Growing phyto

[Wolfinstien69]

I started culturing phyto a few months ago and it is going so well I have too much. I just recently started culturing Iso and it has gone well. The picture shown is a mix of Nano, Tetra, and Iso. Anyone interested in phyto? I may look into shipping options if people want it enough.

 

[DanyL]

Nice!
Would you mind sharing a picture of your setup?
It's a little tricky to get a starter colony where I live, but I've been thinking to start culturing pytho for quite some time now, I wonder how other hobbyists do it at home.

 

[Derrick0580]

Its actually very easy, fresh saltwater, buy and use dedicated equipment so u don’t cross contaminate. Clean everything religiously with 70% alcohol to sanitize. I buy mercer of montana starter culture and fertilizer from amazon.

 

[DanyL]

Thanks for the explanation, I appreciate it.
I'm specifically interested to see how people integrate it in a home environment, considering the space one could allocate for it is usually limited and it should be in a place where it's comfortable to work with on one hand, but also not too much "in your face"

As for Amazon - I really wish I could, it would've been too easy! Unfortunately they wouldn't ship abroad.
I do have a friend who works in a research facility of the Mediterranean Sea whomightm be able to help, or at least is what hope for.

 

[Wolfinstien69]

My setup is pretty simple. I use glass jars with a lid on top. In the lid is a small hole to ridged tubing which goes to the bottom. The lights on my jars are cheap grow lights I got on Ebay. They have a timer on them but I turn them on and off so they get longer lighting times (approx. 15 hours a day). I have found the phyto does need a lights out time period. If I accidently forget to turn off the lights, it slows down the overall darkening. The air pump is a cheap $15 pump I got on Amazon that goes to a valve splitter so I can adjust airflow. A lot of people say 1-3 bubbles a sec but mine is way higher and I have never had a problem. To clean the jars I DO NOT use alcohol. I use distilled vinegar. It works just as well but is much safer and doesn't dry out your hands. Everybody will have an opinion on this, but after a few dozen cultures I have never had a problem and I have never had a crash. The water is just RODI with reef salt in it. I mix it slightly lighter at around 1.020 as phyto doesn't need the higher salt so why spend the extra money?I culture for one week and then restart. My Nanna and Tetra culture came from Mercer of Montana which you can find on Ebay and Amazon. I got a kit from them which came with the F2 fertilizer. My Iso (brown jar) came from pod your reef and is currently on the 2nd culture so clearly it was live. Super easy to do and adds a lot of good "stuff" to your tank. I put about a gal of phyto into my 90 gal reef a week. I am dosing heavy because I have dinos and this is supposed to be a way to compete with them.

 

[DanyL]

Wow, thanks for detailed explanation, I'll take your points into account when I start my own culture.
I love the simplicity of your setup, this is very similar to what I had in mind.

I plan to feed a 206g tank with a very high bio load of both corals and fish, as well as a future 80g frag tank.
So around 2 to 3 gallons a week if I'm going by your heavy feeding schedule.
I also want to culture rotifers at some point, not sure how much pytho I'll need for this but probably not a lot.

How big are your jars?
How much pytho are you able to produce in a week with this setup?

 

[Wolfinstien69]

The big jar is a 1gal and the other is a 1/2 gal. After you take out the amount I save for the next culture and emergency backup (in case the next culture crashes), I have about 1.25gal. If you do start feeding your tank, start small. I would say a half gal a week at most and then slowly ramp up.

 

[DanyL]

I really appreciate your input, based on this I think I'm looking at two 5 liter (1.32 gal) containers to start with.
Is there any limitation to the size of the container?
Also, because I'm living in a quite hot country I'm worried about temperature swings, may I ask what is your ambient temperature in the room?

 

[Wolfinstien69]

There is no limit to the size of the container, you just need to add more starter to move the process faster. I use about 8oz of phyto starter in both my 1gal and my 1/2gal and the half gal gets darker faster. Whatever yo decided to do DO NOT use all of your culture to start a batch. You always save some in case the culture crashes.
As for temp I am sure there is an optimal temp at which they grow but everything I have read just says "room temp". My house is 65-68 in the winter and I have no problems with my culture. I have not cultured in the summer yet so I cant comment on house temps during that time. I would think various temps would either speed up or slow down the growth of the culture. My cultures run for 1 week and they are good. Hotter temps may only need 5 days, colder temps may need 10 days.

 

[DanyL]

Summer room temperatures here can go between 85f to 95f degrees when no air conditioning is on, so I probably need to think about a chiller or to somehow passively take advantage of the chiller I use to cool my tank.

Thank you again for answering my questions and sharing your tips and tricks, I appreciate it

 

[Wolfinstien69]

You may not need to cool the jars. I would try to culture them first and see what happens. Worst case is the culture dies and you need to buy new starter which not really expensive.

If you do decide to cool them, I have seen posts before where people will culture pods and they tend to like warmer temps but don't need light so they put jars of pods in a water bath that is warmed to 85. The bath is only a few inches deep and works quite well. You could do the same idea in reverse. Put the jars in a container and then add a few inches of water to the container. Then simply add ice to the container to cool the water which will in turn cool the jars. Super low tech so it may not be the best but it could work.

 

[DanyL]

As I mentioned earlier, getting a starter culture for me would be the most difficult step in the process, so I do want to maximize my ability to maintain a healthy culture as long as I possibly can.

The low tech cooling idea is great, but I'm afraid it would require too much daily attention to successfully maintain for a long period of time.
Instead what I had in mind was to use 2 long reactors placed inside my sump, completely separated from the water in the tank of course, but I'll need to find enough room for that and make it comfortable enough to work with.
Otherwise, I might end up building a small platier based heat exchanger though it'll require quite some work to get working properly, requiring the use of temperature sensors and a thermostat.

 

[AydenLincoln]

You are so far from me and shipping is worth it in my opinion especially with all the delays and cold weather!

 

[DanyL]

Cold weather is actually great to preserve phyto alive, as long as it is shaken at least once a day which would probably happen anyway during shipping.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Cold wether is actually great to preserve phyto alive, as long as it is shaken at least once a day which would probably happen anyway during shipping.

Oh true since they are a simple organism and thrive in all oceans. Corals and fish not so much lol!

 

[Wolfinstien69]

As stated the cold weather is really not a problem. I keep all my batches in the fridge until they go in the tank or into the vessel to make the next culture. As long as temps are not below freezing for long periods, the phyto should survive. Also, it doesn't have to be alive to use it, only to culture it. Most the big brands of phyto are dead.