Minimum amount of phytoplankton I can culture

[mrlavalamp]

Containers just need to be tall enough.. wide/short containers lead to less CO2 exchange when bubbling and acclumulation of phyto at the bottom of container. This is why I use these 700ml tall water bottles - they are perfect in this respect..

VOSS Still Artesian Water Glass Bottle​

I bought a pair of those Voss containers the other day to replace my dosing containers.

I have never felt more pretentious buying a bottle of water.

 

[Borat]

I bought a pair of those Voss containers the other day to replace my dosing containers.

I have never felt more pretentious buying a bottle of water.

You are not buying the water - you are buying the bottle..

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

So maintaining the density at almost peak is not possible for long term? I resemble to remember a thread from an user here which was running a continuous system.. Nevertheless if I understood correctly if kept refrigerated nanno can last for more than a month so I would just need to keep in a mini fridge and keep filled with fresh stuff constantly right?

I think it would be difficult to maintain a culture at room temperature while dosing (or people would do it often). You would need to feed the phyto, so would likely be dosing fertilizer to your tank, sanitation would be an issue over time, and water quality of the phyto too--are my thoughts.

Feel free to try for sure!

But i think a method that has been shown to work is a batch process, grow a batch, refrigerate, dose, make another batch, refrigerate, dose again, etc. You can definitely use the last bit of a previous batch as a starter for the next batch, if you're clean, at least for a few generations.

 

[Kennya]

this mini-station cultures 1.5L of phyto every 7-10 days.... the cube is about 30cmx30cmx35cm so very compact...

That looks interesting, could do with building something similar myself. @Borat Would it be possible to share some more details on components and construction?

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

That looks interesting, could do with building something similar myself. Would it be possible to share some more details on components and construction?

Add some reflective surface to the interior to help splash proof (wood and moisture = mold) and to send more light back to the phyto.

 

[Borat]

Add some reflective surface to the interior to help splash proof (wood and moisture = mold) and to send more light back to the phyto.

Add some reflective surface to the interior to help splash proof (wood and moisture = mold) and to send more light back to the phyto.

Nice one! It's already there - just not visible in the pictures. A piece of plywood covered in foil reflecting the light back..

 

[Borat]

That looks interesting, could do with building something similar myself. Would it be possible to share some more details on components and construction?

It's a DIY led: 8 bridgelux 3W LEDs: 6 deep red and 2 royal blue mounted on aluminium heatsink, 20W 600ma led driver and Arctic F8 Fan blowing air from outsaide of the enclosure via a drilled hole

 

[Kennya]

It's a DIY led: 8 bridgelux 3W LEDs: 6 deep red and 2 royal blue mounted on aluminium heatsink, 20W 600ma led driver and Arctic F8 Fan blowing air from outsaide of the enclosure via a drilled hole

Thats great thanks for the info

 

[Borat]

There is a top cover as well that's loose..

Advice on air pumps: you can always buy a single powerful air pump and have air supply split, however you will have the following problem:

- it will be noisy and the noise from airpump will not be from the pump itself but from bubbles that it produces
-you will have to use the splitter and will need to adjust the flow rate to each bottle in order to ensure they all get equal amount of it..
- where air is blown through water there is evaporation - the problem is that inevitanbly over a couple of weeks one of the bottles will get a bit more air than others. As it gets more air - it will evaportates faster. As it evaportates faster - it gets more air (as water level drops and pressure drops as well).. so it becomes vicious circle ending with one bottle getting the most air and others not enough
- best to have a separate air pump for each bottle, those little pumps I have are silent, they are not very powerful but are ok for small bottles

 

[Borat]

This bottle holder ensures bottles stay upright - my own invention!

 

[Borat]

There is a top cover as well that's loose..

Advice on air pumps: you can always buy a single powerful air pump and have air supply split, however you will have the following problem:

- it will be noisy and the noise from airpump will not be from the pump itself but from bubbles that it produces
-you will have to use the splitter and will need to adjust the flow rate to each bottle in order to ensure they all get equal amount of it..
- where air is blown through water there is evaporation - the problem is that inevitanbly over a couple of weeks one of the bottles will get a bit more air than others. As it gets more air - it will evaportates faster. As it evaportates faster - it gets more air (as water level drops and pressure drops as well).. so it becomes vicious circle ending with one bottle getting the most air and others not enough
- best to have a separate air pump for each bottle, those little pumps I have are silent, they are not very powerful but are ok for small bottles

The lack of air is the most common reason for culture crush..

 

[Borat]

Having fan serves 2 purposes: it keeps the culture at a relatively stable temperature and it keeps the heatsink cool thereby prolonging the led lifetime..

 

[Borat]

Heatsink would get 50C-60C hot in the absence of fan..

With the fan it's a mere 30C-35C (cold on touch)..

 

[Borat]

My current culture (Tetraselmis) has been running since January this year.. I use Florida Aqua farm disks to start the culture (best way to do it!).

 

[Kennya]

My current culture (Tetraselmis) has been running since January this year.. I use Florida Aqua farm disks to start the culture (best way to do it!).

Really great useful information you've provided in these posts. Thank you so much

 

[Borat]

I store culture in wisky/cognac bottles in the fridge and add it to the tank every morning and evening (typically when feeding fish). For my 100 gallon tank I add about 200ml a day..

 

[Borat]

Ideally you have multiple small bottles (rather than 1 large one): every now on one of the cultures may decide it had enough of it and bail out... When you notice a culture that's not strongly green - cull it! Don't hope it will recover, because it won't!.

Whenever I see signs of weak culture (not dense enough or having a yellow tint), I drain it down the sink and use on of other bottles to restart. With 3 bottles running (even very small) - you should almost be immune to culture crush..

Over the last 9 months I only culled weak culture twice (one bottle out of three at a time)...

 

[Borat]

My tanks is very healthy - 100's of yellow sponges everywhere and lots of tube worms! I treat dosing phyto as dosing micro-food for corals: small critters eat phyto and in turn those critters become food for corals

 

[Kennya]

My tanks is very healthy - 100's of yellow sponges everywhere and lots of tube worms! I treat dosing phyto as dosing micro-food for corals: small critters eat phyto and in turn those critters become food for corals

Well it certainly seems to be working!!

 

[ffmurray]

looks good. make sure there is some bubbling going on. For plastic sanitizing, i use this stuff: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Star-San-N...w-Beer-Wine-Food-Grade-Sanitize-/291685791752

Anyone have a problem with using star San for sterilizing? I do a ton of home brewing and it’s the leader as far as sterilization.