who is culturing live foods, esp copepods and phyto?

inversely answered:
heh, no, i dont want a bloom. i'm just conditioned to acclimate (and THAT is a good thing!)
i guess i dont care if it gets shocked, but if its only living for a few hours, they arent consuming as much N and P as i'd like...maybe adding smaller doses more frequently (every other day? seems like they should live for a week in a bottle without aeration and extra light--can i pull off a small bottle (say 250ml) and bring that to work, dosing it every other day until its gone?)
i think you're right about the mh vs halogen.
 
A MH bulb is a high intensity discharge light (HID) bulb and a halogen bulb is not. A MH bulb is significantly brighter than a halogen bulb at the same wattage.

Actually, Nanochloropsys (which you have) is very tough. You can acclimate it even to fresh water very easily. I don't think that it dies in your tank in a few hours.

Acclimating your phyto to your tank condition may not be such a great thing. It can result in green water if the condition is right.

I do not recommend using phytoplankton as the way to reduce N and P. It consumes your N and P at 15 to 1 ratio. If you don't have P in your water (because of your phosban), phyto does not take up much N anyways. The same thing is true with macroalgae about N and P uptake.

Many people add phyto mainly to feed the filter feeders such as copepods, possum shrimp, etc.

Tomoko
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10990765#post10990765 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tomoko Schum
1.021 is not for conserving salt. It's supposed to be the optimum specific gravity for the phytoplankton.
Click to expand...

to elaborate a bit further on what Tomoko stated in a latter post as well.........it depends on the strain of phyto you're culturing and it's intended purpose. Nanno can be cultured in 35ppt or even in FW where you can save the salt completely if you only intend to feed it to your tank of FW daphnia, etc.... for rotifers they reproduce best at 14ppt (1.010) so for optimal rotifer reproduction it's best to keep your phyto within 10ppt (1.007) to prevent osmotic shock and if you intend to feed those rotifers to baby clownfish 25ppt (1.018) is best and that is what i keep my phyto at so it can be safely added directly to the larval tank in any quantity needed without worry of changing the salinity. IME the best all around to keep everything at (other then the display tank) is 25ppt if you're not trying to get optimal production out of everything and still keep a One Does All setup.


H@rry, Mysis shrimp.
 
ok, i feel very comfortable with the salinity answer.

true or false:
i'm dosing nanno to consume excess nutrients in the DT
nanno is good supplemental food for the bugs in my tank
if i want to grow pods and rots for consumption, nanno is a good food source for them both
pods will eat rots and nanno
nanno is alive and well in my DT right now (2 days post-dose)
there is one type of pod that is a better food source than others

fill in the blank:
_______ is the easiest type of pod to culture
_______ is the best type of pod to feed mandarins, blennies, etc.

here's an essay question:
Blue-green chromis and maroon clowns will compete with mandarins and blennies for live food.
discuss.


good luck to everyone with today's mid term!!!

:)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10992041#post10992041 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tomoko Schum
It's salt water mysis shrimp: Mysidopsis bahia.

Tomoko
Click to expand...

Ah, mysis. I've got them. Just didn't realize they were referred to as possum shrimp. But then, I'm just an ignorant troll!
 
JetCat is right about the salinity range. It really depends on the type of phytoplankton and what you are trying to accomplish with them.

I don't remember how I got turned around on the s.g. levels. I add about 1/3 cup salt to 1 gallon of water which gives me approximately 1.017 s.g.

Rotifers do best at the specific gravity range of 1.014 to 1.017 according to Dr. Frank Marini.

I never really measure my s.g. in my rotifer containers. It's open top and the water evaporates. I bring it down with periodic water change. I may shock it with the water change, but my rotifers multiply pretty fast anyways. I am pretty laissez faire about it since I am feeding my corals with them and I don't have to worry about delicate fish larvae. For my purpose I should keep the rotifers at the higher end of the range.

To come to think of it, I am pretty laissez faire about a lot of things related to aquariums. I don't find it so important to control everything so tightly. I just keep my eyes on my corals. They will usually let me know if they are happy or not.

Tomoko
 
I don't think pods eat rotifers. They are known to feed on phytoplankton (and probably bacterioplankton.) Rotifers and copepods are not normally co-cultured. It's probably because there is no merit in doing so. If there is, many fish breeders would have been doing so. Isocrysis is the best phytoplankton for pods supposedly. Nannochrolopsis has a hard cell membrane and usually passes right through copepod's digestive tract. Phyto with soft cell membranes such as Isochrysis is best for them. However, Nannochloropsis is fine for rotifers.

I still don't think that nannochlopsis or other phyto can be used as tank cleaning agent. With your phosban working the way it supposed to, you will find that nitrate will remain pretty much at the current level because your phyto is phophate limited.

Tomoko
 
i think i should try another phyto first then...iso is my next choice? does anyone have 100ml they can spare/sell/trade or should i try buying some now?
 
Tim,

Isochrysis is known to be a lot more crash prone.

If you want to have your excess nutrient taken up/exported, why not try to improve the performance of your macroalgae? Macroalgae are know to out compete phytoplankton by a big margin.

Pouring a measly amount of phyto like 1/2 or 1 cup to your tank every other day cannot even put a dent in your excess nutrient level anyways. Macroalgae on the other hand can really strip the water of the excess nutrients.

Tomoko
 
i think i need to thin my chaeto more than i do...i think perhaps its grown so thick that it doesnt grow well, much like pruning a bush.

the new sump will have a larger section, so i've been reluctant to prune it since i'll need more pretty soon, but i guess it grows fast enough...what does right look like?
 
There are many opinions as to how to grow and when to prune macroalgae. Anthony Calfo seems to like to let a strong flow keep Chaetomorpha tumbling around like a pinwheel in a fuge. Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley lets his fill up his fuge.

I'd check if your Chaeto is getting light colored at the bottom. When the light does not penetrate well though Chaeto, the layer near the bottom does not do well and loses its green color. If you see this, loosen up and spread the ball of Chaetomorpha so that light can shine on it more evenly.

I cannot grow Chaeto in my 120 because of my phosar/phosban reactor keeps my phosphate so low (test kits always read zero.) I often hear about this from the people who run phosphate reactor.

If your Chaetomorpha is growing well despite your phosban reactor running 24/7, I wonder if your bio load is too high for your 44G tank, or if you are feeding too much.

Tomoko
 
i feel confident that i'm feeding too much. i also think my gfo might be too old--what was that carbon you were advocating a few months ago? i'd like to put a mix of carbon and gfo in my tank in the phosban reactor. i'll either mix them (around a 10:1 ratio of carbon:gfo) or put the gfo in the bottom and carbon in the top.
 
i wouldn't use the carbon at all, just the GFO and if you are going to use both, don't mix them, they both require different flow rates for their own optimal performance.

Tomoko, got the digi this afternoon, thanks.
 
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