How to automate a phytoplankton culture

[Dreminon]

looks cool may have to try it out after my tank matures.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

10 weeks going without missing a bit so far

that’s how it looks without any maintenance

I’m about 4 days in and this is what it looks like. Copied your idea but modified it myself. I’m gonna have two final reactors the one that’s running now on the left will be dosing my tank the one that’s on the right that only has salt water in it right now will be dosing the 3 gallon pod container to the right of that that once a week I will be harvesting the pods approximately two of the 3 gallons will come out I will put 1 gallon of fresh water in and then for the week I will let it dose approximately 100 to 200 mL a day and every week harvest and repeat

 

[sixty_reefer]

I’m about 4 days in and this is what it looks like. Copied your idea but modified it myself. I’m gonna have two final reactors the one that’s running now on the left will be dosing my tank the one that’s on the right that only has salt water in it right now will be dosing the 3 gallon pod container to the right of that that once a week I will be harvesting the pods approximately two of the 3 gallons will come out I will put 1 gallon of fresh water in and then for the week I will let it dose approximately 100 to 200 mL a day and every week harvest and repeat

Your set up looks awesome sir, are you aware that you could automate the pod reactor if you going for rotifers?

Using the same ideology you could have the phytoplankton reactor dose the rotifers reactor and then from the rotifers reactor let it dose by gravity straight to the tank, I had it dosing 20ml of rotifers several times a day. A single dose looked like this in therms of quantity of rotifers

 

[Reefahholic]

This is what you need…a small setup like this.

Photo credit: Michael Kaiser

 

[mak5487]

This is what you need…a small setup like this.

Photo credit: Michael Kaiser

What is your maintenance routine?

 

[Reefahholic]

What is your maintenance routine?

Look above the pic above.

 

[GarrettT]

Found this in a book that I am reading.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Found this in a book that I am reading.

Sounds plausible, I have never experienced myself in my mind the only thing that could crash a culture would be rotifers, I have not seen many cultures crashing due to contamination either that goes for normal and continuous culturing.
Would be interesting on what folks got to say about contamination

 

[mak5487]

Look above the pic above.

Right. I was thinking how often the tanks get cleaned and with what...

 

[ShoreReefer]

This is a great thread, I tried culturing my own phyto last year but would forget about it and eventually would crash. This is be a great low maintenance alternate.

 

[sixty_reefer]

This is a great thread, I tried culturing my own phyto last year but would forget about it and eventually would crash. This is be a great low maintenance alternate.

I’m like that to, every now and den I forget to change the top up reservoir and only remind myself wend I notice the photoreactor level low.

 

[radiata]

sixty_reefer:​

Many thanks for your on-going research and for your support efforts in these threads! It is great to know that phyto cultures, when properly implemented, are capable of continuing for the long run. (For better or worse, my mind-set has usually been "set-it-and-forget-it.")

I've got a few minor questions...

Would you know if the Fauna Marin fittings that you use work with standard US plastic soda bottles? I'm asking because I'd guess that the Fauna Marin uses metric sizing. (You're forgiven if you don't know the answer.) I recollect that similar fittings are available here ~ I'll check my notes.

I'm going to try to get the "TNC complete Aquarium plant food" sent to me from your side of the pond. Please keep us in the loop if/when you find any better alternatives.

Earlier in this thread you posted a drawing with 3 dosers. One is from the phyto culture to the main system, one is from the fertilizer to the culture, and the other is from the 1.015 saltwater to the culture. Wouldn't it be easier just to spike the 1.015 SW with the fertilizer?

Again, many thanks...

 

[sixty_reefer]

sixty_reefer:​

Many thanks for your on-going research and for your support efforts in these threads! It is great to know that phyto cultures, when properly implemented, are capable of continuing for the long run. (For better or worse, my mind-set has usually been "set-it-and-forget-it.")

I've got a few minor questions...

Would you know if the Fauna Marin fittings that you use work with standard US plastic soda bottles? I'm asking because I'd guess that the Fauna Marin uses metric sizing. (You're forgiven if you don't know the answer.) I recollect that similar fittings are available here ~ I'll check my notes.

Hi there, @((FORDTECH)) was able to get similar fittings for the reactor, not sure if branded or unbranded, he may be able to help you on the fitting questions that he used in his photo reactor.

@((FORDTECH))

this is the most similar to NTC that I can find for now

tropica Plant growth specialised, is that available in the US?

1ml per 1litre

1ml per 25galloms

TNC complete for comparison

1ml per 1 litre

1ml per 25 gallons

I’m about 4 days in and this is what it looks like. Copied your idea but modified it myself. I’m gonna have two final reactors the one that’s running now on the left will be dosing my tank the one that’s on the right that only has salt water in it right now will be dosing the 3 gallon pod container to the right of that that once a week I will be harvesting the pods approximately two of the 3 gallons will come out I will put 1 gallon of fresh water in and then for the week I will let it dose approximately 100 to 200 mL a day and every week harvest and repeat

I'm going to try to get the "TNC complete Aquarium plant food" sent to me from your side of the pond. Please keep us in the loop if/when you find any better alternatives.

On the quote above me and @((FORDTECH)) discuss the comparison between TNC complete and tropica plant growth specialised (available in the US) that have very similar nutrient contents, once more maybe fordtech could add on his experience with this fertiliser

the main difference we found was that tropica contains Sulphur and less phosphates in comparison to TNC that could be beneficial to some bacteria in the system.

Earlier in this thread you posted a drawing with 3 dosers. One is from the phyto culture to the main system, one is from the fertilizer to the culture, and the other is from the 1.015 saltwater to the culture. Wouldn't it be easier just to spike the 1.015 SW with the fertilizer?

