T-isochrysis vs rhodomonas

[saltyfish24]

I started culturing Tetraselmis 5 months ago and I've managed to keep the culture going from a bottle I brought from TSA. I'd like to start culturing tisbe copepods, and I was afraid that Tetraselmis isn't small enough for baby copepods. I also wanted another phyto that would compliment the Tetraselmis in terms of nutrition for both copepods and reef tank.

Would Tisochrysis or Rhodomonas or Nannochloropsis be easier to culture and complement my existing tetraselmis? I don't want too big of a phyto operation, so I'm hoping to just add one more to my routine and no more. Looking for easy logevity, although I understand something will get contaminated at some point and I might have to start over.

 

[afboundguy]

Nanno would be the easiest of the three but IMO not worth it since you already have a green (tetra). Between the other two T-iso is easier to culture in my experience. I have to reset my Rhod Salina culture every few months as it is super sensitive if you don't sterilize.

I actually feed my Tisbe pods just Thalassiosira weissfloggii to them with great success. Thal is a diatom strain so you would need to add silicates to get it to grow properly.

 

[saltyfish24]

Nanno would be the easiest of the three but IMO not worth it since you already have a green (tetra). Between the other two T-iso is easier to culture in my experience. I have to reset my Rhod Salina culture every few months as it is super sensitive if you don't sterilize.

I actually feed my Tisbe pods just Thalassiosira weissfloggii to them with great success. Thal is a diatom strain so you would need to add silicates to get it to grow properly.

Thanks, that's a new one for me. I didn't know about (copy paste Thalassiosira weissfloggii). How's this diatom relative to tetraselmis in terms of ease of culturing? I've been getting away with being pretty relaxed about my sterile routine with tetraselmis.

Can you recommend a place to get my first Thalassiosira weissfloggii sample?

 

[Louis Z]

T-iso can be finnicky starting out . Rhodomonas on my to do list . Would like to culture sea urchins . There is a preference of temperature in growing rhodomonas . I just can’t remember. I think I saw that about that in a macna YouTube video . Nano grows the easiest .

 

[afboundguy]

T-iso can be finnicky starting out . Rhodomonas on my to do list . Would like to culture sea urchins . There is a preference of temperature in growing rhodomonas . I just can’t remember. I think I saw that about that in a macna YouTube video . Nano grows the easiest .

I have grown Rhod Salina in 70-75 down to 55-60 in my basement with no issues. In the winter I wait to harvest a few more days.

 

[afboundguy]

Thanks, that's a new one for me. I didn't know about (copy paste Thalassiosira weissfloggii). How's this diatom relative to tetraselmis in terms of ease of culturing? I've been getting away with being pretty relaxed about my sterile routine with tetraselmis.

Can you recommend a place to get my first Thalassiosira weissfloggii sample?

I would say it's similar to T-iso (maybe a little easier) and easier than Rhod Salina. @Reef By Steele and Reef Legends both normally have Thal for sale and I know Reef Legends also sells liquid silicate that is needed for the culture.

 

[Stephers]

I would agree that if you're only looking to add one more, for pods specifically, I would probably do a diatom. The pods love diatoms. I do phaeodactylum tricornutum, but the Thalassiosira is just as good.

I guess I'm an outlier on the T-Iso vs. Rhodomonas debate. I find Rhodomonas so much easier. I've been culturing it for years and it has been never contaminated. T-Iso just needs me to look at it too long for it to get some green phyto in it lol... I have done both Rhodomonas Salina and Lens and I find Lens to be more forgiving. Salina would give me trouble if temps got too high (and I live in a very hot place in the summer). Lens doesn't seem to mind. Reef Legends offers Lens.

 

[afboundguy]

I would agree that if you're only looking to add one more, for pods specifically, I would probably do a diatom. The pods love diatoms. I do phaeodactylum tricornutum, but the Thalassiosira is just as good.

I used to do Phaeodactylum as well and found that to be the easiest of the three diatom strains I used to culture but I stuck with Thal and Chae do them being specific for certain pods and I was going a bit nuts with 8 different strains!

I guess I'm an outlier on the T-Iso vs. Rhodomonas debate. I find Rhodomonas so much easier. I've been culturing it for years and it has been never contaminated. T-Iso just needs me to look at it too long for it to get some green phyto in it lol... I have done both Rhodomonas Salina and Lens and I find Lens to be more forgiving. Salina would give me trouble if temps got too high (and I live in a very hot place in the summer). Lens doesn't seem to mind. Reef Legends offers Lens.

I don't do T-iso technically and do Isochrysis Galbana and I have way less issues with Galbana than Rhod Salina and I can't remember the last time I crashed it.

I just reset my Rhod Salina as it wasn't getting red just staying dark brown with tinge of red. I might switch to Lens next time around to give that a shot as I have heard similar stories about it being easier than Salina.

 

[saltyfish24]

I would agree that if you're only looking to add one more, for pods specifically, I would probably do a diatom. The pods love diatoms. I do phaeodactylum tricornutum, but the Thalassiosira is just as good.

Glad I started this thread, learning a lot about other culture options. I've always read that silicates in the aquarium will let diatoms out-compete other algae types. Any chance I can culture the diatoms I already have? Or are the easy diatoms in aquariums not useful as feed for copepods?

 

[Stephers]

Glad I started this thread, learning a lot about other culture options. I've always read that silicates in the aquarium will let diatoms out-compete other algae types. Any chance I can culture the diatoms I already have? Or are the easy diatoms in aquariums not useful as feed for copepods?

The problem would more be pureness. You take something from your tank and you'll have a whole lot more than diatoms in there. You may end up growing something up that's not great.