Another Phytoplankton Culture Tutorial

[martin.a]

Left (Tetra) looks okay, middle looks bad, right (Nanno) looks good.
If you have another set of lab bottles you can sterilize them and then decant off the plankton if you want. The Nannochloropsis would probably be fine either way, but it might be better for the Tetraselmis

Thanks! I will decant all 3. Fresh bottles are no problem. Just decanting, no new medium added. I still have some hopes for the Phaeodactylum diatom (the middle one). Today it doesn't look worse than yesterday. But I don't know how dead culture of Phaeodactylum looks like.
I was hoping Phaeodactylum would be really beneficial to the copepods and to help keep nuisance algae at bay.

 

[EnterName]

Left (Tetra) looks okay, middle looks bad, right (Nanno) looks good.
If you have another set of lab bottles you can sterilize them and then decant off the plankton if you want. The Nannochloropsis would probably be fine either way, but it might be better for the Tetraselmis

Thanks! I will decant all 3. Fresh bottles are no problem. Just decanting, no new medium added. I still have some hopes for the Phaeodactylum diatom (the middle one). Today it doesn't look worse than yesterday. But I don't know how dead culture of Phaeodactylum looks like.
I was hoping Phaeodactylum would be really beneficial to the copepods and to help keep nuisance algae at bay.

To be honest I don't know how beneficial plankton dosing is to copepods. They live mostly in/on the substrate and rocks and not the open water where the plankton will be. They surely have the means to catch a little bit but I feel like detritus and benthic diatoms are more beneficial to them.

I don't know if you can manage to get the diatoms to bounce back. Note that F/2 fertilizer alone does not cut it, you also need a silicate solution if you haven't used specialized fertilizer anyway.

 

[EnterName]

If your phosphate is elevated, try using granular ferric oxide (GFO) and cut back on coral feeding, especially broadcast feeding. There's an ongoing equilibrium reaction in your tank: phosphate binds to the calcium carbonate in your rocks and substrate, and also dissolves back out of it depending on conditions. When you do a water change and lower the dissolved phosphate level, that equilibrium shifts against you: some of the phosphate bound in the rock and substrate dissolves back into the water, which can make it seem like the water change barely helped. This is why water changes alone are an inefficient way to deal with high phosphate. Adsorbing media like GFO works better because it removes phosphate directly rather than relying on that equilibrium. There are other adsorbers, but they tend to be either less effective or are prone to leaching aluminum into your tank, which isn't something you want.

Ahh that explains alot. I been doing 20 percent watwe chamges at least 3 times a week but I can't seem to get it down. I have gha in some spots not alot . I was thinking it was because I wasn't vacuuming the sand when I did it. The other day I put fresh carbon and now my nitrates are 0 and phosphate is .26 with hanna checker. Gonna try the gfo . I lost a duncan . 1 of my torches and my poor goni has shrunk so small butstill hanging in there. All my other levels are fine other than ph seems to stay at 8 or 8.1

Use GFO according to the instructions. Don't overdose it. Corals really seem to hate fast changes in phosphate levels. Upwards is worse than downward, but still be careful. There are by the way people that run their tanks at even higher levels just fine, but in my experience this makes establishing new sensitive frags more difficult so I can recommend going very low.

 

[martin.a]

To be honest I don't know how beneficial plankton dosing is to copepods. They live mostly in/on the substrate and rocks and not the open water where the plankton will be. They surely have the means to catch a little bit but I feel like detritus and benthic diatoms are more beneficial to them.

I don't know if you can manage to get the diatoms to bounce back. Note that F/2 fertilizer alone does not cut it, you also need a silicate solution if you haven't used specialized fertilizer anyway.

I thought you would be asleep by now ;-)

Agree with dubious evidence of dosing phyto to feed pods. But I can see a lot of them in the water column, and I may see increased excitement after dosing. So maybe... Still, my current population expanded in a new, still cycling almost sterile tank by grazing only (mostly) on bacteria. I am under impression that diatom cells are 'heavier' and more likely to sink to the bottom and actually benefit benthic pods. Hence the idea with Phaeodactylum.

