Growing green water and bugs

[CoralClasher]

It looks like you're crushing it for a first attempt. My first attempt failed miserably!

When you compare Day 1 to Today, I'm sure you can see the difference & you are infact growing phyto. The used filter floss & the fact that you started with tank water that already contained nutrients, combined with sunlight, has provided sufficient source materials for you to get this far. Well done.

The deep green comes from the ratio of dense phyto to water, fertilizer, sunlight & time. We're following the recipe pretty close although we're not using 1:1 water to phyto but 2:1. We split the culture every 7 days. We are trying to get to the end result of outdoor culturing a little quicker because we are feeding ~425 gallons (100ml / day), & buying dead cultures is expensive at this volume. So far, it's proven to be pretty successful.

When your F2 arrives, I would grab another 2L container, pull out that volume from our 10gal & add the required amount of fertilizer. Ideally you might have another 10gal tank or open plastic tub. Allow this to sit next to your current culture & take a picture around the same time every day. When your control starts to turn lighter, it has consumed all nutrients & you will need to add fertilizer. If your fertilized sample starts growing darker, than you'll know you're on the right track. Once it's deep green, pull out 2L & keep it in the fridge as a backup in the event the culture fails. It should last 30-45 days.

My $.02 anyway. I'm also very new to the culturing game but I have studied the topic a decent amount.

I pulled 2L out and added the f/2 on the 11th. I didn’t add any f/2 to the ten gallon tank. Here are some pictures now.

 

[creativeballance]

Nice to see that you are having great results. I'm moving my 10 gal outside tonight, I'm going to see how my results are - my culture crashed on me, probably because I didnt harvest soon enough.

Do you have any signs of contamination?

 

[CoralClasher]

Nice to see that you are having great results. I'm moving my 10 gal outside tonight, I'm going to see how my results are - my culture crashed on me, probably because I didnt harvest soon enough.

Do you have any signs of contamination?

I see bugs and stuff that blows in I just use a small net to skim the top. I started almost right away dosing it to my 120 and things are looking good so far.

 

[R.Weller]

That's fantastic. It's great to see the rewards after investing the time. I understand that feeling!

I would harvest some out & refrigerate. I've read that it will last 30 - 60 days, & will help ensure that you always have a strong culture to use as the seed for future batches to achieve results faster.

 

[CoralClasher]

That's fantastic. It's great to see the rewards after investing the time. I understand that feeling!

I would harvest some out & refrigerate. I've read that it will last 30 - 60 days, & will help ensure that you always have a strong culture to use as the seed for future batches to achieve results faster.

Yeah it’s a good feeling to see results. I have the green water going good but I’m still not seeing copepods. My indoor experiment is still green but not seeing bugs. I did add a bottle of tigger pods but I left a Molly in the indoor bug tank just to see if this water is toxic for fish. Should I pull the fish out of the indoor tank or don’t Molly’s eat bugs?

 

[CoralClasher]

I did start another bug experiment. Using all clean equipment and new water no tank water this time. Ten gallon tank with 2.5 gallons water small air pump and heater. A bottle of tigger pods and Phyto Feast. Does anyone know how much Phyto Feast I should start with and how much I should add twice daily?

 

[CoralClasher]

That's fantastic. It's great to see the rewards after investing the time. I understand that feeling!

I would harvest some out & refrigerate. I've read that it will last 30 - 60 days, & will help ensure that you always have a strong culture to use as the seed for future batches to achieve results faster.

Thank you for telling me to pull some out and refrigerate it. It got really hot and sunny here, when I got home from work the outside green water was at least 110 degrees oops someone forgot to block the sun in the middle of the day.

 

[creativeballance]

Thank you for telling me to pull some out and refrigerate it. It got really hot and sunny here, when I got home from work the outside green water was at least 110 degrees oops someone forgot to block the sun in the middle of the day.

Same happened to me...

 

[CoralClasher]

Update: outside experiment is growing green pretty good. The 55 gallon tank that I did 90% water change with green water has cleared up and growing macros nicely.