Culturing and feeding Phytoplankton to Coral, Pods and Fish
- Thread starter Brad Miller
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Brad Miller
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After my 2nd culture split, it turned yellow.
I was being really anal and using vinegar to clean out everything and I think I may have overdone it
So I decided to replicate the PhytoTank idea of led lights and a bag now, but am still taking off leds (I put 4 wraps around the jars and am monitoring the temp rise of water as I do this to get it right)and am putting it on hold for a week or so to renovate my fish room.
I was being really anal and using vinegar to clean out everything and I think I may have overdone it
Hi Brad...I recently purchased the Phyto and Copepod farms from Poseidon reef systems. They have fantastic customer service and the products work as advertised. Ive done a lot of DIY on my tank but this time I decided to just get a kit and I'm glad I did. I had phyto in a week and have a strong colony of pods several weeks later. I know you can do this all DIY but every now and again I like to just get it done. This system comes with everything you need including cultures, fertilizers, and all the accessories. Very nice product and no cleanup.
So I decided to replicate the PhytoTank idea of led lights and a bag now, but am still taking off leds (I put 4 wraps around the jars and am monitoring the temp rise of water as I do this to get it right)and am putting it on hold for a week or so to renovate my fish room.
Will be interesting to see how those work. Too bad about the crash. Phyto can be a pain sometimes. Ive actually had one to very yellow and just left it running a couple weeks and it came back. Guess a little survived and recovered. And fwiw I didn’t put much effort into cleaning between splits. After emptying one set of bottles I may have run some hot water in them and shook it up to clean the sides. But that was it really.
AlgaeBarn
Marine Aquariums Made Easy!
Just a couple tips and tricks:
- To minimize culture crashes, you will need to sterilize/sanitize everything that touches the water, including the air.
- Be very careful for cyanobacteria. It can look fluorescent green and grows like phyto, but doesn't offer the same nutritional value. Pretty easy to contaminate your cultures with.
- Nanno is relatively easy to grow very dense, but not the most nutritious for our reef tanks. It does a good job scavenging nutrients however and does feed some of the filter feeders. It has a hard cell wall that can be hard for copepods to eat.
- Isochrysis, tetraselmis and certain diatoms are much better for copepod nutrition, but crash muchmore often if you are not investing the required time and you have invested thousands or tens of thousands in the equipment.
- Most of these strains will not reach the same apparent density as nannochloropsis (tetra is close), but its why OceanMagik doesn't look "ridiculously dark green". It's because we are mixing more more nutritious strains.
AlgaeBarn
Marine Aquariums Made Easy!
I wouldn't recommend drinking any phyto you culture on your own. Even if you separated out the saltwater. Without investing in the proper equipment, your culture can get contaminated with some nasties that you will not detect and could cause serious health issues. You can read up on some Microcystin that essentially destroy your liver that can contaminate spirulina cultures, and spirulina can often be grown in a way that prevents contaminates, but this one still survives.
mitch91175
2500 Club Member
Yeah I hope everyone know that you wouldn't want to actually drink it. I guess I should have not posted that, lol.
But you never know.
AlgaeBarn
Marine Aquariums Made Easy!
Yeah I hope everyone know that you wouldn't want to actually drink it. I guess I should have not posted that, lol.
But you never know.
I totally understand, we get the question regularly, and we don't want to be held liable
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Brad Miller
Valuable Member
Thanks for the info Mr. Algae Barn;Happy
Just a couple tips and tricks:
- To minimize culture crashes, you will need to sterilize/sanitize everything that touches the water, including the air.
- Be very careful for cyanobacteria. It can look fluorescent green and grows like phyto, but doesn't offer the same nutritional value. Pretty easy to contaminate your cultures with.
We will be releasing some products later in the year that will help those looking for large quantities of live phyto
- Nanno is relatively easy to grow very dense, but not the most nutritious for our reef tanks. It does a good job scavenging nutrients however and does feed some of the filter feeders. It has a hard cell wall that can be hard for copepods to eat.
- Isochrysis, tetraselmis and certain diatoms are much better for copepod nutrition, but crash muchmore often if you are not investing the required time and you have invested thousands or tens of thousands in the equipment.
- Most of these strains will not reach the same apparent density as nannochloropsis (tetra is close), but its why OceanMagik doesn't look "ridiculously dark green". It's because we are mixing more more nutritious strains.
For home stuff with air pumps and hose I know we can culture tet and iso, def doesn’t take thousands for small batches. But air sterilization. You talking in-line filters, a little carbon in the line maybe?
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Brad Miller
Valuable Member
I did learn about filtering my air, so I have barbed inline filters that are .023 micron rated..... evidently dust air regular house air will contaminate the culture.
AlgaeBarn
Marine Aquariums Made Easy!
There is lots of bacteria in the air!
AlgaeBarn
Marine Aquariums Made Easy!
Inline filters will help with air, but you also need to practice aseptic technique. Otherwise, you will likely need to regularly purchase starter cultures.
