Is it possible to build a self-sustaining pod/phytoplankton culture?

shiftline · May 7, 2018

I'm convinced it is possible and have started a series of experiments to find out that magical combination!

So why would you want to do this? Well, Phytoplankton is the base food of the ocean.. it feeds your copepods.. which intern feeds your fish and coral.. Self-sustaining live food? yes, please!

Now ideally iI want to do this all in one reactor but will split it into two if need be.
My first question.. Can the culture be feed from tank water? If yes .. step one is golden.
If no.. then I will either have to pull form new saltwater or push it through a UV sterilizer first. (should do the trick)...

The next question.. Is there enough nutrients in tank water or will I need some f2 on a doser?

This will be a fun project! If you have done something similar i would love to hear your feedback.

Rispa · May 9, 2018

I not experienced in this, but I'm very intersted in knowimg as well. I'm Thimphu before I get any of the hard to keep fish I want I be getting growing all or most of the live food types and if your methods here show some success I'd love to give them a go.

revhtree · May 9, 2018

Cool thanks for sharing!

Kayvon · May 9, 2018

Dev, if you get this working you'd better patent it!

chris85 · May 9, 2018

I think you will be fine except for cross contamination of the phytoplankton. If you use tank water you may run into a problem with something like hair algae taking over the phyto culture. You could probably get away with using the tank water for the pods but I would use sterilized seawater for the phyto and let that drip into the pods then let the pods go over the over flow and into the tank. Just my opinion and looking forward to seeing what you come up with!! Let me know if I can help.

sundog101 · May 9, 2018

Following!

MrsBugmaster · May 10, 2018

Following

steveaus10 · May 10, 2018

following

KenO · May 10, 2018

Following

George Lopez · May 10, 2018

I hope this works...

Ruben's Reef · May 10, 2018

Following >>>>>>>

Moo76 · May 10, 2018

following - will be quit an interesting plumbing project

salty joe · May 10, 2018

A possible way to dose the reactor with tank water is a peristaltic pump driven by a stepper motor that's controlled with an Arduino. I think using UV would be a must.
I haven't figured out a way to let the reactor spill the dosage amount into the tank without contaminating the culture, there must be a way.

salty joe · May 10, 2018

triple post-I'll need to sign in first from now on...

salty joe · May 10, 2018

double post, sorry

salty joe · May 10, 2018

Quadruple post...jk

Or skip the stepper and use a regular peristaltic pump controlled with Arduino.
If it turned out there were not enough nutrients in the tank water, another peristaltic pump could dose fertilizer.

C.bldwn · May 10, 2018

shiftline said:
I'm convinced it is possible and have started a series of experiments to find out that magical combination!

So why would you want to do this? Well, Phytoplankton is the base food of the ocean.. it feeds your copepods.. which intern feeds your fish and coral.. Self-sustaining live food? yes, please!

Now ideally iI want to do this all in one reactor but will split it into two if need be.
My first question.. Can the culture be feed from tank water? If yes .. step one is golden.
If no.. then I will either have to pull form new saltwater or push it through a UV sterilizer first. (should do the trick)...

The next question.. Is there enough nutrients in tank water or will I need some f2 on a doser?

This will be a fun project! If you have done something similar i would love to hear your feedback.

There are a couple of companies that have tried bringing some phyto reactors to market and I was following the green box but could never find any more information about wether it ever made it to market. I started experimenting with making my own magnetic stirer to make something similar but had issues with bacterial blooms from the unsteralized aquarium water, I never got around to trying it with a UV steralizer on the intake as I didn’t have the space for one. I figured that considering the basterial bloom pretty much happened overnight that’s probably why the other 2 phyto reactors don’t seem to have made it to market.

shiftline · May 11, 2018

For for a mini update.

I’m sure a cheap 10w UV is will plenty since we are slowly adding water via an aqualifer which will give it a lot of contact time.

Some of The phyto was settling at the bottom due to my air line being to high above the bottom. Off to get a slight longer tube tomorrow to remedy that that. The phyto is getting a little light so I may add some f2 to kick start it then once it darkens up I’ll start adding the tank water daily via the aqualifter. On the one side it’s full of pods! So it may be lightning from the pods eating it. So getting a nice dark culture is keys to this working.

I love the mad scientist experiments.

George Lopez · May 11, 2018

Habe you thought of maybe putting one of the large air stones at the bottom? Like the kind people use to make bubble walls.

mucky1957 · May 11, 2018

All I use are 3 x 2lt bottles, a 10wt lamp and an air pump. The bottles are cleaned every 10 days when the the phyto culture is ready to use. Below is my 'cheat sheet' that I have sent out to a lot of fellow reefers. No one has complained...so far.
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Phytoplankton

to start with you need a bottle of phyto and some f2 fertilizer. I bought mine from Andrew Clark( go on Face Book and go to the ReefBoost site ). You then need to get an led light unit, an air pump, some flexible air hose and lots of empty plastic bottles..1tr and 2 lt

You also need some salt water and plain ro

all I did was add the litre of phyto to a 2 lt bottle....then in an empty 1lt bottle I added about 70% of salt water and 30% of ro...you need to get the water down to 1.018 or 1.019. Add 1ml of the f2 to the 1lt of water and mix and then add it to the original bottle that has the phyto

so you have a 2lt bottle with the phyto, the mixed salt water / ro and the f2.

cut a hole in the top of the 2 lt bottle to feed the air hose thru it into the bottle. Make a second small hole to allow the air to escape. Push the hose down to the bottom of the bottle and then fix the other end to the airpump. The airpump needs to be running 24/7.

I was told that you could grow the phyto on a window sill but it would be better using an led light..which is what I did. I have the led on a time switch so it is on for 16 hrs and off for 8. You need to have a good flow of bubbles in the bottle to agitate the mix. I am told that it takes about 8 - 10 days to let the f2 mix properly.

at that point you can then split the 2lt bottle so that you keep 1lt for your tank and then use the other 1 lt to make more....same thing again. Make up 1lt of 1.018 water and add 1ml of f2 fertilizer. add to the original bottle and off you go again.

NOTES

Turn skimmer off when adding phyto

Add phyto when lights are brightest each day

Phyto does NOT increase nitrate but it will leave some crap on the glass. I use my magnet cleaner daily.

Keep unused phyto in the fridge. Always shake the bottle before use…just look at the bottom of the bottle

Copepods.

If you have the light and pump (as above) then we are good to go. If not..then I would advise you get one of each.

Get an empty pop bottle .. I use a 2lt..and add some salt water. You can use as much or as little as you like. I use about 1 ½ lt.

Before adding the pods to the water check the salinity with a refractometer. The ones I bought had a reading of 1.030. If the reading is less or more than your salt water then either distil or add water over a period of time to bring it up to the desired level. Once they are the same chuck all the pods into the bottle.

Now..pods need feeding…I have been using my phyto ( as in the phyto above ) and it has worked very well. I add about 25ml every other day or so. That’s why I only start with 1 ½ lt in the bottle. There is now a pods reef boost max on offer from Andrew Clarke in Stockport. I cannot comment on how good it works as I have only just bought some although a lot of people have posted very positive comments. Supposedly the pods multiply every 6 – 8 days or so.

The pods will survive in this mix for a long time so you don’t need to worry about them dying out.

When you want to add pods to the tank simply remove an amount from the bottle. Then top the bottle up with the salt water..and off we go again. Just remember to keep feeding.