Phytoplankton culture question.

[lou the reefer]

I have a couple questions for you guy who have or are experienced with phytoplankton cultures.

1-Is it possible to start a culture with a bottle of live phytoplankton instead of a algae disk

2-whats the fertilizer needed and when is it used

3-could led light work instead of a fluorescent light

4-how long dose it take for a culture to be at its harvesting point

If you guys have pictures of your setups it would be highly appreciated.
Thank you


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[gogo7]

hey lou... i've been cultivating for a few years now. i currently have nannochloropsis as my 'salt water' species. in the past i've cultivated tetra, duna and iso. i use faf micro algae grow... i found it's the best for consistency. i use 1 drop fert per 100ml of water,....this ratio never fails me. i've used fw plant ferts in the passed... some work, some don't. get a good phyto fert for reliability. you can feed freshly fertilized phyto to your tank, but i don't recommend it... five days from fertilizing works for me. i generally work out of one bottle for the week, with a few brewing on the side. when i cut, i cut half and half... half phyto, half fresh fertilized water. then light it up til next week. it's a good idea to throw a few small bottles, jars of phyto into the fridge, just in case of crashes. especially if you're playing with alternative fertilizers.
yes you can use bottled live phyto...but not all of them will work... one of my lfs has a bottled brand that i played with a few times and it doesn't work... the phyto settles out, and i think there's something else in there with it. disks work the best... if you're a diy kinda guy, hit your local river, pond, puddle... take some water and fertilize it, put it under light and see what happens. i've done it a few times and come up with some differing species.

cheap leds, the newer kind that screw into light bulb sockets are what i'm using now. currently a 6 watt par 20 from some dollar store.

i have a few cultures of freshwater phytos that i've acquired from local sources. one i suspect is actually nanno...i've flipped it to saltwater, and it looks like nanno under the microscope... but i'm not exactly sure.
i just pulled some out of a rain bucket last week and have it greening up... not sure of the species though.
i dose freshwater phytos into my display as top up water. about four ounces daily for my four gallon display...not dense culture.
as for set up.... i use two litre pop bottles, swirl the bottles daily... don't bother wasting energy on air to circulate the culture... daily swirling is all you need. during the summer months, and winter too sometimes, i keep the bottles on a window sill. make sure there's no lid on the bottle. if you must have a lid on it, drill a hole, and insert an inch of rigid air line for pouring. you don't need to make the culture dense for use. you'll find you don't need it.
hope this helps you out lou.

[lou the reefer]

Originally Posted by gogo7

hey lou... i've been cultivating for a few years now. i currently have nannochloropsis as my 'salt water' species. in the past i've cultivated tetra, duna and iso. i use faf micro algae grow... i found it's the best for consistency. i use 1 drop fert per 100ml of water,....this ratio never fails me. i've used fw plant ferts in the passed... some work, some don't. get a good phyto fert for reliability. you can feed freshly fertilized phyto to your tank, but i don't recommend it... five days from fertilizing works for me. i generally work out of one bottle for the week, with a few brewing on the side. when i cut, i cut half and half... half phyto, half fresh fertilized water. then light it up til next week. it's a good idea to throw a few small bottles, jars of phyto into the fridge, just in case of crashes. especially if you're playing with alternative fertilizers.
yes you can use bottled live phyto...but not all of them will work... one of my lfs has a bottled brand that i played with a few times and it doesn't work... the phyto settles out, and i think there's something else in there with it. disks work the best... if you're a diy kinda guy, hit your local river, pond, puddle... take some water and fertilize it, put it under light and see what happens. i've done it a few times and come up with some differing species.

cheap leds, the newer kind that screw into light bulb sockets are what i'm using now. currently a 6 watt par 20 from some dollar store.

i have a few cultures of freshwater phytos that i've acquired from local sources. one i suspect is actually nanno...i've flipped it to saltwater, and it looks like nanno under the microscope... but i'm not exactly sure.
i just pulled some out of a rain bucket last week and have it greening up... not sure of the species though.
i dose freshwater phytos into my display as top up water. about four ounces daily for my four gallon display...not dense culture.
as for set up.... i use two litre pop bottles, swirl the bottles daily... don't bother wasting energy on air to circulate the culture... daily swirling is all you need. during the summer months, and winter too sometimes, i keep the bottles on a window sill. make sure there's no lid on the bottle. if you must have a lid on it, drill a hole, and insert an inch of rigid air line for pouring. you don't need to make the culture dense for use. you'll find you don't need it.
hope this helps you out lou.

