Culturing and feeding Phytoplankton to Coral, Pods and Fish

[Brad Miller]

Too warm of culture water won’t grow large pods....
What’s your temp and also describe your process with pics f you can

 

[pjb9166]

Too warm of culture water won’t grow large pods....
What’s your temp and also describe your process with pics f you can

Thank you Brad for chiming in. System is simple. As I've been removing some of the culture every ten days and dosing dirty water and Pods strait to my DT. Then topping off with fresh mixed saltwater 1.026. Each time adding about 500-550 ml more water to overall volume. The room temp the culture is in runs at 75-76F. I feed enough phyto just to keep a nice light green color in the vessel. The air being fed into culture is about 3 bubbles per sec. I've read that I could crush a few TDO pellets in once a week or so??? Thanks for any advice.

 

[Brad Miller]

My 1st thought is you know what your room temp is, but what is the culture water temp running at ?
Looks like you have a lot of leds on there and that will prob push the culture temp way above what you should be at.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Do we have anyone who cultures Tisbe Pods? I've been trying for just over a month. The adult size ones I started with seem to be way larger than I'm able to raise. Mine are tiny. So tiny they seem to still make it through a 20 micron filter/sieve. So makes it almost impossible to harvest them and do a water change. One day it seems like I have a ton of them. The next day it's like nothing is in the vessel. Any good tips?

If they are passing through a 20 micron sieve, they are likely ciliates and not copepods.

 

[pjb9166]

My 1st thought is you know what your room temp is, but what is the culture water temp running at ?
Looks like you have a lot of leds on there and that will prob push the culture temp way above what you should be at.

LOL... That's not the Pod culture. That's my phyto culture. The pod culture next to it and is at 74 degrees though. Usually a few degrees warmer.

If they are passing through a 20 micron sieve, they are likely ciliates and not copepods.

Okay. I see what you're saying and figured that. For some reason I'm not seeing many at the adult stage. So I'm a bit confused at how the population is growing with very little at the adult stage

 

[Island Reef 242]

Some nice set ups. I am trying to grow some phyto but i think i failed . I got a 16oz bottle of phyto, split it in half between two bottles, doubled the volume of each bottle with NSW at recommended specific gravity, added F2, set up lights and bubbler (see first pic below). A couple days later one bottle went light yellow green and had dark green clumps settling on bottom and sides of bottle. The second one started to get clumps as well but only lightened up a bit (see second pic below). I left them for 8 days. I went to half the bottle that was the darkest green to start over again and noticed mold was on the cork that I was using in the top of the bottles ;Facepalm. Note - do not use cork as bottle stoppers in phyto culture. I went ahead and cleaned everything and started over using the contents of the darker green bottle. I pored out the light green water from the first bottle and saved the clumps (which quickly dispersed) in the bottom.

Questions:-
1. Do you think my culture is still viable?
2. Dose the dark green clumpy stuff at the bottom have any nutritional value, can I pour it in my tank for any benefit?
3. I am going to run lights 24/7 to help with temp swings. Is that recommended? and any other advice you can think give me?

 

[boacvh]

Some nice set ups. I am trying to grow some phyto but i think i failed . I got a 16oz bottle of phyto, split it in half between two bottles, doubled the volume of each bottle with NSW at recommended specific gravity, added F2, set up lights and bubbler (see first pic below). A couple days later one bottle went light yellow green and had dark green clumps settling on bottom and sides of bottle. The second one started to get clumps as well but only lightened up a bit (see second pic below). I left them for 8 days. I went to half the bottle that was the darkest green to start over again and noticed mold was on the cork that I was using in the top of the bottles ;Facepalm. Note - do not use cork as bottle stoppers in phyto culture. I went ahead and cleaned everything and started over using the contents of the darker green bottle. I pored out the light green water from the first bottle and saved the clumps (which quickly dispersed) in the bottom.

Questions:-
1. Do you think my culture is still viable?
2. Dose the dark green clumpy stuff at the bottom have any nutritional value, can I pour it in my tank for any benefit?
3. I am going to run lights 24/7 to help with temp swings. Is that recommended? and any other advice you can think give me?

Not an expert by any means, but sometimes I leave the light cultures in the bottle and it restarts by itself after it has crashed, giving me a new dark green one. Has worked I would say 4/5 times I have done it.
I also shake the bag so the clumpy stuff gets diluted into mix then throw away the rest.
I have my lights 24/7.
I have been using the Poseidon system settings and followed their instructions and advice. I have more phyto and copepods that I know what to do with now.

 

[Island Reef 242]

Not an expert by any means, but sometimes I leave the light cultures in the bottle and it restarts by itself after it has crashed, giving me a new dark green one. Has worked I would say 4/5 times I have done it.
I also shake the bag so the clumpy stuff gets diluted into mix then throw away the rest.
I have my lights 24/7.
I have been using the Poseidon system settings and followed their instructions and advice. I have more phyto and copepods that I know what to do with now.

Thanks for the advice, and reassurance. I am hoping mine will bounce back.

 

[Auto-pilot]

I think it's still viable. I would increase the airflow to keep the culture mixed and add more fertilizer. I find that if my cultures turn yellow they don't have enough fertilizer

 

[Richard John]

I’m about to start a culture can I clean my container with a sanitizer I have star San it’s a acid sanitizer for surface sanitation

 

[Brad Miller]

I would just use a weak bleach solution and let air dry completely....I’ve been doing that with all mine with good results.

 

[Josh Kraft]

If you had a container with a spout, and you half emptied that container and replaced what you removed with clean saltwater and added F2, how often should you clean the container you are doing the growing in?

 

[Brad Miller]

I do 2 cultures before cleaning out, I’m sure others may do it differently

 

[ckalupa]

question on salinity: lots of talk of 1.019 but I have also read to use tank level water. Any reasons for 1.019 as being more effective for pods or phyto? I am using the Poseidon system myself. I think their directions even say 1.025.

 

[Hal3134]

Any updates?

 

[Jeeperz]

I'm having on/off success in culturing phyto. Some grow, some crash. I am keeping up with my use, for now. Now if I could get a culture of pods or the phyto to live in the pod buckets. With weather warming up I might try a bucket outside like done others have done.

 

[Dana Riddle]

I suspended phyto additions when DT nutrient concentrations fell to the detection limits of the Hach colorimeter. I noticed the 3 Gonioporas and one Euphyllia were not expanding as much, so phyto additions resumed.

 

[Hal3134]

Can anyone recommend what style and size container works best? I’m tentatively thinking 1 gallon size plastic cylinders for both phyto and Tisbe pods, but am open to other ideas. Also, how helpful or not is having a drain spigot on the container?

 

[boacvh]

Can anyone recommend what style and size container works best? I’m tentatively thinking 1 gallon size plastic cylinders for both phyto and Tisbe pods, but am open to other ideas. Also, how helpful or not is having a drain spigot on the container?

I use the Poseidon systems and I find them to be a very convenient size. I do end up having more phyto that I can use on my 75, so I make a culture every other week

 

[Jeeperz]

I use pint Mason jars for phyto. Anything bigger and I can't seem to get a good culture, even if I up my fertilizer. I use 5 gallon buckets for pods with a very slow air bubble rate. Not very successful with either. When I concentrate the pods I have thousands of immature ones but don't have many large red tiggers