Culturing phytoplankton

[AcumenofAthena]

Hey guys! I am starting a phytoplankton and copepod farm. Here is my progress so far. I have the tubes and the culture coming next week. Let me know your tips and tricks if you done this before. I am new to this and I would love the community inputs. Thanks

 

[bradreef]

What types are you culturing? Suggestions do differ based on types.

 

[AcumenofAthena]

What types are you culturing? Suggestions do differ based on types.

Good idea. Are there different types of phytoplankton?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would suggest to watch several different youtube videos.
Personally I culture nannochlorosis, and tetramelmis, they are fairly easy to find and culture.
For pods I culture tisbe and apocyclops.

 

[bradreef]

I culture tetra phyto and both tisbe and tigrio pods. Tigrio are so easy that i have a separate 5 gallon bin with water a little phyto and the lid on loosely so it diesnt evap. No air or anything. They grow the same as my culture with air in it.

 

[AcumenofAthena]

I culture tetra phyto and both tisbe and tigrio pods. Tigrio are so easy that i have a separate 5 gallon bin with water a little phyto and the lid on loosely so it diesnt evap. No air or anything. They grow the same as my culture with air in it.

Thank you. I will look into that. I plan to have my phytoplankton in two of them and the copepods in the other two. That is crazy that you were able to grow them so well. I hope I have that good success with mine.

 

[Beazy]

One tip that was good for me was more flow. Every guide I read stated the flow should be just enough that I can count the bubbles but I would always crash after 2-3 harvests. I don’t clean my containers, I culture out of a glass jar with a spigot

I upped the flow quite a bit and it grows just as fast and hasn’t crashed in months. Just food for thought in case you may have some trouble with multiple harvests without going the super sterile way

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Hey guys! I am starting a phytoplankton and copepod farm. Here is my progress so far. I have the tubes and the culture coming next week. Let me know your tips and tricks if you done this before. I am new to this and I would love the community inputs. Thanks

I like the setup

 

[AcumenofAthena]

One tip that was good for me was more flow. Every guide I read stated the flow should be just enough that I can count the bubbles but I would always crash after 2-3 harvests. I don’t clean my containers, I culture out of a glass jar with a spigot

I upped the flow quite a bit and it grows just as fast and hasn’t crashed in months. Just food for thought in case you may have some trouble with multiple harvests without going the super sterile way

Thank you. That is great advice. I will be sure to keep the flow going good.

 

[Kasrift]

Hey guys! I am starting a phytoplankton and copepod farm. Here is my progress so far. I have the tubes and the culture coming next week. Let me know your tips and tricks if you done this before. I am new to this and I would love the community inputs. Thanks

My tips are this, as mentioned Nanno and Tetra are good to start on. I've found tetra doesn't crash as much.

Get a good air pump, I started with one of those 10$ ones from Petco, now I have an eheim 400. At the end of the day, moving the water is the most important I've found to keep it from settling and crashing.

Don't be afraid to use more F2. It won't crash it, it is just more food for them to consume. I've found it will crash and go yellow without enough food.

I culture at 1.022 or 1.023. I've found it better for culturing.

I run my light cycle opposite day light so it doesn't overheat and then get too cold at night.

 

[AcumenofAthena]

My tips are this, as mentioned Nanno and Tetra are good to start on. I've found tetra doesn't crash as much.

Get a good air pump, I started with one of those 10$ ones from Petco, now I have an eheim 400. At the end of the day, moving the water is the most important I've found to keep it from settling and crashing.

Don't be afraid to use more F2. It won't crash it, it is just more food for them to consume. I've found it will crash and go yellow without enough food.

I culture at 1.022 or 1.023. I've found it better for culturing.

I run my light cycle opposite day light so it doesn't overheat and then get too cold at night.

See, I am glad I posted this. I have watched lots of videos but being so new there were some questions I did not know even needed to be asked. Thank you for all the tips.

 

[marcisaninja]

Where did you get your containers for starting your culture?

 

[geologeek]

It's been a while since I cultured algae but used to do so on quite a big scale to culture copepods and here is the culture protocol that was used successfully:



Microalgae Master Culture Maintenance Protocol

To a 1 litre conical flask add 5 ml of F2, plus 1 ml of Sodium Nitrate. For diatom species 2 ml of F, is added. All nutrients are added via sterile syringe passed through a 0.2 µm single use sterile syringe

filter (Minisart brand).