Thanks for all the answered questions this helped me out big time. The only thing I'm still not sure sure is why people would want to use a algae disk instead of a live culture seems way more simple with a live culture. But other then than that im pretty sure I understood everything else. I like the idea of toping off your aquarium with a little bit of freshwater phyto.


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[sde1500]

I used discs to start. From my research a lot of the bottles contain something beyond phyto and are a mix. Culturing a mix means you don't know what is growing and one type eventually out competes the others. I use the fertilizer from Florida aqua farms, add a little bid every time I harvest and add new water. Pour out most of the phyto into another container or a tank, add new water to the bottle with a little phyto left, add fertilizer. I have a hole in the top of every bottle for airlines, beats going into my basement daily to swirl them. I harvest it weekly. On the left is nanno, the right is tet.

[lou the reefer]

Originally Posted by sde1500

I used discs to start. From my research a lot of the bottles contain something beyond phyto and are a mix. Culturing a mix means you don't know what is growing and one type eventually out competes the others. I use the fertilizer from Florida aqua farms, add a little bid every time I harvest and add new water. Pour out most of the phyto into another container or a tank, add new water to the bottle with a little phyto left, add fertilizer. I have a hole in the top of every bottle for airlines, beats going into my basement daily to swirl them. I harvest it weekly. On the left is nanno, the right is tet.

Ohh thats why people use disks instead of live cultures. Thanks by the way. I'm kind of sceptical of using a disk because they seem so complicated and i cant find some clear info hoe to start your culture with a disk. Anyways thanks for sharing your setup.


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[sde1500]

Originally Posted by lou the reefer

Ohh thats why people use disks instead of live cultures. Thanks by the way. I'm kind of sceptical of using a disk because they seem so complicated and i cant find some clear info hoe to start your culture with a disk. Anyways thanks for sharing your setup.


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They're simple. And they are live too btw, not just the liquid is live. Open disc, add water to cover the top. Let sit 24 hrs. Fill soda bottle with water, scrape the wet culture from the disc into the bottle and begin growing.

[lou the reefer]

Originally Posted by sde1500

They're simple. And they are live too btw, not just the liquid is live. Open disc, add water to cover the top. Let sit 24 hrs. Fill soda bottle with water, scrape the wet culture from the disc into the bottle and begin growing.

Alright thanks for the help il be checking out algae disks instead of starting from a live culture.


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[buggsisl]

IME contamination was my #1 mistake.

- Bottled phyto = unknown quality control
- Discs = 100% contaminant free (Florida Aqua Farms - They only ship on Thursday) Total quality control for you.

My cultures have been growing for two years now with no issues...

Current setup:
- One gallon containers from Walmart (Mainstay I believe)
- Air pumps from Walmart
- Drip Irrigation control valve to control airflow - Home Depot - Standard airline tubing fits tight.
- *Guilards f2 fertilizer has been a key to my sucess as well. The same is true for quality control here as well.
- Rigid tubing from Home Depot (found with the shark bite fittings) Bore it out a little with a drill bit and shove your tubing into the end.
- Lights are Costco LED tube fixtures on a sixteen hour photoperiod (Honesty, these are all I've ever used...5000k I believe).
- Split every five days
Follow all directions accordingly and you will have success. It's not as daunting as it seems.

These photos show Tetra and Nann...






Good luck with your phyto.

[sde1500]

I got the live culture discs and fertilizer here http://florida-aqua-farms.com/produc...live-cultures/

Their discs come with instructions printed on it and sterile swabs to scrape the culture with.

[buggsisl]

I should add that the directions I refer to are on/in the packaging of the f2 and phyto discs.