To my understand F2 includes some silicates, but I added extra silicates to the diatom culture. They should be happy. If I did not kill them. From your experience: could this culture be still light-brownish in colour if they were all dead? I can also see very tiny 'swirling particles'. They were there when I added the start culture. So, I assume they are the suspended diatom cells. I should take a sample and look at it, but I am afraid of the 'tested to dead' syndrome, and try not to touch without a clear benefit to the culture.

 

[martin.a]

Use GFO according to the instructions. Don't overdose it. Corals really seem to hate fast changes in phosphate levels. Upwards is worse than downward, but still be careful. There are by the way people that run their tanks at even higher levels just fine, but in my experience this makes establishing new sensitive frags more difficult so I can recommend going very low.

Just to add a second voice: I used Seachem Phosguard in bag instead of GFO in 2 tanks with good results - phosphates dropped over 4 weeks. I followed the instructions on the box.
Alegetly, Phosguard may release aluminium. I would not keep a bag in for longer than a week, maybe 2 weeks. I use Phosguard as this was what was used in the tanks at work before, and I heard that without a reactor Phosguard is easier to control than GFO. I was also worried than GFO may be too effective.

Unsolicited advise: I would calm down on water changes, and on sand vacumming. Vacuum only if you have heaps of 'stuff growing on the sand', e.g cyanobacteria or dinos to remove the biomass. Otherwise, get nassarius snails, copepods and isopods. Possibly a pepermint shrimp or 2.

 

[vittpsu21]

Looks similar to what I do, I don't go as far on the cleaning as you, even with my diatom cultures. I mostly clean out, let dry, hydrogen peroxide the whole inside and let it dry, then fill with saltwater --->add bleach--->24 hours later add vitamin c. Before I restart I test with a chlorine strip, I do crash my diatoms every so often, but otherwise seems to be working pretty well for me.

I run 2 phyto cultures and 2 pod cultures off one airpump with y splitters

 

[vittpsu21]

To be honest I don't know how beneficial plankton dosing is to copepods. They live mostly in/on the substrate and rocks and not the open water where the plankton will be. They surely have the means to catch a little bit but I feel like detritus and benthic diatoms are more beneficial to them.

I don't know if you can manage to get the diatoms to bounce back. Note that F/2 fertilizer alone does not cut it, you also need a silicate solution if you haven't used specialized fertilizer anyway.

I have dosed about 125ml daily for over a year (split over micro doses 24 a day) I always have pods crawling on glass despite many wrasses. Not sure I can contribute it all to the phyto, but I believe it helps, I have reseeded pods many times for sure. My mandarin shows up in a few weeks so we will see how it holds after that

 

[vittpsu21]

This will probably depend on the plankton species and overall purity. I would say a week or two if you shake it every day at least once. You will lose cells in the process so growing a new culture may take a bit longer than a fresh starter, but it should work.

Certain cultures are so sensitive I wouldn't recommend storing them at all. Grow them, split them, dose them, but never store them. Nannochlorpsis salina and oculata are robust though.

I have stored Chaetoceros muellerii and Nanno/Iso for about 4 weeks, but I have to agree with enter here, the restart was VERY slow when I reused them after that long. The fresher the better

 

[martin.a]

Looks similar to what I do, I don't go as far on the cleaning as you, even with my diatom cultures. I mostly clean out, let dry, hydrogen peroxide the whole inside and let it dry, then fill with saltwater --->add bleach--->24 hours later add vitamin c. Before I restart I test with a chlorine strip, I do crash my diatoms every so often, but otherwise seems to be working pretty well for me.

I run 2 phyto cultures and 2 pod cultures off one airpump with y splitters

Do you use vit. C to neutralize chlorine?

 

[Saltsavage504]

Use GFO according to the instructions. Don't overdose it. Corals really seem to hate fast changes in phosphate levels. Upwards is worse than downward, but still be careful. There are by the way people that run their tanks at even higher levels just fine, but in my experience this makes establishing new sensitive frags more difficult so I can recommend going very low.

