spk said:
Kathy,
Wow, thanks for your responses.
Right now I am toying with continuous, I am growing both copeopods as well as rots, in seperate containers. Primarliy to see what the rate of growth etc is like.
Here in the UK, I have struggled this year with phyto. I seem to be able to get the first culture to take, but subsequent cultures just never go any further. I know that in the area, I am not the only one to struggle so. However on my last trip to the US I got three phyto cultures from Florida Aqua Farms, and I hope that this will improve my success. Out of curiosity what salt do you use?
I used to struggle with phyto, until someone here advised me to use bleach to sterilize the bottles and saltwater. The formula is 1 ml of liquid chlorine bleach to 1 gallon=3.7851 liters, so 1 ml to 4 liters should work. I mix it up, put into bottles and store them until use. I also bleach the rigid airline tubing, and the drilled bottle cap. Just before use, I add 2ml per gallon (US) or (~4 L) of a tap water dechlorinator like Prime. I don't know if the bleach and dechlorinator are the same composition where you are. You will have to do the math if it is not, to figure out how much to add of each thing.
After I started using bleach, I had no probems with culturing phyto, and I've been at it for several months now. Very occasionally, I have a bacteria bloom in one of the phyto bottles, and I just feed it right away to the rots. I figure bacteria are nutritious, too, and since the rots will be filtered in a couple of days anyway, the bacteria will go away.
I now use 20 ppt saltwater. I have at various times used Oceanic, Instant Ocean, and Corallife, with no discernable difference. I no longer care to use Oceanic in my display tank, so I used up what I had left for the phyto culture. Then I got some Instant Ocean at the IMAC conference, another $300 freebee, and I used some of that. Now I use the recycled display tank water, which has been Corallife for a long time. It all works for me.
I will be switching the rots over to Wine Demi-jons, I have 4 of these in total, so will see how these progress.
I will keep this culture of Rots on continuous for a while, increase my phyto production so that I have at least 2l ready per day, either for rot feeding or tank feeding, then I will turn on the rots production.
I am also interested in how you culture your rots, do you aerate, as mine are just ticking over by the window. I feed them about 100ml of phyto daily in two feeds and they are just clearing the water when I need to feed again.
I do have an air pump and an airline attached to rigid airline tubing going into the rotifer jugs. The bubbles are set to go more slowly than the phyto aeration. Too much turbulance is not good for rots, but some is good to keep everything in suspension including the phyto. I have them in milk jugs which are not clear, but are free, and since I'm cheap, I use them. Having clear jugs would allow more light penetration so the phyto that does not get consumed right away would continue to grow. I haven't noticed an increased need for additions of phyto since I started using the opaque jugs, and I still use a fluorescent light to culture the rots. 16 hours on, 8 hours off. They are on the same timer as the phyto.
Are wine Demi-Jons clear? if so, it would be better.
I noticed that I also do not have a pure rot culture, as there are some copeopods in there too. These are not an issue as apparently they can co-exist. Just extra pods for future use.
I like the workbench and the tools that you have available. I too use a refractometer and have a PH meter that is real handy. What is the other toy that you have next to the refractometer?
I work in a science research lab and that thing is a pipet that was destined for the trash, just like that old dissecting microscope. It is an old model pipet, and some say it is so hard to use that it makes their hands hurt. We are so safety conscious these days that my company would rather spend a lot of money replacing with new models that are easier on the hands, than deal with health issues of employees. I liberated it.
With it, I can sample 0.1 ml of rotifer soup, put the 0.1 ml in a petrie dish, count the rotifers at the microscope, multiply by 10, and that is the number of rotifers per ml. Very helpful.
Thanks for all the information and I will update you as I progress.
Steve
It is a pleasure, Steve, good luck to you, and please seek out other information too. I am new to this and am by no means an expert.
