Culturing phyto

[Surfzone]

So I have always had a hard time culturing Iso. I'm looking for other people's process of culturing Phytoplankton, Iso particularly. I'm getting back into breeding fish and want to start with getting my phyto game up first along with some pods shortly after. I know I can feed Tiger pods and Apocyclops on dead paste but really want a good stedy supply of Parvocalanis to feed and for that I need live phyto.

 

[Dilan Patel]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/culturing-phytoplankton-experiment.714534/page-3#post-8251754

here is my phytoplankton page

 

[ichthyogeek]

@ThRoewer

 

[ThRoewer]

My little Phyto station - still needs some work

The beverage containers turned out not so great as culture vessels but are quite sufficient for storage and dispensing the algae that had been cultured in the carboys.

 

[taricha]

So I have always had a hard time culturing Iso. I'm looking for other people's process of culturing Phytoplankton, Iso particularly

I had better luck once I used bleach/ thiosulfate to chlorinate and dechlorinate batches.
1mL/ L of normal concentration Clorox bleach, 10mL of 0.10 Molar sodium thiosulfate per 1mL of bleach seemed to work.

I would use a big vessel to make bottles to refrigerate and also small vessels to keep fresh growing phase ready as backups to start the next container.
Restarting from refrigerated was not as high percentage for me.
I'd also use a 10micron filter to keep any ciliate contamination or clumps or whatever removed from one batch to the next.

 

[Surfzone]

Well my flasks and carboys and F2 came in yesterday. I bleached them and placed foil over the openings. What kind of salinity are y'all keeping Iso? I want this stuff to bloom up nice and thick. I am also using an XR15 Freshwater light to grow this stuff out. I'm still waiting on my started culture to come in.

@ThRoewer I looked at those water jugs at Wal-Mart and decided that it would be hard to keep good flow in there because of the handle. are you just using them for storage or are you culturing phyto in there?

@taricha do you also use isopropyl alcohol to sanitize your tools? I've read that using alcohol on syringes also helps.

@Dilan Patel thanks for that link. your trials with Nano are some I had while living in California. I never had a hard time culturing Nano but Iso is a different story for some reason. I don't think that i did anything different when culturing them just Nano seemed a bit more hardy for me.

 

[boacvh]

I gave up on DIY and decided to go with the poseidon reef system and it's plug and play. Harvest every week. Haven't lost a single culture since I switched. Love it.

 

[ThRoewer]

I gave up on DIY and decided to go with the poseidon reef system and it's plug and play. Harvest every week. Haven't lost a single culture since I switched. Love it.

Looks neat but I would need the 200l barrel sized version of it to feed my larvae...

 

[boacvh]

Looks neat but I would need the 200l barrel sized version of it to feed my larvae...

Ah got it. Sorry didn't know scale.

 

[ThRoewer]

Ah got it. Sorry didn't know scale.

I'm thinking of switching to 30 or even 44 gallon Brute garbage cans for my Parvocalanus cultures, not just for volume but also for the ability to heat them better (the garage gets cold in the winter). I tried rectangular storage bins but the flow in those isn't ideal for harvesting nauplii.

 

[ThRoewer]

@Surfzone
The beverage containers (jugs) can be used for culturing most algae but are not ideal for it. They are absolutely unsuited for algae that like to settle out, like for example Tetraselmis.
At this point i use them only for storage and dispensing and they are quite good for that.

 

[Woodneers]

I gave up on DIY and decided to go with the poseidon reef system and it's plug and play. Harvest every week. Haven't lost a single culture since I switched. Love it.

There is a big box under my Christmas tree from poseidon not sure if the wife knows that I know about it or not. She thinks she is sneaky but i grab the packages every day....

 

[Surfzone]

@Surfzone
The beverage containers (jugs) can be used for culturing most algae but are not ideal for it. They are absolutely unsuited for algae that like to settle out, like for example Tetraselmis.
At this point i use them only for storage and dispensing and they are quite good for that.

If I got this project going I may have to look into that for storage purposes. I know that Iso doesn't do well in the refrigerator and prefers to be stored at room temp.

 

[taricha]

do you also use isopropyl alcohol to sanitize your tools? I've read that using alcohol on syringes also helps.

The only things that touched one live culture on the way to the next flask of sterilized media ready to grow were a 10 micron filter and a funnel. And those both got a rinse in peroxide then distilled water first. Coulda used isopropyl instead, I guess.

I also found that a water bath with a heater to control temp helped improve my results too.

 

[Surfzone]

I got my Iso today and started the cultures

 

[ThePurple12]

How are they going?

 

[Surfzone]

How are they going?

This may be the last time that I order from Algae Research Supply. They sent me a starter culture that was brown as Iso is, but I don't have a microscope to confirm it. now all of my cultures are turning green rather than brown like Iso should be. I think that they sent me a culture that was contaminated with Nano. i'm not culturing any other algaes so it has to be from the starter. I would love to get a pure starter so that I can culture this algae and grow Parvocalinas copepods. i'm feeding paste to my parvo now and it seems to be sustaining them but it's not making them boom in numbers that I am accustomed to like Apocyclops or Tigger pods.

 

[ThRoewer]

My ISO also turned green but the Parvo seem to eat it. Just got a new starter from Sustainable Aquatics, let's see how that is.

 

[ThePurple12]

Mine is turning green too. What algae do you think it is? Is it still a good pod food?

 

[Surfzone]

It's harvest day. I'm using one flask to start a 3 gallon carboy one to start three more clean flasks and one to feed pods with
Here is how dark two of them got.