Zinn phytoreactor

[tinctorus]

It looks like its running with two air stones, what are the green pipes and black box doing? I'm not really understanding how everything works on this.

The black box has a micron sieve in it that allows you to pump water from side to side but not get any cross contamination of the 2 cultures so the roti culture doesnt destroy the phyto culture

Like I said when I get the money and parts together I will do a VERY detailed HOW-TO for anyone interested in doing one of these on there own

 

[olaggie01]

Any updates over the weekend?

 

[Aquaph8]

The black box has a micron sieve in it that allows you to pump water from side to side but not get any cross contamination of the 2 cultures so the roti culture doesnt destroy the phyto culture

Like I said when I get the money and parts together I will do a VERY detailed HOW-TO for anyone interested in doing one of these on there own

Cant wait, looking forward to it. Thank you

 

[olaggie01]

Does anyone know what screen material is required? I will be building the reactor this week and would like to get the rotifers up and running ASAP.

 

[Chompers]

Actually I think I found what I need, I will need
2) 53 micron sieves
1) 5-20 micron sieve
2) aqualifter pumps
1) timer
and the ten gallon tank and light to grown the phyto
Now that i have done a bit more research...

Can you post some links of the information that you found? Also, where did you find the sieves? Where did the sieve sizes come from?

 

[Chompers]

Easy enough:

Nitex mesh cloth of various sizes can be ordered from Environmental Sampling Equipment, Environmental Soil Testing – Wildco, www.sterlingnets.com, or SEFAR - Weltklasse Siebdruck- und Filtrationslösungen

1 mm and above: jelly plankton and fish larvae
200 microns – 1 mm: large zooplankton
64 - 200 microns: small zooplankton
20 - 64 microns: phytoplankton
less than 64 microns: smaller phytoplankton, microbes, viruses

NECWA - Make Your Own Plankton Sieves

Filter Fine Mesh Fabric Net Material Water Nylon Strain | eBay

Standard Phytoplankton Net: NHBS

Mesh sheet 30 x 30 cm polypropylene 149 m 3 pk - Polypropylene SpectraMesh Screen Discs and Sheets from Cole-Parmer

 

[Chompers]

some more...

Plankton Definitions
Copepods - (Latin: cope= 1 shell) a subclass of crustaceans.
Crustacea - (Latin: Crusta= crust, shell) arthropods with a chitinous exoskeleton. These are the most abundant zooplankton which eat diatoms, copepods, fish eggs, larva, and other small organisms. Large freshwater daphnia (water fleas) may be from 153-5,000 µm. A 20 or 30 power magnifier will often allow easy viewing of their insides.
Cyanobacteria - The smallest plankton (< 0.2 µm) blue-green algae are abundant in the oceans and sometimes in freshwater. Their outer membrane is very hard to digest; not many larger plankton eat them until that membrane is destroyed by a few species of bacteria and virus. They also may form large algae cluster mats.
Diatoms - small mobile plants (algae) 0.5-200 µm long, with silicified (silica, sand, quartz) skeletons. They are the most abundant phytoplankton in the cold oceans. A 63 µm net will get a good sampling of available diatoms.
Ichthyoplankton - (Greek: ichthys= fish) includes fish eggs, newly hatched eggs (fry), young fish, and adults of small fish. Sizes are from 153 µm long to 5,000 µm or longer.
Macroplankton or Macroinvertebrates - (Greek: makro-= big) usually means zooplankton. Several lower size definitions exist; the Canadian E-MAN protocol indicates that these organisms are retained by mesh sizes of approx. 200-500 µm; the USEPA likes 500 µm, some US states prefer 425 µm, and much historical research used 363 µm.
Microcrustacea - Those crustaceans between 153 µm and 363 µm in length.
Microplankton - (Greek: mikro-= small) usually refers to phytoplankton.
Nannoplankton - (Greek: nanno-= dwarf or very small). Generally any plankton, usually plants, smaller than 80 µm; many important nannoplankton are only 0.2-2.0 µm long.
Net plankton - old term; plankton captured in a 80 µm net.
Phytoplankton - (Greek: phyton= plant). Generally, 63-153 µm long. Some algae form large clusters, clumps, and thread-like groups of considerable size, but individual cells are usually in the 63-153 µm range. Large algae clusters and clumps are not always defined as plankton.
Plankton - (Greek verb: planktos= to wander or drift). The passively floating or weakly swimming animal and plant life in either fresh or marine waters. Many plankton reproduce daily, some hourly, and some every 10 minutes when the temperature is optimal (often close to 0°C), and when essential nutrients and foods are present.
Rotifers - (Latin: rotatus= wheel). A multi-celled animal which has a food ingestion tube with an area of strong cilia whose motion gives the appearance of a rapidly revolving wheel. Fun to watch live under a microscope. Rotifer sizes range from 1-600 µm. Most are between 200-400 µm long, including spines.
Zooplankton - (Greek: zoi= animal life). Includes the eggs, young, and even small adult animals of all animal species. Zooplankton are generally longer than 153 µm, up to about 5,000 µm (5 mm) or about 0.2 inches.

