture daily (assuming you are feeding correctly) and replacing the removed water w/ new fresh water.
1/3 allows the rotifer culture to maintain a high population of young producing rotifers while removing the older population which eats but doesn't reproduce.
The key for you is to figure out how much food. If your using live phytos you'll need some lighting, if you use a phyto cyropaste, then skip the lighting.

Do you have a strainer of the appropiate micron size

 

[GreshamH]

i feed roti rich twice a day.

If you use anything but live phyto you don't need light, right Frank

 

[gopens]

so i can keep the rotifer tank with no lights on because i am useing roti rich, right? i am useing a 53 micron collector (i think thats the size, its the one florida aqua farmers said to use). other tha regular cleanings, how often should i make new water and transfer the rotifers from the old to new water (main tank water of course microwaved). when doing this, should i keep the same ratio (1 quart old culture water to 3 quarts new sterile water). than collect as many of the rotifers i can from the old water and place them in the new water. also when culling 1/3 of the rotifers daily, am i just eye-balling it or is there a beter method to make sure i keep the correct amount at all times. i have a set of marron eggs that should hatch saturday night (aprox. 300-500 eggs) will the one rotifer culture work for this many eggs or should i start a second batch of rotifers by splitting the 1 culture i have into 2 seperate cultures.

i am sorry for all the questions, but this IS rocket science to me. thanks for the help and any and all help would be great. K/

 

[Evansbr]

If you only have one 5 gal tank with Rots I think you will be running a little lean to feed that many clowns. I run two 5 gal tanks and harvest daily out of alternating tanks. I'd split into two or more cultures, give them more recovery time after a harvest and also backup incase a culture crashes.