Rotifers 1 Brian 0

[Evansbr]

Rotifers can't be this hard, I have a 5 gallon tank, water at 1.015, temp at 80. culturing nanno for feeding the buggers, got resting cysts from FAF. started it up and fed DT's for a few days until my nanno got in full swing. they do great on DT's. First day of feeding my home grown nanno they all died. I fed to the same "green" tint in the water, but due to concentration of algae had to feed more "volume" of mine to achieve same tint. my Nanno is raised at same SG as Rotifer water. My guess is Ph rise killed them?
what can I add to lower PH? will ph lower for freshwater tanks work? what about the 7.0 PH tabs you can drop in freshwater tanks? I can raise them on DT's no problem, but don't want the expense.

Thanks,
Brian

 

[FuEl]

You could use HCL to bring down the pH before you feed the algae to your rotifers. Or alternatively feed the Nanno only after they have been in the dark for awhile. By then the pH in the culture should have dropped. Frankly I prefer using Instant algae. Less Hassle.

 

[Evansbr]

for the people out there using HCL, what concentration of solution are you using and where is a good place to purchase small inexpensive amounts?

 

[CanesDave]

How much fertilizer did you use in the home grown phyto? How long did it grow before you used it to feed the rots?

 

[Kathy55g]

You can use lime juice to lower pH, but I would not do it without a pH meter of some kind.

It is difficult to say how much acid to add to achieve a given pH. It depends on the pH you are trying to lower, how much buffer you have in the rotifer tank, and in the phyto bottle. That is why a pH meter or a lot of pH tests are in order, as you will have to titrate it.

That said, I have not found that pH is a big issue with rots.

I suspect that the death may be coincidental with adding nanno, but not caused by it.

 

[Kathy55g]

Did they really die, or just go to ground? Sometimes my greatest concentration of rots is in the gunk on the bottom, or on the sides of the aquarium.

For how many days did you culture in the 5 gallon tank? What was your # rotifers/ml? How much did you harvest each day? Did you do anything to conquer ammonia?

We need more info to diagnose this problem...

 

[Evansbr]

well here is more info requested from the above responses.
Canes- Using algae grow from FAF as directions suggested.
grew for 8 or 9 days, till increase in density stopped.
Kathy- the 5 gallon was going for 10 days but, rot concentration started from the 5000 resting cysts. so initially not many there.
I never did check the rot density because it never really seemed that "thick" the last day or two I could see dust specks floating in the water, and it would clear the green tint every 8-10 hours, and I also put in 6 drops of roti-rich each day. I was going to harvest after my first day of nanno feeding, but that didn't work out so well. as far as did they really die? I thought they did since they had all been in the water column, then ended up in a big brown mat on bottom of the tank. I am going to try and restart the culture from the brown mat. hopefully some eggs in there?
thanks for all the help, Brian

 

[Kathy55g]

Did it stop clearing the green tint? Did you take a sample and look under a microscope ?

Having dead ones on the bottom is not a sign that the culture is dead. Only that the old ones died. I'll bet you have 5000 of them.....After 11 days, they do that.

Only the young ones reproduce, 4 days old and younger. That's why it is good husbandry to harvest some daily, 30-50%. This removes some older, non-reproducing ones, and enriches the culture in young ones. On the other hand, it is not harmful to NOT remove some daily, if you want to increase the volume, as long as you keep the water quality good, do water exchanges, and get rid of the dead ones. They will foul the water quickly, and decrease survival of the live ones.

Roti-rich and non-live algae will grow rots very well, and also foul the water if you use too much.

However if you want to increase density, remove at least 30% daily, and feed lightly, several times daily.

My advice: go ahead and try to culture from the brown mat, but from the rest of the culture, take the water, and filter it thru a plankton filter and see if you have rots in there after all.

by the way, a good trick is to prefilter the culture thru a plastic coffee filter before the plankton filter. Gets rid of the clumped junk and leaves the "clean" rots in the plankton filter.

Cheers,
Kathy

 

[Evansbr]

Hi Kathy,
yes they stopped clearing the green tint, they went from clearing every day to no change over a couple of days, at the same time the brown mat appeared. I don't have a microscope yet. I am using a ammonia neutralizer that they recommend on the Rot sites, (forgot which one). I did restart the culture, and also ordered some live rots to give it a jump start. The hatch is due for thursday. I hope grows good over the next couple days.

 

[Kathy55g]

Not clearing the water, its a bad sign. Sorry about that.

I had a problem with the chloramX if I dissolved a bunch of it and kept it in a bottle, it went bad after some time, and had a bad effect on the rots. I now dissolve just the amount I am going to use right then. It works great.

Good luck with the hatch!