what type of phyto is this?

ryano

New member
I started a culture from DTs Phytoplankton expecting to get a green algae of some sort. The algae I ended up getting is a golden brown. I would guess its some sort of Iso, but I dont see that in the list of DTs phytos. Heres the link with the algaes that are in DTs. Any guess on what I have?

http://www.dtplankton.com/phytoplankton.html
 
"Phaeodactylum tricornutum is a large and very nutritious diatom that makes Premium Reef blend an even more nutritious and accessible to some phytoplankton consuming animals. One noticeable effect is an increase in the population of copepods and other small fauna in reef aquariums."

It's brown.
 
I had always thought that DT's used three different types of phyto in his product to try and discourage using it to start cultures. At least that was the theory a few years back. I met him (Darrin) at a conference and he tried to talk me out of home brewing it and to buy his stuff. Go figure. (I do like his Oyster Eggs though). I like the stuff, but it is cheaper to grow my own.

Ryano, get a starter culture from Florida Aqua Farms (FAF) and ditch the "brown" stuff. My cultures are green and smell sweet, like they should. Nannochloropsis from FAF.
 
reef blend has two green phytos. the other one has the three kinds including the brown diatom.

Rumors flew that they did that to discourage home culture, but I think they do it to enrich their product. If you want brown diatoms, by all means, no reason not to culture DT/s.
 
I just wanted to make see what the brown culture was, and if it is okay to keep. I have read post from a lot of people who start their culture from DTs.

Mr James, I have two types of algae from florida aqua farms. I have Nannochloris, and Nannochloropsis. Soon I should have some Isocrysis also.

Sounds like the brown Phaeodactylum tricornutum that I am most likely culturing from the DTs will probably help me out though since I just started a copepod culture. Mixing that in with my other algaes should give the copepods a good mixture of foods and cover their nutritional needs.
 
Iso and other brown phyto's can be very nutrituous, don't cofuse green phyto with better phyto. iso is actually high in EPA's and HUFA's and does a good job feeding rots and artemia. Anytime you culture with DT's you're only going to get one of the strains to dominate the culture, others will perish. It's not bad to start a culture with DT's but you may not be 100% on what phyto you have. Florida Aqua Farms does carry a nice selection of different strains and equpiment. I am currently culturing Nannochloris and hope to get my TET, N. Oculata, and Iso cultures soon. And for the record, of course anyone in the phyto buisiness is going to discourage home cultures, it's less money for them, but looking from their point of view, they don't bottle and ship DT's in the same culture medium it was grown in, so alot of the heavier metals are removed from the finished products, unlike home growth where without the proper equipment, this becomes very difficult. But FWIW, I've never had a negative reaction in my tank from feeding large amounts of Nannochloris on a daily basis. i already had large pod populations, now I have well fed large pod populations and alot more little white feather dusters.
 
Ryano, "aha" re the brown algae. However, my understanding is that Diatoms need silicate supplementation in their medium mix in order to really flourish well...if you're just using Gulliard's F2 it may not be a long term culture. I'd maybe look at SHS, FAF, AE and others to see what they offer for Silicate media supplementation.

T-ISO next week for you!

Matt
 
I bet the culture has been over fertalized.It is prob more yellow if you take it down from the light.If so ,dump it and restart with Nano and T-iso in seprerate cultures.
 
i got my two disk from florida aqua farms, iso and Nannochloris i started the culture 4 days ago and no results yet..water is still clear. can you add to much F/2 fertilizer to the water? i got the powered f/2 so i have no idea of how much f/2 to add to a 12oz starter culture
thanks jeff
 

Similar threads

Back
Top