Contaminated Cultured Phytoplankton?

[duff0712]

I have been trying to cultivate my own phytoplankton. I have been following a method seen online (can't remember the name but uses 2L bottles and micro grow).

My main concern is it seems that every batch one of my bottles of phyto seems to be an off color than the other one. One will be a bright green (which I assume is great) and the other will be an off green/brown color (which I assume something is wrong). I don't have a picture to compare at the moment, but do you think the off colored bottle was contaminated? Or is it fine but a different color? Maybe a die off during cultivation?

I'm grateful for any ideas. Thanks

 

[TankRazr]

Coincidentally in the exact same boat right now, so thanks for posting.

Additionally the one culture vessel although green has a slightly musty odor similar to decaying cut grass which leads me to believe there is some dead algae in the mix.....but not sure entirely. Just going on my intuition it doesn't seem entirely right. In my brief experience there shouldn't be much of an odor at all just a hint maybe.

Any insight would be appreciated.

TR

 

[xroads]

What kind of algae are you growing?

Are you sterilizing the water and bottles before you inoculate it?

 

[duff0712]

Coincidentally in the exact same boat right now, so thanks for posting.

Additionally the one culture vessel although green has a slightly musty odor similar to decaying cut grass which leads me to believe there is some dead algae in the mix.....but not sure entirely. Just going on my intuition it doesn't seem entirely right. In my brief experience there shouldn't be much of an odor at all just a hint maybe.

Any insight would be appreciated.

TR

I did notice a kinda musty smell the first time, but didn't notice a scent to it this last batch (although I swear I have a bad sense of smell haha), but just the look of it does seem off to me.

Hopefully someone knows what's going on/ how to solve it.

 

[duff0712]

What kind of algae are you growing?

Are you sterilizing the water and bottles before you inoculate it?

I am growing nanocholorpsis (spelling is prob wrong). At first I wasn't sterilizing the bottles, but after I decided to is actually when I started to get the off color. I use ro/di water so the water shouldn't need sterilizing.

 

[xroads]

Sure it does. RODI does not get rid of bacteria.

You need to boil the water before using, and sterilize all your equipment each time

 

[duff0712]

Sure it does. RODI does not get rid of bacteria.

You need to boil the water before using, and sterilize all your equipment each time

If I was to sterilize the water do you think just using tap would be fine? I know boiling doesn't get rid of dissolved solids but it sounds like normal tap should work just fine (it would at least get rid of a step)

 

[TankRazr]

Culturing nanochloropsis with sterilized tap water.

All the reading I have done indicates tap water works best. I dechlorinate and let sit for over 24 hours.

Incidentally I experimented previously with a batch using tank water and it turned out fine.

TR

 

[xroads]

I dont like using tap water. Too much crap in the municipal water around here.

 

[TankRazr]

I live at 8,600' in the rocky mountains and I can literally see my water supply from my house. It's about as good as it gets. I have tds meters on all my rodi units and the intake numbers are extremely low.

But I could see how if one lived anywhere else the municipal water supply could be questionable.

I may experiment with using RODI on a batch as well.

TR

 

[duff0712]

Sure it does. RODI does not get rid of bacteria.

You need to boil the water before using, and sterilize all your equipment each time

I have isopropyl alcohol to use for sterilizing bottles. Is that sufficient? Also would I just use a small bath of water/alcohol for the other equipment?

 

[duff0712]

Just an update. The last 2 batches I've made have been looking great. I am doing a couple things differently now.

I use isopropyl alcohol to sterilize everything (bottles/rigid tubing) everytime I harvest.

Instead of having a premade mix of saltwater I am just mixing it fresh in the 2l jugs to as close to 1.019 as possible.

I've been using tap water and salinity salt (doubt the salt matters) and have been adding a lot more micro algae grow (5ml per bottle) and 1ml of continuum coral essentials. Online it recommended Kents essentials but I didn't have immediate access to it.

This is the first batch after 7 days.

This is right after I mixed the bottles from harvesting the first batch. The bottle on the right is already a green bottle (Squirt, mmmm grapefruit pop) so it looks a little darker.

This was taken today, four days after I harvested from the first batch. I have extremely dark 2l bottles, you can barely even tell the right bottle is made with a darker plastic than the left.

They are much denser and darker. Very pleased

 

[Harold Green]

I thought it was just me that had to add additional f/2 to the culture to get good growth. Around 3ml seems to work well. I don't boil my ro water so it has some contaminants in it. After each batch I take the used 2l bottle and fill it with tap water and a bit of bleach. Allow it to sit a day, then rinse and allow to air for a couple of days. I pour each bottle of green water through a brine shrimp net to remove any larger algaes before reusing as a starter in another bottle. I've had my cultures for over a year and even though they are certainly contaminated the corals open and feed as soon as I pour the green water in the tank.