Continuous phytoplankton|rotifers reactor 24h food supply

[Dan buretta]

This is an idea I have wanted to try for a long time just dont have the room to do it easily. May have to start thinking about it again.

You have room. Check out what I did. 4” x 8” plus the saltwater reservoir.

 

[sixty_reefer]

You have room. Check out what I did. 4” x 8” plus the saltwater reservoir.

That set up looks really neat how you finding it?

 

[sixty_reefer]

I’ve been following this thread and set up my own phyto/roti reactor today. I was going to try using tank water myself but I haven’t gotten around to figuring it out. I was thinking about fabricating a “cup” to catch water exiting my UV sterilizer and draw tank water from the cup. But I’ve been told I still need to filter out organisms that make it through the UV sterilizer. I’m told 1 micron and larger organisms will survive UV. So maybe inside the cup, you run an in-line 1 micron filter and maybe the flow in the cup will keep the filter clean for a while?

I’ve used water straight from the tank I believe that wen your culture is stable all you need is just a bit of poly filter around the in let line.

 

[Matt Carden]

What I cant understand about the tank water issue is, doesn't this stuff live in the ocean? How can our tank water bad for the cultures?

 

[Dennis Cartier]

What I cant understand about the tank water issue is, doesn't this stuff live in the ocean? How can our tank water bad for the cultures?

The issue is the microorganisms that would be coming in with the tank water. The expectation is that you will eventually end up with a bloom of zooplankton that will consume all the phyto and crash the culture. So the water is not the issue, it's the hitchhikers!

 

[Phildago]

Ideas like this are exactly why I want to build a fish room/lab. It's just so hard to squeeze all the awesome possibilities of building an ecosystem into a cabinet under your tank in the living room.

So cool

 

[sixty_reefer]

The issue is the microorganisms that would be coming in with the tank water. The expectation is that you will eventually end up with a bloom of zooplankton that will consume all the phyto and crash the culture. So the water is not the issue, it's the hitchhikers!

That’s the main issue with using tank water and wend I did the inline rotifer culture was a good example. I could play with the amount of Rotifers by simply increase or decrease the amount of phytoplankton. The culture was always clear even wend 200ml of phytoplankton was dosed daily all they do is multiply faster as more food is added.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Ideas like this are exactly why I want to build a fish room/lab. It's just so hard to squeeze all the awesome possibilities of building an ecosystem into a cabinet under your tank in the living room.

So cool

Phytoplankton is not always necessary to increase micro life, sometimes just the decay of macro algae’s or just using an auto feeder with algae pellets in the refugium could give similar effects most zooplankton will thrive with the decay of both.

 

[Phildago]

Phytoplankton is not always necessary to increase micro life, sometimes just the decay of macro algae’s or just using an auto feeder with algae pellets in the refugium could give similar effects most zooplankton will thrive with the decay of both.

Probably lol

I think my micro fauna are doing pretty well, but I tend to think most of my copepods get taken out by amphipods in the refugium. A nice culture of phyto slowly getting fed into my system and a copepods culture would ensure that my system gets the phyto and that I'd have enough copepods to continuously dose as well.

I'm definitely one of those guys who are more into the ecosystem than any particular organism that lives within it.

In my lab I'd like to have a display refugium as well where I'd grow some salt marsh, mangroves, seahorses and possibly some NPS corals that fit the niche.. another with a few predators, and a big beautiful reef as the centerpiece.

For now, I settle for what I can afford and fit in my house and love it.. But a man can dream

 

[Dan buretta]

Probably lol

I think my micro fauna are doing pretty well, but I tend to think most of my copepods get taken out by amphipods in the refugium. A nice culture of phyto slowly getting fed into my system and a copepods culture would ensure that my system gets the phyto and that I'd have enough copepods to continuously dose as well.

I'm definitely one of those guys who are more into the ecosystem than any particular organism that lives within it.

In my lab I'd like to have a display refugium as well where I'd grow some salt marsh, mangroves, seahorses and possibly some NPS corals that fit the niche.. another with a few predators, and a big beautiful reef as the centerpiece.

For now, I settle for what I can afford and fit in my house and love it.. But a man can dream

Let me know when you’re ready for seahorses, I breed them! FYI, I’m doing this auto phyto/rotifer culture on a reef tank/seahorse tank on a common sump. The issue I’m most afraid of is if there is parasites or bacteria in the culture that will make it to the seahorses, they’re fragile.

 

[Phildago]

Let me know when you’re ready for seahorses, I breed them! FYI, I’m doing this auto phyto/rotifer culture on a reef tank/seahorse tank on a common sump. The issue I’m most afraid of is if there is parasites or bacteria in the culture that will make it to the seahorses, they’re fragile.

Will do!

Is there any way of going about it that could reduce the risk?

 

[Dan buretta]

That set up looks really neat how you finding it?