Carboy Commercial Culture Protocol

Carboys are inoculated from 1 litre flasks, and grown for one week under optimum conditions of stable temperature, light/dark cycle and aeration (with trace CO2 mixed).

After 7 days, 2 x 2 litres are taken from each carboy and used to inoculate two more carboys (2 I inoculant each), which are left to grow for a further 7 days each, again under optimum conditions as described above.

The remaining culture from the original carboy is then used to inoculate a 100 I bag.

Carboy Nutrient

F,- 1 ml per litre - diatom species only. F2-70ml per 20 litres. (3.5 ml per litre?)

Nutrient Recipes

F2 is mixed at a ratio of 40g per litre using DI (or RO/DI) freshwater.

F, Sodium Silicate at 30g/L DI freshwater

NaNO3 is made up in a solution of 7.5g/100ml DI freshwater

Disinfection

10 ml Sodium Hypochlorite per 20 L carboy (0.5 ml/L @ 10%-15% strength NaCIO) Dechlorinate with 3g Sodium Thiosulphate/20L-well mixed and bubbled for at least 10 mins.

 

[AcumenofAthena]

It's been a while since I cultured algae but used to do so on quite a big scale to culture copepods and here is the culture protocol that was used successfully:



Microalgae Master Culture Maintenance Protocol

To a 1 litre conical flask add 5 ml of F2, plus 1 ml of Sodium Nitrate. For diatom species 2 ml of F, is added. All nutrients are added via sterile syringe passed through a 0.2 µm single use sterile syringe

filter (Minisart brand).

Carboy Commercial Culture Protocol

Carboys are inoculated from 1 litre flasks, and grown for one week under optimum conditions of stable temperature, light/dark cycle and aeration (with trace CO2 mixed).

After 7 days, 2 x 2 litres are taken from each carboy and used to inoculate two more carboys (2 I inoculant each), which are left to grow for a further 7 days each, again under optimum conditions as described above.

The remaining culture from the original carboy is then used to inoculate a 100 I bag.

Carboy Nutrient

F,- 1 ml per litre - diatom species only. F2-70ml per 20 litres. (3.5 ml per litre?)

Nutrient Recipes

F2 is mixed at a ratio of 40g per litre using DI (or RO/DI) freshwater.

F, Sodium Silicate at 30g/L DI freshwater

NaNO3 is made up in a solution of 7.5g/100ml DI freshwater

Disinfection

10 ml Sodium Hypochlorite per 20 L carboy (0.5 ml/L @ 10%-15% strength NaCIO) Dechlorinate with 3g Sodium Thiosulphate/20L-well mixed and bubbled for at least 10 mins.

Thanks. I am going have to start again I think. I think mine is dying.

 

[bradreef]

Thanks. I am going have to start again I think. I think mine is dying.

What is happening with it? You can try more fertilizer or more flow before you give up.

 

[lynn.reef.nerd]

Nanno is good start, but once you get good at culturing, I suggest going with Tetra and Iso. They are much more nutritious and utilize better by copepods.

 

[Boehmtown]

When you get into the pods, I like tisbe, very hearty. mine did better with lower flow and a dirty container and good water quality.

as for phyto this is a good listen

 

[tzabor10]

How is the farm going? Is there any improvement in your tank now that you have phyto and pods?

 

[Fytogrower]

Hey i like your setup! How many times do u guys harvest before cleaning the containers? If i dont clean the containers every 2-3 times there is gonne build up algae.

What do u guys think is the main cause from this algae building up? This time i cleaned the container 2 days ago and already starting building up algae…

 

[drukkosz]

One tip that was good for me was more flow. Every guide I read stated the flow should be just enough that I can count the bubbles but I would always crash after 2-3 harvests. I don’t clean my containers, I culture out of a glass jar with a spigot

I upped the flow quite a bit and it grows just as fast and hasn’t crashed in months. Just food for thought in case you may have some trouble with multiple harvests without going the super sterile way

I might need to try that. mine always crashes after few harvests even I clean everything with vinegar....