Feeding rotifers

Feltman · Oct 28, 2016

I'm a firm beleiver in automating everything. so my question is what type of auto feeder do u guys have for phyto to feed ur rotifers? do u just use gravity dripper or do u guys use actual dosing pumps?

jsker · Oct 28, 2016

Hmmmmm any Ideas #reefsquad

saltyfilmfolks · Oct 28, 2016

I don't feed them but nps labs that I've seen in researching do use dosers.

Edit. I opted to not use a doser as I think my time is better spent not constantly cleaning the Doser and replacing tubes.

Feltman · Oct 28, 2016

saltyfilmfolks said:
I don't feed them but nps labs that I've seen in researching do use dosers.

Edit. I opted to not use a doser as I think my time is better spent not constantly cleaning the Doser and replacing tubes.

U don't feed ur rotifers cultures at all?

saltyfilmfolks · Oct 28, 2016

No I do it manually.
Same for feeding tanks.

Brain cramp there I guess. Sorry.

The downside of using the doser is clean up of the equipment. I found no quick efficient way to do it.
I prefer to just put the bottle back in the fridge.

Most of my research on the topic comes from nps coral feeding and a love for nps bivalves.

arichard · Oct 29, 2016

Dosing or peristaltic pumps are the way to go. Feeds out your phyto mix over time which allows the rotifers to eat the phyto as it comes in vs. dumping a whole bunch, having them eat some and the rest settle out. It's the same idea of doing multiple small feedings to your tank instead of feeding them all at once. Feed is more efficiently used by the rots. I've used it to feed cultures and similarly to feed out to larval tanks. Wouldn't do it any other way.

Feltman · Oct 30, 2016

arichard said:
Dosing or peristaltic pumps are the way to go. Feeds out your phyto mix over time which allows the rotifers to eat the phyto as it comes in vs. dumping a whole bunch, having them eat some and the rest settle out. It's the same idea of doing multiple small feedings to your tank instead of feeding them all at once. Feed is more efficiently used by the rots. I've used it to feed cultures and similarly to feed out to larval tanks. Wouldn't do it any other way.

Do u have any pictures of ur setup?

arichard · Oct 30, 2016

Feltman said:
Do u have any pictures of ur setup?

Don't have any pictures unfortunately. It was a setup we used at school. The gist of it is we had a glass carboy/beaker where we mixed the phyto and seawater in, vigorously aerated the carboy and stored it on ice. We had a peristaltic pump with tubing running from the carboy to the rotifer tank. The pump was hooked up to a digital timer and ran the pump a minute or two every hour over the course day until the carboy was completely empty. By the time the carboy was empty it was time to count the rotifer tanks, harvest and mix up feed for that day.

saltyfilmfolks · Oct 30, 2016

arichard said:
Don't have any pictures unfortunately. It was a setup we used at school. The gist of it is we had a glass carboy/beaker where we mixed the phyto and seawater in, vigorously aerated the carboy and stored it on ice. We had a peristaltic pump with tubing running from the carboy to the rotifer tank. The pump was hooked up to a digital timer and ran the pump a minute or two every hour over the course day until the carboy was completely empty. By the time the carboy was empty it was time to count the rotifer tanks, harvest and mix up feed for that day.

how do you maintain the gear? what do you use for cleaning?

arichard · Oct 30, 2016

We would clean the lines 1-2 times a week. Generally took about 30 minutes to do from start to finish. May have even been a bit overkill but it never led to a crash of the rotifer cultures. First made sure the lines aren't in the rotifer tank. Then disconnected the tubing before the pump and after the pump and flushed the lines with water from the hose. Reconnected the lines to the pump, then mixed a carboy with a bleach solution and turned the pump on and ran it until the carboy was empty. Rinsed the carboy with hose water. Next mixed a carboy of water and sodium thiosulfate to neutralize the bleach (filling the carboy with freshwater or seawater probably be sufficient but we had plenty of thiosulfate available). Then rinsed the carboy filled it with seawater and ran seawater through the lines. Then the lines were ready to start feeding the carboy with feed. Like I said, probably overkill but never had it negatively impact the culture so we went with it.

saltyfilmfolks · Oct 30, 2016

arichard said:
We would clean the lines 1-2 times a week. Generally took about 30 minutes to do from start to finish. May have even been a bit overkill but it never led to a crash of the rotifer cultures. First made sure the lines aren't in the rotifer tank. Then disconnected the tubing before the pump and after the pump and flushed the lines with water from the hose. Reconnected the lines to the pump, then mixed a carboy with a bleach solution and turned the pump on and ran it until the carboy was empty. Rinsed the carboy with hose water. Next mixed a carboy of water and sodium thiosulfate to neutralize the bleach (filling the carboy with freshwater or seawater probably be sufficient but we had plenty of thiosulfate available). Then rinsed the carboy filled it with seawater and ran seawater through the lines. Then the lines were ready to start feeding the carboy with feed. Like I said, probably overkill but never had it negatively impact the culture so we went with it.

Thank you!