Copepods and sterile phyto?

Spare time

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 12, 2019
Messages
12,038
Reaction score
9,674
Location
Here
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So I have a bit of an issue. I almost never have long term success withy phyto before it starts clumping on the side and forming flakes despite all the equipment for phtyo never touching any or saltwater tank so where the contamination comes from I have no clue.

I have been trying to culture pods but I run into the same issue where the water eventually just gets filled with the flaky phyto. How is someone supposed to keep a copepod clean without removing the pods. I even tried using bottled dead phyto but the culture still gets junk in it. I hate giving up on the pod culture but I want to be able to bottle them without flakes of phyto or other crud floating around.
 

JosephM

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2020
Messages
1,561
Reaction score
1,049
Location
Lincolnton
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
That’s odd. Are you sterilizing bottles prior to use? How heavy of aeration are you using? What strains of phyto?
 
OP
OP
Spare time

Spare time

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 12, 2019
Messages
12,038
Reaction score
9,674
Location
Here
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I also don't understand how bacteria from fresh RODI water can somehow mess up a saltwater culture. Are these bacteria just extreme and can
That’s odd. Are you sterilizing bottles prior to use? How heavy of aeration are you using? What strains of phyto?


I use isochrysis

I have two airstones and a small pump in a 2.5 gallon container.

I sterilize by soaking the equipment and container in burning hot tap water before hand.

BUT, I realized that I have not sterilized the water from the RO sytem. I have not done this as I wasn't sure how microbes that live fresh water would somehow survive living in saltwater. I am thinking this is my mistake.
 

JosephM

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2020
Messages
1,561
Reaction score
1,049
Location
Lincolnton
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I also don't understand how bacteria from fresh RODI water can somehow mess up a saltwater culture. Are these bacteria just extreme and can



I use isochrysis

I have two airstones and a small pump in a 2.5 gallon container.

I sterilize by soaking the equipment and container in burning hot tap water before hand.

BUT, I realized that I have not sterilized the water from the RO sytem. I have not done this as I wasn't sure how microbes that live fresh water would somehow survive living in saltwater. I am thinking this is my mistake.
I haven’t got to culturing iso yet, I have heard it’s a little more difficult then what I culture. If I’m being honest I don’t sterilize anything other then the 2-liter bottles and the rigid airline tubing. My hand (unwashed) gets dunked into the unsanitized 5-gal bucket to get water for it. I wonder if the starting culture got contaminated with a saltwater bacteria before you got it. With iso I know you have to start with a larger amount and can’t thin it out so much, maybe try culturing in a 1 or 2 liter bottle and slowly work up to the larger container?
 

LardLad

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 29, 2019
Messages
431
Reaction score
338
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I also don't understand how bacteria from fresh RODI water can somehow mess up a saltwater culture. Are these bacteria just extreme and can



I use isochrysis

I have two airstones and a small pump in a 2.5 gallon container.

I sterilize by soaking the equipment and container in burning hot tap water before hand.

BUT, I realized that I have not sterilized the water from the RO sytem. I have not done this as I wasn't sure how microbes that live fresh water would somehow survive living in saltwater. I am thinking this is my mistake.
I wouldnt worry about "Sterilizing" the RODI. As long as your RODI water container is clean you should be ok. I wipe mine out with rubbing alcohol. I also use rubbing alcohol on any thing that might touch my culture like the rigid air tubing and my salt scoop. 1 great short cut that I love is I purchase a 2 liter bottle of club soda for each new culture. That gives me a clean new container each time for less than a dollar. I dumped out the club soda and then rinse thoroughly with salt water. I make sure the cap never touches anything but rubbing alcohol or a clean paper towel. One thing that I have repeatedly witnessed is that it is advantageous to avoid any sort of texture or ribs in your culture container. Meaning a perfect Smooth Wall container like a 2 L soda bottle has worked best for me. I have seen multiple cultures get funky that had ridges in the plastic where flakes of phyto would gather. In fact I've seen that with multiple types of containers that weren't perfectly smooth. Do yourself a favor and get the smoothest container you can. Also I never use the one to one ratio as it just seems too much. I use a 2 to 1 ratio of water to culture for Tetraselmis and I'm still able to produce cultures that are so dense you can't see light through them at 6 to 7 days. So I am assuming that you have either chose a not great container or begin with too much culture and not enough water. Third, I would strongly suggest getting rid of your air stone and bubble more vigorously then you would assume I mean don't go crazy with it but a vigorous bubble does way better then a light flow coming out of an AirStone . You want big chunky bubbles not little fuzzy ones it really makes a difference Good luck
 
OP
OP
Spare time

Spare time

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 12, 2019
Messages
12,038
Reaction score
9,674
Location
Here
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I wouldnt worry about "Sterilizing" the RODI. As long as your RODI water container is clean you should be ok. I wipe mine out with rubbing alcohol. I also use rubbing alcohol on any thing that might touch my culture like the rigid air tubing and my salt scoop. 1 great short cut that I love is I purchase a 2 liter bottle of club soda for each new culture. That gives me a clean new container each time for less than a dollar. I dumped out the club soda and then rinse thoroughly with salt water. I make sure the cap never touches anything but rubbing alcohol or a clean paper towel. One thing that I have repeatedly witnessed is that it is advantageous to avoid any sort of texture or ribs in your culture container. Meaning a perfect Smooth Wall container like a 2 L soda bottle has worked best for me. I have seen multiple cultures get funky that had ridges in the plastic where flakes of phyto would gather. In fact I've seen that with multiple types of containers that weren't perfectly smooth. Do yourself a favor and get the smoothest container you can. Also I never use the one to one ratio as it just seems too much. I use a 2 to 1 ratio of water to culture for Tetraselmis and I'm still able to produce cultures that are so dense you can't see light through them at 6 to 7 days. So I am assuming that you have either chose a not great container or begin with too much culture and not enough water. Third, I would strongly suggest getting rid of your air stone and bubble more vigorously then you would assume I mean don't go crazy with it but a vigorous bubble does way better then a light flow coming out of an AirStone . You want big chunky bubbles not little fuzzy ones it really makes a difference Good luck

I do have a container with weird ridges.

I had a small pump in the 2.5 gallon container with the two airstones
 
Back
Top