Culturing Phyto In a Decorative Fashion

[Kenneth Wingerter]

You might dig this (for the record, I work for this company). https://www.hydrospace.store/product-page/pns-homegro-2-5-gal Option of three different purple non-sulfur bacteria.

 

[MoshJosh]

Keep in mind I’m cheap. . .

I know very little about this process but would this work? I mean you put Phyto in instead of brine but. . .

Ziss Brine Shrimp Hatchery | Live Brine Shrimp for Feeding Baby Fish

Ziss makes the best brine shrimp hatchery on the market because of its strong, impact-resistant plastic and ability to run a heater and thermometer inside.

www.aquariumcoop.com

I mean, not super decorative, but throw a cool LED behind it???

 

[Xenia]

LOL...I'm barely a novice. I would like to develop some better methods, but for now I'm pretty much just sticking cultures in containers with light and water movement.



You should give it a shot. What kind of filtration does this have?

Something else that would be cool to try like this...

https://www.algaebarn.com/shop/aquarium-supplies/pns-probio/

It has a slow bottem air filtration system, i think it would work perfect for this.

 

[rhizotron]

You might dig this (for the record, I work for this company). https://www.hydrospace.store/product-page/pns-homegro-2-5-gal Option of three different purple non-sulfur bacteria.

Definitely want to try some of that in a lamp.

How do those compare for ease of care? Would a semi-pure culture be susceptible to contamination/degradation over time?

 

[Kenneth Wingerter]

Definitely want to try some of that in a lamp.

How do those compare for ease of care? Would a semi-pure culture be susceptible to contamination/degradation over time?

All three species are pretty easy to grow and do last for a shocking amount of time (actually, I've never really seen a good culture degrade so long as it has a continuous input of light energy). Contamination is generally not an issue; even where there are other organisms in the 'background,' these PNSB tend to dominate easily in an illuminated anaerobic environment.

 

[rhizotron]

All three species are pretty easy to grow and do last for a shocking amount of time (actually, I've never really seen a good culture degrade so long as it has a continuous input of light energy). Contamination is generally not an issue; even where there are other organisms in the 'background,' these PNSB tend to dominate easily in an illuminated anaerobic environment.

Really cool.

How about water movement? Do they require stirring?

How do colors compare? Which has the brightest coloration?

 

[Kenneth Wingerter]

Really cool.

How about water movement? Do they require stirring?

How do colors compare? Which has the brightest coloration?

Water movement is great to keep them in suspension, but not necessary. That would require a stir bar if you wanted to do that, because you can't use aeration; not only do they prefer anaerobic conditions for growth, they cannot perform photosynthesis in the presence of oxygen and oxygen itself degrades their pigments, rendering them colorless.

Their colors are roughly the same because they all produce roughly the same pigment profiles (bacteriochlorophylls and various carotenoids). They are brightest in color (i.e., most pigmented) under moderate lighting; they produce no pigments in total darkness, but extremely intense light has an inhibitory effect. I suggest something like you might apply to grow, say, mushroom anemones or green star polyps.

 

[Bluelobstor]

May seem like a dumb question but what are feeding the cultures too? The tank, copepods, or something else.
TIA Jason

 

[rhizotron]

Water movement is great to keep them in suspension, but not necessary. That would require a stir bar if you wanted to do that, because you can't use aeration; not only do they prefer anaerobic conditions for growth, they cannot perform photosynthesis in the presence of oxygen and oxygen itself degrades their pigments, rendering them colorless.

Their colors are roughly the same because they all produce roughly the same pigment profiles (bacteriochlorophylls and various carotenoids). They are brightest in color (i.e., most pigmented) under moderate lighting; they produce no pigments in total darkness, but extremely intense light has an inhibitory effect. I suggest something like you might apply to grow, say, mushroom anemones or green star polyps.

Those colors would look great I'm sure with just plain white LED shining through.

I have these mini RC motor stirrers I designed to go in through the enclosure top. The shaft could even be sent though a rubber gland for a pretty much airtight seal to keep oxygen out.

 

[Kenneth Wingerter]

Those colors would look great I'm sure with just plain white LED shining through.

I have these mini RC motor stirrers I designed to go in through the enclosure top. The shaft could even be sent though a rubber gland for a pretty much airtight seal to keep oxygen out.

White is great. The absorption spectra of their pigments are around and above 800 nm, so reddish is best (including near-infrared).

 

[rhizotron]

White is great. The absorption spectra of their pigments are around and above 800 nm, so reddish is best (including near-infrared).

Wow that is really cool. Do you grow them with lighting optimized for that range?

I recently learned of fascinating development of Cyanobacteria hundreds of yards deep in caves with (very slow) photosynthesis in near-infrared and far red, the only light that can penetrate that far.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31390129/

Also have a start on a model ecosystem aquarium/terrarium setup to represent this. I need to wire them up with a driver, but I got these 740nm LEDs...

 

[Kenneth Wingerter]

I recently learned of fascinating development of Cyanobacteria hundreds of yards deep in caves with (very slow) photosynthesis in near-infrared and far red, the only light that can penetrate that far.

Whoa, that's really cool.

In terms of optimized lighting, oh heck no. We just grow ours under 'white' shop lights. People have grown awesome cultures from the kits under standard incandescents, so it seems that these bacteria adapt to just about anything. If you're interested in that kind of stuff, this paper provides a good overview of the effects of light intensity, spectra and photoperiod on PNSB.

 

[rhizotron]

I built another new design. This is a sconce/nightlight with a plastic flask in a cedar base and a hypersaline brine medium growing Dunaliella salina. Along with the wall-mount hardware I also secured a gooseneck LED into the back of the base.

 

[rhizotron]

There's more detail on it over in one of my journal discussions, but here's an updated version of that wall sconce with a new wood base. The tung oil Western Red Cedar and silver-finish gooseneck go together pretty nice I think.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

There's more detail on it over in one of my journal discussions, but here's an updated version of that wall sconce with a new wood base. The tung oil Western Red Cedar and silver-finish gooseneck go together pretty nice I think.

Have you thought about lighting it with a LED strip from underneath?

 

[rhizotron]

Have you thought about lighting it with a LED strip from underneath?

Yes I have thought about that and a design like this could work like that.

An advantage with the gooseneck is that it can swing out in front to light up the enclosure as a Winogradsky column and that's actually how I have this one on the wall set up currently. I just assembled this Winogradsky a couple weeks ago, so there's no color yet. Hopefully it will start to evolve though in the next few months.