Not something I've heard of before, don't want to completely derail the thread, but as I'm restarting my cultures soon, and including more difficult ones, I wouldn't mind learning some more. Could you elaborate on what you mean regarding this "aseptic technique", or point me in the right direction for some readings? Thanks!
AlgaeBarn
Marine Aquariums Made Easy!
I can't give away all of our secrets, but here is a starting point:
This is where the equipment gets expensive.
Hmm, thanks. Yea I can't be bothered to be that anal about things. Having to reset with a new sample every so often would be a lot less of a pain.
Maybe I'll get a bit more nerdy by getting a microscope to track the cells, make sure they are still what they started as just to be sure. But I'm guessing most small batches I do could serve to be successful without this level of sanitation.
Maybe I'll get a bit more nerdy by getting a microscope to track the cells, make sure they are still what they started as just to be sure. But I'm guessing most small batches I do could serve to be successful without this level of sanitation.
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Brad Miller
Valuable Member
Update...
After a failure or two from trying to be too sterile, metal lids, too much heat from the leds etc...
I took the time to correct a few things.
I left plain water in my new “photoTank” impersonator jar and kept cutting off leds until I reached a constant 8*f difference between room temp and water temp (took quite a while)
I just started another culture and am expecting great things this time...(fingers crossed)
I bought bags to use inside the jar but forgot to use one this time...will incorporate that when I split this one in 7-10 days.
After a failure or two from trying to be too sterile, metal lids, too much heat from the leds etc...
I took the time to correct a few things.
I left plain water in my new “photoTank” impersonator jar and kept cutting off leds until I reached a constant 8*f difference between room temp and water temp (took quite a while)
I just started another culture and am expecting great things this time...(fingers crossed)
I bought bags to use inside the jar but forgot to use one this time...will incorporate that when I split this one in 7-10 days.
SDK
Reef Diver
Looks good and following! This is a subject I just recently started looking into with regards to breeding.
You probably either were a killifish keeper at one point or should have been. When I was heavily into them I loved the mad scientist aspect. I used to tell people that I was more in the hobby of raising live food than keeping fish lol..
You probably either were a killifish keeper at one point or should have been. When I was heavily into them I loved the mad scientist aspect. I used to tell people that I was more in the hobby of raising live food than keeping fish lol..
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Brad Miller
Valuable Member
My grandson (age 10) came into my fish room the other day, his eyes went wide open (along with his mouth)
He wants his mom to make him a fish room now.
I gave him last years copy of Coral Magazine on the topic of pico reef jars to read before we get him started on reefing.
He wants his mom to make him a fish room now.
I gave him last years copy of Coral Magazine on the topic of pico reef jars to read before we get him started on reefing.
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Brad Miller
Valuable Member
8 days culturing that one.
Harvested 8oz bottle.
Rinsed out everything in tap water and dried off.
Put the rest back in the jar and added an equivalent amount of 1.019 sg saltwater with 2 ml of F2 fertilizer, but am using a bag now for the culture like PhytoTank does.
Awhile ago I ordered a bunch of 6’ long 1/4” od, hard acrylic tubing, so I’m cutting new air entering and exhaust tubes, again, just like PhytoTank does to keep contamination to a minimum.
8 days from now, I hope I’m the proud father of a new batch of home brewed Phyto
Harvested 8oz bottle.
Rinsed out everything in tap water and dried off.
Put the rest back in the jar and added an equivalent amount of 1.019 sg saltwater with 2 ml of F2 fertilizer, but am using a bag now for the culture like PhytoTank does.
Awhile ago I ordered a bunch of 6’ long 1/4” od, hard acrylic tubing, so I’m cutting new air entering and exhaust tubes, again, just like PhytoTank does to keep contamination to a minimum.
8 days from now, I hope I’m the proud father of a new batch of home brewed Phyto
OP
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Brad Miller
Valuable Member
Batch turned yellow.
Called Mercer of Montana and David helped me with my problem.
Seems I was doing the 16 hour lighting schedule, but neglected to take into account the drop in culture temp from 78*f while culture light was on, to room temp during the lights off time of about 70*f.
David said that the nano isn’t dead, that this would decrease the metabolism and cause it to turn yellow.
He also said to just leave the lights on 24/7 as that’s not as important as keeping a stable 78*f, and to give it a shot of F2 and leave it go for a while, may pull through.
Trial and error...not loving it so much anymore
Called Mercer of Montana and David helped me with my problem.
Seems I was doing the 16 hour lighting schedule, but neglected to take into account the drop in culture temp from 78*f while culture light was on, to room temp during the lights off time of about 70*f.
David said that the nano isn’t dead, that this would decrease the metabolism and cause it to turn yellow.
He also said to just leave the lights on 24/7 as that’s not as important as keeping a stable 78*f, and to give it a shot of F2 and leave it go for a while, may pull through.
Trial and error...not loving it so much anymore
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