Again, many thanks...

I have not tried this before, in theory it should work, it may need some mixing gadget to ensure that the fertiliser stays well distributed in the top up water.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

sixty_reefer:​

Many thanks for your on-going research and for your support efforts in these threads! It is great to know that phyto cultures, when properly implemented, are capable of continuing for the long run. (For better or worse, my mind-set has usually been "set-it-and-forget-it.")

I've got a few minor questions...

Would you know if the Fauna Marin fittings that you use work with standard US plastic soda bottles? I'm asking because I'd guess that the Fauna Marin uses metric sizing. (You're forgiven if you don't know the answer.) I recollect that similar fittings are available here ~ I'll check my notes.

I'm going to try to get the "TNC complete Aquarium plant food" sent to me from your side of the pond. Please keep us in the loop if/when you find any better alternatives.

Earlier in this thread you posted a drawing with 3 dosers. One is from the phyto culture to the main system, one is from the fertilizer to the culture, and the other is from the 1.015 saltwater to the culture. Wouldn't it be easier just to spike the 1.015 SW with the fertilizer?

Again, many thanks...

So your answer your question about the Fauna Marin reactor yes it does come with an adapter to convert to United States breads are use normal to literal pop bottles from the grocery store. But let me tell you this that I have found the namebrand Sotos do not use a smooth bottle anymore at least in my city so I had to go to the dollar store to find generic 2 L pop bottles that are completely smooth.
No as far as TNC we did a little research and found the Tropicana product that when looking at the ingredients seems to be very similar to the TNC. I will tell you that I definitely recommend Tropicana the fertilizer works great I have never seen such a dark green Phytoplankton in my life. I am using 1 mL per liter of water so in my auto cultures with 2 L bottles they are getting 2 mL a week of the fertilizer from Tropicana and I 100% recommend it. I have been using fertilizer that came with the Poseidon reef system and it does not even compare not even close.
Here is another picture of my set up you can see unlike others who have done this I have used the cut off top of the pop bottle to keep contamination out of my cultures I believe this also keeps evaporation down so two reasons to put a top on it and not leave it open along with that in my picture you can see I use two fittings bulkhead style that are quarter inch the one coming in the top is my fresh salt water the one coming in at an angle at the top is my fertilizer you can see the color of the fluid in the line is a little green tinted then you can see my third bulkhead which is a half inch push fitting that I use as the output to my tank. Instead of using that third dose or which is not necessary I use the method of overfilling the vessel and whatever overflows goes into the tank. With that being said it was recommended to use some thing larger than four or 5 mm as the output because it will get clogged eventually so that’s why I used a half inch fitting but on the inside of the vessel I glued a small strip of tie strap to the whole opening as a strainer to not allow the K-1 media to go through the tube.
I know this is a lot if you have any questions just let me know

 

[((FORDTECH))]

sixty_reefer:​

Many thanks for your on-going research and for your support efforts in these threads! It is great to know that phyto cultures, when properly implemented, are capable of continuing for the long run. (For better or worse, my mind-set has usually been "set-it-and-forget-it.")

I've got a few minor questions...

Would you know if the Fauna Marin fittings that you use work with standard US plastic soda bottles? I'm asking because I'd guess that the Fauna Marin uses metric sizing. (You're forgiven if you don't know the answer.) I recollect that similar fittings are available here ~ I'll check my notes.

I'm going to try to get the "TNC complete Aquarium plant food" sent to me from your side of the pond. Please keep us in the loop if/when you find any better alternatives.

Earlier in this thread you posted a drawing with 3 dosers. One is from the phyto culture to the main system, one is from the fertilizer to the culture, and the other is from the 1.015 saltwater to the culture. Wouldn't it be easier just to spike the 1.015 SW with the fertilizer?

Again, many thanks...

As far as the Tropicana when I first ordered it I was not happy with the color that the fluid was because when I compare it to the website mine was a very dark green almost black in color and the website shows a very light green almost neon green. So I contacted the manufacturer and the manufacturer told me that that is an additive that they use just for color and then it reacts with the other stuff in the fertilizer sometimes changing the color and that the color does not determine the quality of the product and they assured me that the darker color was just as good as the lighter color and it was the dye that they use just to distinguish the different products. This is the response I got if your interested and wonder the same thing.

 

[GarrettT]

Seriously though…. How did you make holes on the side of that bottle??

 

[Garf]

I have not tried this before, in theory it should work, it may need some mixing gadget to ensure that the fertiliser stays well distributed in the top up water

You may well grow some funky stuff in the water which could crash your phyto. I’ve diluted F2 before with RODI 50% and weird stuff grew in it.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Seriously though…. How did you make holes on the side of that bottle??

After having the bottle cut in half I laid a 2 x 4 about 2 feet long on the table sticking it off the end of the table about 6 inches and put the bottle over the end of the 2 x 4 so had my flat surface flattening the round bottle on the 2 x 4 and then using an X-Acto knife very very carefully cutting without hurting myself be very careful when you do this it’s easy to slip. Obviously using a marker to draw a circle the size I needed to cut

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Seriously though…. How did you make holes on the side of that bottle??

I have done this before using a soldering iron as others have suggested but I do not recommend that because what it does is the portion that gets melted is not smooth it’s sort of bubbles it up and then does not seal as well with the bulkhead I end up having to use the X-Acto knife cutting the lip off if I use the soldering iron

 

[GarrettT]

What brings you in today? Well… I was cutting into a liter bottle with a knife, when….

Ahh… the things this hobby makes us do ; )