Does Isochrysis smell?

[LordJoshaeus]

Hi everyone! Here's an odd question...does Isochrysis (or other microalgae we deliberately culture) have a noticeable odor? I was going to culture Isochrysis in some bottles to feed some Parvocalanus cultures, and my mother is worried whether either culture will have an unpleasant smell (it already took a lot of convincing to get her to let me keep walter worms...thankfully they have very little odor due to my choice of instant potatoes as the medium). Thank you :)

 

[ichthyogeek]

This is based off of my experience with Rhodomonas and Dunaliella, but in general healthy cultures don't really have a smell to them. If anything they smell salty/like seawater, but that's about it.

What your mother should be instead concerned about, is adequate air flow in the fish space you're setting up, since if the air gets stale and the water doesn't get a water change, it may start smelling like a poorly maintained LFS.

 

[LordJoshaeus]

This is based off of my experience with Rhodomonas and Dunaliella, but in general healthy cultures don't really have a smell to them. If anything they smell salty/like seawater, but that's about it.

What your mother should be instead concerned about, is adequate air flow in the fish space you're setting up, since if the air gets stale and the water doesn't get a water change, it may start smelling like a poorly maintained LFS.

Hooray! I'm pretty good about weekly water changes (half of the algae cultures will be harvested each week, and each Parvocalanus culture will be restarted and receive an almost 100% WC every 2 weeks) and my room has a fan blowing into it at night, so neither of those should be issues.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Hooray! I'm pretty good about weekly water changes (half of the algae cultures will be harvested each week, and each Parvocalanus culture will be restarted and receive an almost 100% WC every 2 weeks) and my room has a fan blowing into it at night, so neither of those should be issues.

Well...just make sure your room properly airs out when you can (door and/or windows open). We'll keep it at "puberty stinks".

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Well...just make sure your room properly airs out when you can (door and/or windows open). We'll keep it at "puberty stinks".

My door is almost always open, so that shouldn't be a problem