? About pod/phyto cultures

[Jeeperz]

I'm trying to culture pods and phyto. I have Mercer of Montana phyto and algae barn pods. I followed directions and added 1 gallon 1.020 saltwater to bucket, added phyto to barely not see the bottom, added air line to a few bubbles per second. 1 day later, the phyto dropped out of solution into clumps on the bottom. Same thing the phyto does in the bottle.

I have the same issue with my phyto culture. Is the phyto from Mercer of Montana no good? I do have a fresh bottle of phyto from algae barn, should I add that or?

 

[Jeeperz]

Maybe there's a better section for this question? Mods?

 

[reef lover]

Increase your air a bit. Make sure the air stone or tubing is at the bottom the the culture.
Some will always clump and fall out. But easily cleanable by siphoning.

 

[Jeeperz]

Enough falls out that my pod culture water turns nearly clear. I have more air going in buckets than what is recommended on several sites. So I stir it up daily. I can still see some pods swimming in the water. Each 5 gallon bucket has 1 gallon saltwater and enough phyto to just not see the bottom as per brine shrimp direct instructions. I then added a quarter of a bottle to each of 5280 algae barn pods

 

[lavoisier]

You want enough air to create the water movement needed to keep the phyto in suspension. The recommendations you see are simply that. The goal is water movement=suspension. Good luck, its worth the headaches in my opinion.

 

[Jeeperz]

Ok, thanks. I will turn the air up and see what happens. I thought you wanted little water movement so the pods are not thrashed around

 

[reef lover]

I watched a video of large vats they grow them out in at like algae barn and they were very turbulent.

 

[lavoisier]

You just don't want to use a powerhead because the impeller could/might destroy some.

 

[Worthy1]

Having the same issue with my first attempt at both, bubbles are pretty intense yet gunked at the botton of the phyto and then the pods have settled. The bubbles don't seem to spin the water which in a round bottle it seems is what needs to happen to suspend things.

 

[ysper20]

did you forget to add the f/2?

 

[ysper20]

pics/videos would be helpful

 

[Jeeperz]

You don't add f2 to the pod culture from everything I've read. I added f2 to the phyto culture at the rate Mercer of Montana recommends

 

[Daddy-o]

Are you at a good temp.?

 

[lavoisier]

Correct, f2 to phyto, phyto to pods. Is your air pump sufficiently strong enough? As ysper suggests pic/video would be helpful.

 

[ysper20]

I agree with lavoisier !maybe you just have a bad batch of phyto

 

[ysper20]

what was the salinity of the phyto. i bought from mercer montana and havent had any issues.

 

[Jeeperz]

I never checked salinity of phyto. Mercer says to use 1.020 saltwater so that's what I made. I calibrate my refractometer every time I use it. When I get home I'll get pics

 

[Jeeperz]

So. I had ordered another batch of phyto from Mercer. It came in yesterday. I added about 4 oz to each bucket this morning. This is what it looks like tonight. It did not drop out completely but you can see where some did, as usual. It's actually still green, normally it would be almost clear by now. I am thinking my original order of phyto from Mercer was no good.

 

[Jeeperz]

Here's my phyto. Don't mind the levels, the f2 was added based on volume. But this is a week in.

Temp wise. Phyto location is a bit warm, mid to high 70's. In water heater/furnace/washer/dryer/freezer room. Pod culture is at 68-70. I can move stuff to my garage that fluctuates but is at least 52 degrees currently. It is snowing here. My garage is a greenhouse during the winter for plants that can't overwinter in North Idaho. I have a 1000 watt MH and 750 watt space heater to keep it at that temp

 

[Jeeperz]

Any other ideas, even the new phyto is dropping out of the pod culture.