Just checked my phosphate and im at .18 so it went down a good bit I did 2 doses of tropic marin elim phosphate stuff

 

[Saltsavage504]

Just to add a second voice: I used Seachem Phosguard in bag instead of GFO in 2 tanks with good results - phosphates dropped over 4 weeks. I followed the instructions on the box.
Alegetly, Phosguard may release aluminium. I would not keep a bag in for longer than a week, maybe 2 weeks. I use Phosguard as this was what was used in the tanks at work before, and I heard that without a reactor Phosguard is easier to control than GFO. I was also worried than GFO may be too effective.

Unsolicited advise: I would calm down on water changes, and on sand vacumming. Vacuum only if you have heaps of 'stuff growing on the sand', e.g cyanobacteria or dinos to remove the biomass. Otherwise, get nassarius snails, copepods and isopods. Possibly a pepermint shrimp or 2.

Got 1 big snail and the choch snail with a trunk lol and like 100 trochus snails they all tiny must have hitch hicked was sucking them up cause so many but now I let them work. I also have a spaghetti worm that I can't seem to catch he sits in rock with arms out and I try every dang day had a tuxedo urchin but he was knocking stuff over too much. Was thinking about some kind of crab that eats gha

 

[Saltsavage504]

If your phosphate is elevated, try using granular ferric oxide (GFO) and cut back on coral feeding, especially broadcast feeding. There's an ongoing equilibrium reaction in your tank: phosphate binds to the calcium carbonate in your rocks and substrate, and also dissolves back out of it depending on conditions. When you do a water change and lower the dissolved phosphate level, that equilibrium shifts against you: some of the phosphate bound in the rock and substrate dissolves back into the water, which can make it seem like the water change barely helped. This is why water changes alone are an inefficient way to deal with high phosphate. Adsorbing media like GFO works better because it removes phosphate directly rather than relying on that equilibrium. There are other adsorbers, but they tend to be either less effective or are prone to leaching aluminum into your tank, which isn't something you want.

 

[Saltsavage504]

My next problem is figuring out why alot of my zoas wont open

 

[vittpsu21]

Looks similar to what I do, I don't go as far on the cleaning as you, even with my diatom cultures. I mostly clean out, let dry, hydrogen peroxide the whole inside and let it dry, then fill with saltwater --->add bleach--->24 hours later add vitamin c. Before I restart I test with a chlorine strip, I do crash my diatoms every so often, but otherwise seems to be working pretty well for me.

I run 2 phyto cultures and 2 pod cultures off one airpump with y splitters

Do you use vit. C to neutralize chlorine?

Yep, works almost instantly after a swirl but I always test with a strip first to be sure 1ml of bleach and about 0.6 vitamin c

 

[EnterName]

I thought you would be asleep by now ;-)

That's what I should have done

To my understand F2 includes some silicates, but I added extra silicates to the diatom culture.

I'm not aware that silicates are part of the F/2 recipe.
https://ncma.bigelow.org/PDF Files/NCMA algal medium f_2.pdf

Just to add a second voice: I used Seachem Phosguard in bag instead of GFO in 2 tanks with good results - phosphates dropped over 4 weeks. I followed the instructions on the box.

As Fish Fan pointed out earlier, Randy Holmes-Farley is very skeptical about Seachems products so I would advice to use GFO. Aluminum-based phosphate adsorbers will release aluminum. That's not unique to Seachem.

 

[Saltsavage504]

Just checked my phosphate and im at .18 so it went down a good bit I did 2 doses of tropic marin elim phosphate stuff

Is this on that will work? I rather buy a kit then piece it all together if possible. Even says no cleaning needed because its bags u throw away

 

[EnterName]

Just checked my phosphate and im at .18 so it went down a good bit I did 2 doses of tropic marin elim phosphate stuff

Is this on that will work? I rather buy a kit then piece it all together if possible. Even says no cleaning needed because its bags u throw away

I don't know the product so I have no experience using it. It should work for robust cultures like Nannochlorpsis salina assuming the bags are relatively free of contaminants.

I don't know the material so I can't tell you if you could bleach sterilize the bags and straws to be sure. None of the material looks pressure cooker safe so that's not an option.

 

[huthain]

This article couldnt have come at a better time for me. Ive just cleaned my culture kit unfortunately I only have one which is about 5 liters big (pictured below) ive just brought in phyto as well.