I'm happy to upload a video so you can see the amount of airflow I use, if that would be helpful. With the drip valve it is super easy to micro adjust the flow. Everything to build the manifold was purchased at HD. May be a little overkill for most but I also raise Clowns so I need better control of my airflow. My entire system runs on this one manifold.

[lou the reefer]

Alright thanks guys that really helped me out. Lastly could I use tap water with prime.


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[buggsisl]

Originally Posted by lou the reefer

Alright thanks guys that really helped me out. Lastly could I use tap water with prime.


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My personal experience with this method was through a friend. His long-term success was minimal. Several unexplained crashes and a complete loss later I started supplying him with RO/DI and he has been up for nine months with no problems. Other may have differnt opinions.

Again, I personally have to question quality control.

[sde1500]

I culture them in salt water. Since Im dosing a decently large quantity to my pod cultures, and my DT, don't want to mess the salinity up.

[lou the reefer]

Alright I will look forwards buying a used rodi unit off craigslist.


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[buggsisl]

Originally Posted by sde1500

I culture them in salt water. Since Im dosing a decently large quantity to my pod cultures, and my DT, don't want to mess the salinity up.

Ditto that...

1.018 is where I keep cultures

[enchelycore808]

Just chiming in my exp. I've been keeping my Nanno cultures for a couple years now and seems to be pretty simple. I use led flood lights to culture mines and I think they are 6k. I started with a bottle phyto from Amazon. At first I was having problems keeping them long term with one of the F2 formulas. They would get dark green then crash really fast. I have since switched to fritz brand f2 and a little bit of Kent Coral vit. I've gotten lazy and let the cultures go for a month or so without touching them before they start fading. Anyways:
Algae: Nannochloropsis
Light: 10w led flood 6k
Ferts: Fritz F2 and Kent Coral Vit
Culture vessel: 2g drink dispensers
Salinity: 1.018-1.020sg
Water: Tap water

[lou the reefer]

Originally Posted by enchelycore808

Just chiming in my exp. I've been keeping my Nanno cultures for a couple years now and seems to be pretty simple. I use led flood lights to culture mines and I think they are 6k. I started with a bottle phyto from Amazon. At first I was having problems keeping them long term with one of the F2 formulas. They would get dark green then crash really fast. I have since switched to fritz brand f2 and a little bit of Kent Coral vit. I've gotten lazy and let the cultures go for a month or so without touching them before they start fading. Anyways:
Algae: Nannochloropsis
Light: 10w led flood 6k
Ferts: Fritz F2 and Kent Coral Vit
Culture vessel: 2g drink dispensers
Salinity: 1.018-1.020sg
Water: Tap water

Do you use prime with your tap water


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[enchelycore808]

Originally Posted by lou the reefer

Do you use prime with your tap water


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Actually no I don't dechlor my tap wate for the cultures. I would add it just in case though if you are unsure of how much chlorine/chloramine they add to your water source.

[enchelycore808]

Here's a pic of the setup btw.

[lou the reefer]

Originally Posted by enchelycore808

Here's a pic of the setup btw.

Very clean setup congrats.


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[sde1500]

Originally Posted by enchelycore808

Here's a pic of the setup btw.

Well now mr fancy pants

[Lucaszoll65]

Originally Posted by enchelycore808

Just chiming in my exp. I've been keeping my Nanno cultures for a couple years now and seems to be pretty simple. I use led flood lights to culture mines and I think they are 6k. I started with a bottle phyto from Amazon. At first I was having problems keeping them long term with one of the F2 formulas. They would get dark green then crash really fast. I have since switched to fritz brand f2 and a little bit of Kent Coral vit. I've gotten lazy and let the cultures go for a month or so without touching them before they start fading. Anyways:
Algae: Nannochloropsis
Light: 10w led flood 6k
Ferts: Fritz F2 and Kent Coral Vit
Culture vessel: 2g drink dispensers
Salinity: 1.018-1.020sg
Water: Tap water

How much of the fritz f/2 do you use per gal? Also, do you use both A & B mixtures?