Phytoplankton culture question

Aiptaisia anemone

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My phytoplankton culture is growing film algae… is it contaminated should i restart? The culture is otherwise healthy though its growing slow.
 
Have you tried moving some of it to sterilized containers? Im sure the alage is blocking light
 
It's a sliding scale - you are very unlikely to have a perfectly pure culture at any point, including at arrival, so it's all about managing the contaminants. If there's a little film algae, maybe you can outpace its growth by using shorter grow cycles and switching to a new container more frequently. Maybe you're seeing a small amount of your algae build up on surfaces because the aeration/flow level could be higher. Maybe you've still got good production and would for a while, but the annoyance of cleaning up the film algae is enough for you to want to restart.

I think, generally, that resetting a culture from a good source when there's contamination is the right call in the long term, it can get tedious and expensive, so getting your culture to keep going with some contamination present may be a more practical solution until, for example, another starts to have an issue and then you don't have to pay for shipping twice for the fresh starter cultures.
 

WHAT’S USUALLY THE FIRST CLUE THAT SOMETHING IS OFF IN YOUR REEF?

  • A fish’s behavior or appetite changes

    Votes: 10 14.5%
  • A coral looks different or stops opening normally

    Votes: 43 62.3%
  • Water clarity or surface appearance changes

    Votes: 10 14.5%
  • Equipment sounds or flow seem different

    Votes: 7 10.1%
  • A test result catches my attention

    Votes: 14 20.3%
  • Algae or other growth starts changing

    Votes: 14 20.3%
  • I usually notice when the problem is already obvious

    Votes: 3 4.3%
  • It depends on what’s going on

    Votes: 13 18.8%
  • Other (Post in the comments)

    Votes: 1 1.4%
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