who is culturing live foods, esp copepods and phyto?

I put them through the sieve and put them into my tanks. You can use a reusable plastic coffee filter that a supermarket sells for tiggerpods.

There is no need to target feed pods. Phyto would not stay in the area long enough to justify the target feeding. Pods will also not stay in one spot.

I don't think your other inhabitants will eat pods.

Keep your tank water low in nutrients. You don't want phyto to take over your tank and shade your anemone. Some people manage to get their tank turned into a thick pea soup with some hitchhiker phytoplankton - I don't know what species they are. We get a call for help periodically from people suffering from raging green water.

Tomoko
 
what do pods eat in a tank? there's enough 'etc' in and around rocks to keep them happy? how do you make the rocks have more 'etc'?

so, tomoko, do you have half a culture of phyto and a few dozen pods to share so i can start mine? :D (<---big smile)
 
Half a culture of phyto? Do you mean a starter culture? I can spare a starter culture of phyto. My pods are contaminated with rotifers right now as I mentioned earlier. It's pretty impossible to separate them. I suggest that you get some pure tiggerpods from CRA if you are going to start a culture.

Tomoko
 
i suppose half a culture is like digging half a hole :)

man, my questions get dumber every day...triggerpods are a type of copepods, but are there different types or just specific species? is copepod a genus? i'm a little lost on the taxonomy/common names--due to COMPLETE and utter unfamiliarity with all common names!!

pods dont eat rotifers?
 
According to Dr. R. Shimek, copepod is:

"A member of the immense crustacean subgroup called the Copepoda. Copepods of one sort or another are found in all marine habitats. Many subgroups of copepods are parasitic, but the ones most commonly found in aquaria are free-living. Aquarium copepods tend to be small and hard to see clearly. They may be the most common animal described by the term "pod." "

Tiggerpod is actually a Tigriopus californicus. It's a type of herpacticoid copepod.

If you want to find out more about different pods, try this article:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-08/rs/index.php

Here's a primer on how to culture copepods in general:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/breeder2.htm

The primer for phyto:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/aug2002/breeder.htm

When I was culturing only nanochloropsis, I had 12 bottles of nano going and I could have given you a full bottle without any problem any time, but now I only have two pairs of bottles for each type of phyto. It takes me a bit of time to culture extra full bottle to share. I'd be setting up a bottle from a 1/4 cup that I can spare and let it mature over a week or so. You can actually do the same thing yourself from a 1/4 cup starter and get the practice along the way.

Pods don't seem to eat rotifers, although tiggerpod is known to eat their own young occasionally.

Tomoko
 
Last edited:
ok, so if i am only going to do phyto (for now), i would sterilize my aquafina bottle after i had drilled a hole in it for the rigid air tube, which is connected to an air pump. i would put that bottle, with a small starter culture of phyto from you under a normal flourescent light that shines for 14 hours a day, and then wait one week, at which point it would be 'dense' enough that i could spit in half, using two (or one more) sterile bottles, etc. Each bottle would be filled with one portion of phyto culture and (bottle-portion) 1.021 water.

how much air flow? other than the airflow question, sounds good?
 
That sounds fine. From a 1/4 cup starter culture, it would take longer than one week. The wide mouth Aquafina bottle is 1 liter (1000 ml) and a 1/4 cup is about 60 ml. You need to get Micro Algae Grow and figure out how much you need to add to the bottle. If I recollect correctly, it asks for 10 drops per 1000 ml. You need to add 1 drop after adding 60 ml of salt water to 60 ml of phyto. Like I mentioned earlier, I shocked my culture by double dosing once. It came back because there was just enough live phyto left in the bottle. It may not be as easy to revive such a tiny culture.

I use dechlorinated tap water by the way to mix with salt. No need to use RODI water for phyto.

As for aeration, it should be pretty fast like the water is boiling.

Tomoko
 
um, no :)

but i imagine john does (well, he wont on saturday, but that's ok too--segue to...GO APP STATE!)

i've finally figured out that micro algae grow is phyto food...for a while i was thinking they would just co2 + h20-->(sunlight)-->[whatever sugar is...c6h1206?] + 02...aside from my equation potentially being wrong, isnt the thought process right? what's in MAG?
 
