Howdy,
I am struggling big time to successfully culture phyto. I've watched ten thousand videos, I have swapped starter cultures, no luck. I am going to describe my setup and let someone tell me what I am doing wrong, at this point I am wasting so much phyto.
I have an acke light 12 watts off amazong
I use water bottles for vessels as I don't need that much on hand, I rinse each container with boiling water and than rinse again with fresh salt water
I use an air pump and valves to ensure I have a boiling amount of air
I use Mercer of montana starter
I use Mercer of montana f/2 (stored in the fridge)
My basement ambient temperature is roughly 68 farenheit.
My process:
I started with a normal 16 ounce water bottle putting 1/4 a bottle of culture and 1/4 a bottle fresh salt water at 1.020ish. I put .25ml F/2 and let it run for 4 days, after the 4 days it was dark, so I took a new bottle sanitizer it as mentioned above, and filled up with new "starter" culture and than half water, the water bottle was full now so I added .5ml of F/2. To ensure I was producing enough phyto I started a whole separate culture back at 1/4 starter 1/4 fresh salt water. After 4 days both were dark so I said hey let's split it again, thinking I mastered phyto now, I took a liter water bottle sanitized as mentioned above and filled halfway with the bottle and half with fresh salt water, I used 1ml of F/2 as it was a full liter. I brought the other culture to a full bottle adding .5ml of F/2. After 4 days now, they're both clearer than day.
What am I doing wrong?
I am struggling big time to successfully culture phyto. I've watched ten thousand videos, I have swapped starter cultures, no luck. I am going to describe my setup and let someone tell me what I am doing wrong, at this point I am wasting so much phyto.
I have an acke light 12 watts off amazong
I use water bottles for vessels as I don't need that much on hand, I rinse each container with boiling water and than rinse again with fresh salt water
I use an air pump and valves to ensure I have a boiling amount of air
I use Mercer of montana starter
I use Mercer of montana f/2 (stored in the fridge)
My basement ambient temperature is roughly 68 farenheit.
My process:
I started with a normal 16 ounce water bottle putting 1/4 a bottle of culture and 1/4 a bottle fresh salt water at 1.020ish. I put .25ml F/2 and let it run for 4 days, after the 4 days it was dark, so I took a new bottle sanitizer it as mentioned above, and filled up with new "starter" culture and than half water, the water bottle was full now so I added .5ml of F/2. To ensure I was producing enough phyto I started a whole separate culture back at 1/4 starter 1/4 fresh salt water. After 4 days both were dark so I said hey let's split it again, thinking I mastered phyto now, I took a liter water bottle sanitized as mentioned above and filled halfway with the bottle and half with fresh salt water, I used 1ml of F/2 as it was a full liter. I brought the other culture to a full bottle adding .5ml of F/2. After 4 days now, they're both clearer than day.
What am I doing wrong?