 

[Chompers]

Phytoplankton - usually in the 63-153 µm range
Rotifers - range from 1-600 µm

Something tells me that the reactor isn't going to work well with rotifers or much of anything once the second generation comes around. Bummer.

 

[tinctorus]

I PROMISE you guy's when I can get the $$ together I will build one and do a STEP BY STEP write up for anyone else that is interested in making one

 

[Pkunk35]

I PROMISE you guy's when I can get the $$ together I will build one and do a STEP BY STEP write up for anyone else that is interested in making one

Promise noted!

Very interested in this thread, please don't forget it!

 

[tinctorus]

Promise noted!

Very interested in this thread, please don't forget it!

Dont you worry brother, I PROMISE I WILL NOT forget about this reactor and I will document EVERY SINGLE STEP along the way "I will even document what works and what doesnt work"

 

[olaggie01]

Any updates?

 

[SoLongSidekick]

Any updates?

 

[tinctorus]

I never got around to building this just as life kinda kicked me in the nuts but when I do I'll post pics

 

[SoLongSidekick]

I've put together almost all of the materials and understand how to build it as it's an insanely simple machine, but there are a couple curve balls that are throwing me off. I don't understand how the two pumps (and their associated green tubes) work. It seems that one of them pumps phyto into the rotifer/artemia section, but at what rate? There's no way that thing is on 24/7 right? Even at a really low rate of flow that would deplete phyto faster than it can cultivate. The second one seems to just pick up liquid out of the phyto side and dump it back in the same side, running it through a screen to remove any contaminants or phyto that has grown too large. There are airlines used in both sides to somewhat agitate the water, but without a powerhead it seems as if you would have huge dead spots, rendering the filter almost useless.

Can anyone clarify these points?

 

[Siggy in CR]

I know this is very late to the discussion, but maybe it will help others interested in this.
As far as I understand it the pumps are on 24/7 but you need to keep in mind that you aren't trying to keep huge differential in algae density between the 2 chambers but instead you're aiming at keeping the rotifers swimming in food. With constant flow you'll get lots of uneaten algae that gets flushed back through the membrane into the algae side too. More importantly you need to maintain the rotifer population below what the algae can sustainably feed. If you notice that your water is getting very pale, i.e. lacking algae, then you know it's time to harvest rotifers to reduce their feeding and allow the algae to multiply again.
This sort of system seems really interesting, but I can imagine keeping the membrane from getting clogged might be a problem. Seems to me that this might be the biggest pain as you can't remove it easily without risking getting some rotifers into the algae-only side

 

[MabuyaQ]

I know this is very late to the discussion, but maybe it will help others interested in this.
As far as I understand it the pumps are on 24/7 but you need to keep in mind that you aren't trying to keep huge differential in algae density between the 2 chambers but instead you're aiming at keeping the rotifers swimming in food. With constant flow you'll get lots of uneaten algae that gets flushed back through the membrane into the algae side too. More importantly you need to maintain the rotifer population below what the algae can sustainably feed. If you notice that your water is getting very pale, i.e. lacking algae, then you know it's time to harvest rotifers to reduce their feeding and allow the algae to multiply again.
This sort of system seems really interesting, but I can imagine keeping the membrane from getting clogged might be a problem. Seems to me that this might be the biggest pain as you can't remove it easily without risking getting some rotifers into the algae-only side

I know this is even later, but this is not how a zinn reactor works, but almost.
One airlift is on a timer and transports phyto to the artemia/rotifer culture at intervals to keep the zoo in light greenwater. The divider between the phyto and zoo cultures contains (a) filter(s) too small for phyto to go through (so larger zoo won't get through as well) but because water is still connected the phyto can use the nutrients produced by the zoo and the zoo part won't overflow. The blackbox is a secondairy filter with a mesh size large enough for the phyto to go through but small enough to catch zoo. The airlift on this runs 24/7 because it is the safety measure for any zoo that might make it across the divider (splash water, uncleaned tools, etc,) so it gets filtered out so the phyto doesn't crash due to contamination (which is a certainty with rotifers in such a system).
The system works but it is very difficult to find the right balance between volume of zoo culture and density of zoo cultured and volume of phyto culture and density of phyto cultured, also the rectangular shape isn't the best for culturing phyto. So often you end up needing an additional phyto culture so you gain little from having a setup with separate cultures from the start.