So far so good. I’m worried that some rotifers got in the phyto right off the bat, time will tell. I also started this particular culture with full term phyto from the fridge so I just ran some clean saltwater through the doser (5ml every 2 hours = 60ml total per day) and after the culture turned the usual color it is after I split it, I added f2 to the fresh saltwater reservoir. Looks like it’s greening up now a bit after 2 days with fertilizer. I put k1 micro (10 pieces) in the phyto reservoir, looks great. None in the rotifer culture reservoir and I see a little build up already. I was told to keep air bubbles low in the rotifer culture as it could slow the growth but I’m opting to turn it up to keep it cleaner in there. Plenty of life in there already. What I like about this setup is it’s external to keep the temp down, uses 1 dosing pump, and it’s all sealed except for the rotifer culture discharge tube that runs to the sump. The air pumps keep the flow of air going from anywhere in the system to that discharge hose. I kept everything short also to try to reduce loss through build up/drying in tubes. The rigid airlines ran from the top to the bottom allow for stirring and I plan to take samples with a syringe from the bottom of the container doubling as a clean out of anything that settles to the bottom.

 

[Dan buretta]

Will do!

Is there any way of going about it that could reduce the risk?

Just a clean culture to start. There is no test for “bad” bacteria counts for us hobbyist folks. And you don’t really want to kill your rotifers and phyto by sending through the UV sterilizer right out of the phyto/roti reactor. So I’m just going to continue to use mic-f probiotics in my tank to keep the horses as healthy as possible as well as mixing with reef roids for my corals and gut loading artemia (which I also grow out) with a special seahorse feed (called Dan’s feed w/ probiotics) and see how this goes. I also have a skimmer rated for 400 gallons on my 70 gallon system but I seriously push the limits of my system with the amount of seahorses. I feed 4-5 cubes of mysis per day and reef roids weekly and my anemone gets a small shrimp once a week, like a cooked shrimp for humans, lol.

 

[TeJ]

I need to start from the beginning, lol. All you need is miracle grow to get the phytoplankton going? Any particular kind? No other chemicals in it that are bad for the tank?

 

[Dan buretta]

That set up looks really neat how you finding it?

Just wanted to show you more detail on how i designed this. Phyto on the left, air to rigid airline that runs to the bottom, second rigid airline connected to dosing pump tube. Small tube runs between phyto and rotifer vessels, set higher to keep rotifers out of phyto and allow for natural waterfall to rotifer culture. Air to rigid airline that runs to the bottom, then discharge tube that is set lower than phyto tube again to keep the cultures separate. The main concern was making a solid rigid frame for the cultures to be held properly in place so gravity could do its thing after that. The only part that sucked was filling it up. If I have a crash (most likely from rotifers getting in the phyto) I’ll have to drain the phyto by unscrewing the cap but refill with a syringe. That way there wouldn’t be cross contamination.

 

[Dan buretta]

I need to start from the beginning, lol. All you need is miracle grow to get the phytoplankton going? Any particular kind? No other chemicals in it that are bad for the tank?

Technically, the phyto should use the trace elements during photosynthesis, and this test has so far proven that the nitrates and phosphates we normally worry about adding to the tank are being lowered through doing this. So it’s all at our own risk to continue researching this. FRITZ two part f2 formula is what I use to grow phyto. I have used miracle grow liquid before and it works great, too great actually, you need to use less to achieve the same results but the ratios of nitrogen to phosphates and other elements are generally the same.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Just wanted to show you more detail on how i designed this. Phyto on the left, air to rigid airline that runs to the bottom, second rigid airline connected to dosing pump tube. Small tube runs between phyto and rotifer vessels, set higher to keep rotifers out of phyto and allow for natural waterfall to rotifer culture. Air to rigid airline that runs to the bottom, then discharge tube that is set lower than phyto tube again to keep the cultures separate. The main concern was making a solid rigid frame for the cultures to be held properly in place so gravity could do its thing after that. The only part that sucked was filling it up. If I have a crash (most likely from rotifers getting in the phyto) I’ll have to drain the phyto by unscrewing the cap but refill with a syringe. That way there wouldn’t be cross contamination.

That’s why exactly how I build mine, the only difference is that I left my phytoplankton culture vessel open, wend you run a culture for over a year there is a build up on top that starts reducing light into the culture so it helps leaving it open, rotifers culture has to be sealed but no maintenance required, some k1 in the rotifers culture will also help keeping the vessel clean. Regarding your seahorses, have you considered building a feeding station? I had mine trained to eat from one and reduced the amount of food lost in the tank. Whatever they didn’t eat I used to remove and just add fresh food.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Just a clean culture to start. There is no test for “bad” bacteria counts for us hobbyist folks. And you don’t really want to kill your rotifers and phyto by sending through the UV sterilizer right out of the phyto/roti reactor. So I’m just going to continue to use mic-f probiotics in my tank to keep the horses as healthy as possible as well as mixing with reef roids for my corals and gut loading artemia (which I also grow out) with a special seahorse feed (called Dan’s feed w/ probiotics) and see how this goes. I also have a skimmer rated for 400 gallons on my 70 gallon system but I seriously push the limits of my system with the amount of seahorses. I feed 4-5 cubes of mysis per day and reef roids weekly and my anemone gets a small shrimp once a week, like a cooked shrimp for humans, lol.

@AquaBiomics do microbe testing for us but not sure how it would work in a phytoplankton culture.

 

[sixty_reefer]

@Dan buretta if you add an extra dosing head with the fertiliser you could have the system fully automated. Also have you calculate the salinity in your reservoir to keep your culture steady at 1019?

 

[AquaBiomics]

@AquaBiomics do microbe testing for us but not sure how it would work in a phytoplankton culture.

I see no obstacles to analyzing microbes in a phytoplankton culture. It would be interesting to know what microbes get added to the tank along with the phytoplankton.