Micro Algae Grow is a fertilizer blended in proper balance for micro and macro algae. It contains N, P, K and trace elements such as iron, magnesium, manganese, zinc, cobalt, etc. Some people like Melev use Miracle Grow instead. I am not keen on this because of the possibility of unused elements getting into our reef tank.

What you are describing is photosynthesis.

C6H12O6 is a simple sugar (glucose) that photosystem I and II in chlorophyll produce, aided by the photons (sunlight) that a part of chlorophyll receives. A bunch of reactions take place during photosynthesis, passing electrons back and forth to produce various enzymes, releasing O2 and producing glucose which is later processed into carbohydrates.

By the way, John has Micro Algae Grow, but I don't think John sells rigid airline. I usually buy the airline at The Aquarium Shop or Petco.

Tomoko
 
Last edited:
You don't want to use water from aquarium to split phyto because you don't want bacteria and other microbe to take over your phyto culture. You don't want to encourage phyto to grow in your tank, either, to produce pea soup. If you are going to add phyto to your tank, keep your tank water very low in nutrients. You anemone will appreciate it, too.

Tomoko
 
a) you said bugs wont take over--too many bugs will get eaten, but too much phyto makes pea soup.
b) nem will appreciate phyto?
c) why rigid airline and not regular tubing?
 
Isochrysis, tetraslemis and nanochloropsis will not totally wipe out each other. They will find their ecological balance and co-exist. What proportion, I don't know. Copepods, rotifers and brine shrimp are what I call bugs. You can co-culture them, but phyto is their food. They will eat phyto up for sure. This is one of the most common ways a lot of people lose phyto culture.

Phyto will grow fast if there is enough nutrients in the water. Your tank may have some bacteria and other microbes in it. In a small environment of a culture bottle, they can outcompete phyto for food. In a larger environment of a tank, bacteria and microbe population density can be low enough that green water can persists.

Your anemone will appreciate the low nutrient level. They like pristine water.

Rigid airline is easier to handle and sterilize than flexible tubing.

Tomoko
 
how do they lose a culture to bugs? bottle gets contaminated somehow, and rotifers eat everything while you're not looking?

phyto reduces in-water nutrients. but i should be afraid of phyto going crazy and turning my tank to pea soup.

how do i get phyto in the water but only () much?
 
Yes. It's very easy to contaminate phyto with rotifers, ciliates, bacteria, etc. Both bacteria and rotifers have tremendous ability to multiply. Just one or two that come in accidentally on your finger, tool, bottle, etc, will fill a 1 liter bottle within a two or three days and your bottle looks anemic yellow to clear.

Yes, your phyto will multiply and make pea soup out of your tank water if there is a lot of nutrients in the tank for them to eat and multiply.

How much to add? If the nutrient level in your tank water is low, you can probably add half a bottle without any problem. I've added a full bottle to my 120 before without any problem.

Tomoko
 
so i add my half bottle, and nobody notices except bug-level creatures. the phyto consumes the extra npk in my tank, and the bugs eat the phyto.

nuisance algae problems go away. my nem gets even bigger faster because he's happy (hmm...maybe not such a good idea!). more and fatter bugs because they are eating better, which fish consume, hopefully enough bugs one day to support a mandarin.

and [ ] days later, i add another half a bottle.


here's an easy question: if i'm only putting in half a bottle, wont the other half 'regenerate' or regain its bio-density in about half a week?
i just poor the bottle in, or do they need to be strained out and deposited (to keep the micro algae grow out of the tank)?

i almost understand enough to start growing!!!
 
The answer is no.

You double the quantity when you add clean salt water back. The phyto is diluted to half the original strength. So it takes the same amount of time to mature. You don't need to strain phyto. Micro Algae Grow is a solution that does not precipitate. You cannot filter out dissolved inorganic materials without using RO membrane, GAC or DI resins.

Tomoko
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
Phyto dosing.
Replies
2
Views
623
Bakeman
B
B
Help needed with aiptasia tank
Replies
3
Views
438
griss
griss
E
Refractometer woes….what would you do?
Replies
12
Views
439
jrill
J
DPauley
Bonnethead Shark Collection and Care in Home Aquaria
Replies
3
Views
277
Dr. Reef
Dr. Reef
A
New Naso Tang breathing heavy and not swimming much anymore
Replies
2
Views
431
griss
griss
Back
Top