Crashing phyto

[SuthernReefer]

I am trying to culture Nanno phyto and pods. I'm using the Poseidon kit. My first culture crashed on day 4. My 2nd attempt looked more promising as I thought it would be ready to harvest today. At day 5 it was starting to really darken up, but not the thick, dark green most end up with. I figured surely by day 7 it would be there. Day 6 looked about the same as day 5, but today, day 7, it has lightened up a lot.

I noticed on day 6 that I was getting done settling on the bottom, but I didn't disturb the jar or attempt to shake it.

The culture does not smell, there is more settling today so I gave it a shake and added some more of the 2 part fert.

I use bags for the culture, I cleaned everything with alcohol, use RODI water to mix my salt, have lights set on timer for 16 hours on and 8 off, and have air on full agitation.


Few questions. Can you harvest too early? I'm wondering if I should have harvested on day 5 or 6, but it wasn't DARK, DARK. What would happen if harvested too early?

Should I shake my culture daily to keep it from settling like we do with the phyto we keep in the fridge?

If it don't smell bad does that mean it can be revived and when is reviving a culture even worth trying or is it?

Can this still be used in my aquarium and to feed pods? How do you know what is usable and what is not?



Wish I had taken a pic on day 5, but here it is after a decline I guess of 24 or so hours. The bottom looks a decent green, but the top is much lighter and almost yellow, but hard to see true colors in pic.


Btw, the pods are doing great for these 2 weeks in a separate tank.

 

[bradreef]

I shake daily as you will getting settling. I shake phyto that is stored as well.

 

[SuthernReefer]

Anyone? Sorry, fell to page 3

 

[reefkeep]

What did you figure out? Do you still culture Phyto?

 

[reefkeep]

Crickets

 

[Kasrift]

I am trying to culture Nanno phyto and pods. I'm using the Poseidon kit. My first culture crashed on day 4. My 2nd attempt looked more promising as I thought it would be ready to harvest today. At day 5 it was starting to really darken up, but not the thick, dark green most end up with. I figured surely by day 7 it would be there. Day 6 looked about the same as day 5, but today, day 7, it has lightened up a lot.

I noticed on day 6 that I was getting done settling on the bottom, but I didn't disturb the jar or attempt to shake it.

The culture does not smell, there is more settling today so I gave it a shake and added some more of the 2 part fert.

I use bags for the culture, I cleaned everything with alcohol, use RODI water to mix my salt, have lights set on timer for 16 hours on and 8 off, and have air on full agitation.


Few questions. Can you harvest too early? I'm wondering if I should have harvested on day 5 or 6, but it wasn't DARK, DARK. What would happen if harvested too early?

Should I shake my culture daily to keep it from settling like we do with the phyto we keep in the fridge?

If it don't smell bad does that mean it can be revived and when is reviving a culture even worth trying or is it?

Can this still be used in my aquarium and to feed pods? How do you know what is usable and what is not?



Wish I had taken a pic on day 5, but here it is after a decline I guess of 24 or so hours. The bottom looks a decent green, but the top is much lighter and almost yellow, but hard to see true colors in pic.


Btw, the pods are doing great for these 2 weeks in a separate tank.

I use the same system. My first question would be what air pump do you use? Bubbles is key in my opinion for preventing a crash.

I’ve found that the air straws provided by Poseidon are too long. You can either trim them or just put the cap on gently. What happens is that if you put the cap on fully, the straws touch the bottom and don’t bubble properly.

Secondly, if you are using a weaker pump, it just doesn’t work well. I use the eheim 400 they sell with the kits.

Here are a few other tips:

1). Culture at 1.022 or so. If you do 1.025 or 1.026 as evap happens it concentrates. I don’t top off through out the week between harvests, I just start at a lower salinity.

2). Run your lights opposite daylight. I had some crashes when I first started, I think it was a temperature thing. I know run my lights from midnight to 2pm. Don’t run the 14 hours they recommended or if you do, run your lights for 8 hkurs and turn them off for an hour then run again for 6 hours. You’ll see “burn” marks on the bags they provided.

3). Add more F2 if needed. If it’s crashing, it might not have enough food. It will crash fast when food runs out.