Phyto culture - colors?

[kilnakorr]

I just started som phyto cultures, just for fun.
The first two pictures is the same culture, new and about 4 - 5 days old.

I just started this one up, and its much more yellow/green:

Comparing the two cultures:

The light might be a little more blue/higher kelvin, but I still find the difference remarkable.

Could it be different strains, or maybe one isn't phyto at all but some other micro algae?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’ve seen green, yellow and brown

 

[kilnakorr]

I’ve seen green, yellow and brown

It is mostly the blue color I'm wondering about.
I don't want to add funky stuff to my tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

It is mostly the blue color I'm wondering about.
I don't want to add funky stuff to my tank.

It happens based on amount of light and chlorophyll it gets.
Blue indicates calcium carbonate presence and other phones causing a bloom in coloration

 

[kilnakorr]

It happens based on amount of light and chlorophyll it gets.
Blue indicates calcium carbonate presence and other phones causing a bloom in coloration

So the new yellow/green will turn the same color. Same water will be used so should turn same color if its calcium carbonate levels that triggers this color.

 

[vetteguy53081]

So the new yellow/green will turn the same color. Same water will be used so should turn same color if its calcium carbonate levels that triggers this color.

Possibly yes

 

[kilnakorr]

Possibly yes

Thanks for the info.
It might be different strains also.

Hopefully, I can get a better setup done this weekend with other lighting so it will be easier to compare.

 

[fryman]

Um..there are yellow species of phyto but I doubt that's what you have. Where did you get it? What species are they supposed to be?

Most common species cultured in the hobby are nannochloropsus and tetraselmis which are a bright green. They will not turn yellow unless they crash (die). Isochrysis galbana/ tisocrysis lutea is golden brown. Thalassiosira is a diatom that is yellow but doesn't grow well in a bioreactor. There are all kinds of colors incl. brown, yellow and red phyto species but uncommon and usually hard to grow.

Going by eye is not reliable but to me the blue-green one looks like synechococcus and the yellow one looks crashed, basically some random bacteria.

 

[kilnakorr]

Um..there are yellow species of phyto but I doubt that's what you have. Where did you get it? What species are they supposed to be?

Most common species cultured in the hobby are nannochloropsus and tetraselmis which are a bright green. They will not turn yellow unless they crash (die). Isochrysis galbana/ tisocrysis lutea is golden brown. Thalassiosira is a diatom that is yellow but doesn't grow well in a bioreactor. There are all kinds of colors incl. brown, yellow and red phyto species but uncommon and usually hard to grow.

Going by eye is not reliable but to me the blue-green one looks like synechococcus and the yellow one looks crashed, basically some random bacteria.

The blueish might be due to the light.
I got this from a fellow reefer.
The yellow was store bought, and definetely dead. Turned white within 24 hrs.
I got some more coming from a phyto store, so hopefully I can compare and get a real culture going as I don't trust any of these cultures to be nanno.

 

[kilnakorr]

New phyto looks a lot better.
Nice and green. I hope I can make it grow a nice dark green color, but guess time will tell.

 

[fryman]

New phyto looks a lot better.
Nice and green. I hope I can make it grow a nice dark green color, but guess time will tell.

That looks good to me.

If you're just doing this for fun/experimenting prolly doesn't matter much but if you get into it proper phyto culturing really requires a microscope. Even a cheap one will work.

 

[fishface NJ]

That looks good to me.

If you're just doing this for fun/experimenting prolly doesn't matter much but if you get into it proper phyto culturing really requires a microscope. Even a cheap one will work.

I don't know much about culturing phyto. Can you explain why one needs the microscope?

 

[kilnakorr]

That looks good to me.

If you're just doing this for fun/experimenting prolly doesn't matter much but if you get into it proper phyto culturing really requires a microscope. Even a cheap one will work.

I do have a microscope, so could check the solution to confirm it's nanno, but bought from a popular phyto/zooplankton store so I'm not to worried.

 

[fryman]

I don't know much about culturing phyto. Can you explain why one needs the microscope?

Because many micro-organisms look the same to the naked eye (basically colored water). For example, tetraselmis, nannochloropsis, and synnechoccus all look like green water but are very different nutritionally. Nanno and tetra are phytoplankton and synnechococcus is cyanobacteria. Synnechocochus is in all our reef tanks and will easily take over a phyto culture if it gets the chance.

 

[kilnakorr]

Not sure if anyone is interested, but thought I'd keep the thread updated for a little while. I find plenty of threads misding 'the end'.

The new phyto has gotten darker after the first day. Yesterday on top, today bottom:

Seems that even though I wiped and sterilized both containers, the left one has some hard to remove stuff in the bottom. Not sure if it will contaminate the culture in the near future.

 

[fishface NJ]

Thank you for the update. I hope you continue.

 

[Reef.]

Loving your setup, looks so organised and clean!

You haven’t do a write up on the setup by any chance or a link to the method you followed?

 

[kilnakorr]

Loving your setup, looks so organised and clean!

You haven’t do a write up on the setup by any chance or a link to the method you followed?

It's just a cupboard with a shelf. Bought 2 light fixtures that should have fit perfectly, but the length didn't include the 1,5" plug from the wire, so I cut holes for these.
If you need any details, just let me know.

 

[kilnakorr]

Well, seems I still have some issues and can't really figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Today is lighter in color than yesterday.
It seems I can get growth the first day, but then it declines.
Anyone with some ideas?

 

[fryman]

Well, seems I still have some issues and can't really figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Today is lighter in color than yesterday.
It seems I can get growth the first day, but then it declines.
Anyone with some ideas?

Sorry to hear it, that sucks. The cultures look about to crash honestly. I will try to offer suggestions but keep in mind I'm mostly guessing based on my experience. I'm just a fellow hobbyist like yourself, not an expert.

Where did you get your f/2, and how much did you add? If you don't use enough fertilizer the culture can run out and turn yellow. But usually in my experience not so quickly. If you used the recommended amount of f/2 then running out in 48 hours doesn't make alot of sense to me.

Contamination is another possibility but again, it's odd to happen so fast. Usually when setting up a new system with new equipment contamination isn't an issue. Contamination is my biggest problem long-term, but not at first and you have a brand new setup so I wouldn't expect that particular issue to pop up. Did you use rodi water for your salt mix? Hopefully you didn't use old tank water or anything like that?

I will say that your 24 hour growth was very surprising to me - phyto can grow fast but that's really, really fast growth for the first 24 hours in a brand new setup. Usually phyto takes a couple days to get used to a new bioreactor, at least in my experience - and then growth explodes after it's more acclimated.

Is this nanno? I recommend looking under a microscope to see if there is contamination, or if the cells look funny in any way.

I've attached a pic of some of my nanno for reference. I recommend looking for contamination - basically anything that doesn't look like the nanno. Big cells moving fast like ciliates or very small cells like bacteria. Anything that doesn't look like this, basically.