Ive just cleaned the vessel using 70% isopropyl going to leave it till the morning to evaporated after cleaning it with rodi.

My questions are:
with only 300ml of phyto and it doesn't look too dark, how much water should i add? Is 700 a safe bet taking it up to a liter?

If I do that approach and it gets darker should I add more water to up the quantity eventually reaching the full 5liter?

Also my reactor has a drain at the bottom, will I be able to just keep the same culture going every 2 to 3 days draining a bit and topping up with new water and f2?

Thank you

 

[EnterName]

Ive just cleaned the vessel using 70% isopropyl going to leave it till the morning to evaporated after cleaning it with rodi.

I can recommend some acid to get residues off the container wall that the isopropyl might not be able to fully dry out, but if there isn't any visible residue it might work as well. If you sterilize the culture media with bleach or a pressure cooker later anyway it shouldn't matter too much, but residues will of course offer surface area for bacteria.

with only 300ml of phyto and it doesn't look too dark, how much water should i add? Is 700 a safe bet taking it up to a liter?

If it's an easy to grow phytoplankton like Nannochloropsis salina you can go for 300/700mL it should be absolutely fine. However, I prefer to do multiple smaller batches, especially if the culture isn't too dense. If you take a look at post #20 (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/another-phytoplankton-culture-tutorial.1165682/post-14464575) you will see that one of my 3 cultures failed. All started with the same starter culture. So even when using the same source you can increase the odds of success this way.

If I do that approach and it gets darker should I add more water to up the quantity eventually reaching the full 5liter?

I like to do the whole process again and again instead of increasing the volume because it gives me the opportunity to clean the container and split the cleanest culture into new batches, which really seems to help keep the cultures clean and stable. You will also have to make sure the added water is as sterile as possible as well as the added fertilizer. Again, for Nannochloropsis salina, probably fine. For sensitive cultures, better use the culture you have as a starter for multiple smaller vessels.

Also my reactor has a drain at the bottom, will I be able to just keep the same culture going every 2 to 3 days draining a bit and topping up with new water and f2?

This depends on how clean you can keep the culture over longer periods of time. If you are planning on doing this I would definitely recommend using a sterile filter for the air intake or you will keep introducing more and more impurities into the culture and at some point the culture might crash. Restarting with a clean container is the safest way in my experience.

 

[Gregg37]

I can confirm that the Poseidon Phytotanks definitely do work! I really like them. I have four of them running for over five years now. I do NOT use the Poseidon bags, I use "bread bags" from my local grocery store. I can get a box of 50 for less than $4. Use for one batch of phyto, then toss and use a new one. Easy, and minimal if any cleanup between batches. About once per month, I run the black rubber tops through my regular dishwasher cycle and the blue airlines through the washing machine along with the filter socks from my display tank, with bleach, then rinse x3.

I do not do the sterile technique many use, I just use my "aseptic technique" I used while working in a university microbiology lab and a tertiary hospital's blood bank.

I don't do anything special to my culture water, in fact I use my RO unit's waste water and just add IO salt and mix in a 2 gallon plastic container. Then when starting a new culture, I add my F2 and starter phytoplankton, then fill the "Phytotank" up above the rubber LED sleeve, connect to air and lighting and done for 12-14 days until it is ready for harvest.


I currently have three cultures of Nannochloropsis sp and two cultures of Chlorella sp. I have never had any luck when trying T Iso or Pavlova brown phytos, or any of the three red ones I have attempted. Perhaps those need the sterile conditions that I dont have, or my lighting, air, temp/salinity aren't agreeable, or maybe I just need to get something other than "F2". Not sure, but I am satisfied with my green phytos, they allow me to grow plenty of copepods and even hatch brine shrimp from cysts and raise them to adult size.

Here is a picture of my plankton area, a couple shelves under my basement stairs. The cultures are all at different stages of growth, I stagger them so I can harvest on a steady basis instead of all at once and then need to store somehow. Lighting is 16 on and 8 off, air pumps run 24hrs.

The two jars on the ends of the middle shelf are copepods. The bottom shelf has copepods ion the left jar, and Nanno in the right jar, which is not a phytotank, just a one gallon jar, is placed near one 10w fluorescent bulb and a 30w incandescent bulb.