Pods & Phyto: Rate My Setup & Process

[ebeltran]

I was recently looking to get a batch of pods to reup my population for my wrasses and dragonets, and was frustrated by not only the price but the hassle of procuring them. You can pay an arm and leg online, and they might arrive dead. Or you can try to buy locally (if you're in a big enough market) but then you're driving all over the place, and still paying more than they're worth (as far as I'm concerned).

So I decided I wanted to culture my own. But in order to do that, you need a constant supply of phyto, which has the exact same issues as buying pods. I had cultured phyto in the past with some success, but found it to be more work than it was worth: lighting, temps, workspace, cleanliness all seemed at odds, so I gave up. But I wanted to do it now, and do it right, and do it long term. So I went to amazon to see how I could get around the aforementioned issues, and generally make the process easier to keep at over time. I think I found the solution:

This thing wasn't cheap, but it keeps my footprint small, with space for a light underneath (which gets me back into the laundry room where my water and utility sink are) and it keeps my process self contained: I pull phyto from the bottom container to feed the pods when necessary, as well as harvest when the batch is cooked, and I pull pods once a week through the 50 micron net, and recycle the water back into the pods container. I water change the pods bi-monthly, and the phyto whenever it crashes. Both cultures share a light source and pump, so it only take up two outlets. So far, this is an S-tier setup as far as I'm concerned, and I wanted to share. I'm also interested if anyone sees any issues with setup or process.

Here's the container on amazon

 

[Jmp998]

I like the general concept so much I want to imitate it even though I don’t really need it.

What are you using for the light?

Are you limiting yourself to a single species of each pods and phyto? That is the main reason I have not tried to culture my own, I like the idea of dosing multiple species which means more containers.

 

[ebeltran]

I like the general concept so much I want to imitate it even though I don’t really need it.

What are you using for the light?

Are you limiting yourself to a single species of each pods and phyto? That is the main reason I have not tried to culture my own, I like the idea of dosing multiple species which means more containers.

Light is a cheapo nicrew from amazon, and its total overkill. You could likely go much cheaper here, but I had it lying around from a defunct micro-tank experiment.

Pods and phyto both started out as mixed species. Pods are tisbe and tigriopus, phyto is Nano, Iso, Tet, and Thal (both from algae barn). My guess is they are both slowly devolving into monocultures, though I don't have a great reason to suspect that. If you were really concerned, you could always reseed these cultures two or three times a year and still save hundreds of dollars. I may do this once a year, just to see the difference.

 

[JillB]

I was recently looking to get a batch of pods to reup my population for my wrasses and dragonets, and was frustrated by not only the price but the hassle of procuring them. You can pay an arm and leg online, and they might arrive dead. Or you can try to buy locally (if you're in a big enough market) but then you're driving all over the place, and still paying more than they're worth (as far as I'm concerned).

So I decided I wanted to culture my own. But in order to do that, you need a constant supply of phyto, which has the exact same issues as buying pods. I had cultured phyto in the past with some success, but found it to be more work than it was worth: lighting, temps, workspace, cleanliness all seemed at odds, so I gave up. But I wanted to do it now, and do it right, and do it long term. So I went to amazon to see how I could get around the aforementioned issues, and generally make the process easier to keep at over time. I think I found the solution:

This thing wasn't cheap, but it keeps my footprint small, with space for a light underneath (which gets me back into the laundry room where my water and utility sink are) and it keeps my process self contained: I pull phyto from the bottom container to feed the pods when necessary, as well as harvest when the batch is cooked, and I pull pods once a week through the 50 micron net, and recycle the water back into the pods container. I water change the pods bi-monthly, and the phyto whenever it crashes. Both cultures share a light source and pump, so it only take up two outlets. So far, this is an S-tier setup as far as I'm concerned, and I wanted to share. I'm also interested if anyone sees any issues with setup or process.

Here's the container on amazon

Could you send an Amazon link for this? Thanks!

 

[strich]

Looks great!
I've always wanted to see if it were possible to create one of those never ending soups but phyto. In my head it works by simply using up a good amount of the phyto at a constant rate into the tank and rigging up an ATO that pulls water from the tank. The hope would be that with constant mature water coming into it, they stay healthy and don't crash.
The next step would be to do the same with pods except they ATO from the phyto!