Can you culture enough phyto to sustain a rotifer culture?

Levinson

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I just started my rotifer culture yesterday and I've been feeding dead fridge chlorella concentrate and spirulina powder so far.
I read everywhere that live phytos are the best when it comes to culturing rotifers. They are nutritionally better, grow faster and it doesn't pollute the water as fast.
So I've been looking for some phyto, Nannochloropsis in particular, since I hear they are the easiest to culture and are quite versatile. I thought I could also use it to feed my pods. They are not easy to find here since reefing is not as popular as in some of the other countries but I managed to find an aquaculture company selling them and the fertilizer. I've talked to them over the phone and they've told me it would be very difficult if not impossible to sustain a live rotifer culture at home with just the live phyto cultured at home unless I get a massive phyto culture going.
Is this true? I got the impression that many hobbyists were culturing them both around the world but I guess I couldn've been wrong all along. I plan on culturing about 2~3 plastic bottles of rotifers. I will be using the rotifers to feed the shrimp larvae but it won't be the only thing I will be feeding them and the idea is to diversify the feed.
The aquaculture guys also told me that the risk of the phyto culture crashing would be too high for home culture and it wouldn't be worth it (plus they were very expensive, over a hundred USD each for the phyto and f/2 fertilizer so I won't be buying from them either way).
I could still buy them from elsewhere but would I be better off just sticking to the algae paste?
 

elysics

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I guess "very difficult" is relative. It's certainly more difficult when you only have one hundred dollar bottle to work with and can't just get 5 new ones for 10 bucks if your culture crashes.
 
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Levinson

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I guess "very difficult" is relative. It's certainly more difficult when you only have one hundred dollar bottle to work with and can't just get 5 new ones for 10 bucks if your culture crashes.
True that. I would've just gave it a shot if I lived in US, not much to lose.
But what they meant was the amount of phyto produced won't be enough to feed the rotifers even when the phyto is successfully cultured without a crash unless I have very large culture tanks.
 

elysics

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Depends on what you are thinking of when you hear "very large". I know two people that successfully do it, currently trying my hand at it too. It is going to take up a shelf level or two though.

But you definitely don't need bioreactors the size of a room or something lol
 
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Levinson

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Depends on what you are thinking of when you hear "very large". I know two people that successfully do it, currently trying my hand at it too. It is going to take up a shelf level or two though.

But you definitely don't need bioreactors the size of a room or something lol
Yeah that's what I thought and that's why it got me confused. Of course, "very large" is quite vague but basically the idea was 'it's not something you would do at home'.
It's good to hear there are people out there that do it successfully.
 

Chuk

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I make phyto a gallon at a time. It takes about me 2 weeks after I restart my culture. Then I stop growing it until I am almost out. The thing is after that 2 week ramp up I could produce a gallon a week if I kept it going not much effort at all. How much phyto do you think you'll need? I could easily double the phyto production for about $40 just with another light and set of culture containers.
 
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Levinson

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I make phyto a gallon at a time. It takes about me 2 weeks after I restart my culture. Then I stop growing it until I am almost out. The thing is after that 2 week ramp up I could produce a gallon a week if I kept it going not much effort at all. How much phyto do you think you'll need? I could easily double the phyto production for about $40 just with another light and set of culture containers.
Enough to sustain at least about 2 plastic bottles of rotifers? Being new to the phyto and rotifer culture, I actually don't know how much that is but it does sound like the amount you produce is more than enough.
 

Chuk

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I got my initial nanno culture from Mercer of Montana and it came with the F2. That kit was like $25.
I culture the phyto in these containers
Jugs
and use this light
Grow light

I use starsan from my home brewing to sanitize and I had an air pump hanging around that I used for water movement. I’ve only grown nano so I haven’t had many of the problems I’ve read about with the more difficult strains. So far for me the phyto side doesn’t really have that much too it besides keeping everything clean.
I haven’t done rotifers myself so I can’t help you there. Good luck.
 

HockeyRooster

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Maybe it’s beginners luck but I haven’t had a phyto batch crash and find it quite simple to culture. I only culture a large canning jar worth of phyto at a time. It provides enough to keep my pod culture going and feeds the tank a bit as well. I made a light rack out of corrugated plastic and old under cabinet lighting. I use an air pump and a magnetic stirrer. Add fertilizer and some reef additive. The phyto near me is $20 a bottle so more expensive than in the US but not crazy expensive.
 

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