Creating Phytoplankton culture

[Forty-Two]

Did you follow the instruction on the disk? soaking for 24 hours etc?

Yes

 

[Borat]

Yes

Well - its not about how many disks you put, but rather which disk will succeed. i would do smaller volume with 1 disk only and try second disk only if the first fails..

But fine - lets see if you succeed..

Do you use F2 fertiliser?

 

[Forty-Two]

Well - its not about how many disks you put, but rather which disk will succeed. i would do smaller volume with 1 disk only and try second disk only if the first fails..

But fine - lets see if you succeed..

Do you use F2 fertiliser?

Yes I used the supplied fertilizer at the dosage recommended

 

[Borat]

How is it looking? Has your culture started to darken?

 

[Forty-Two]

How is it looking? Has your culture started to darken?

It started to yes but I think I harvested it too early I needed to wait another 2-3 days. When I dose 10ml/gallon it doesn’t turn the tank water green, and it seems thin in the bottle.

I put more water back in the reactor, added some fertilizer and we’ll see how it goes. This time I plan to leave it for longer

 

[Borat]

It started to yes but I think I harvested it too early I needed to wait another 2-3 days. When I dose 10ml/gallon it doesn’t turn the tank water green, and it seems thin in the bottle.

I put more water back in the reactor, added some fertilizer and we’ll see how it goes. This time I plan to leave it for longer

Bad strategy.. ohh well we all learn by mistakes.

By harvesting early you did not allow for all existing fertiliser to be used. Now you added more fertiliser - and you don't know the concentration. Your culture should be dense enough that you don't see light through a 200ml glass full of culture.

 

[Borat]

I just harvested mine 5 min ago - I harvest once every 8-10 days, but culture maturity is very much dependant on the intensity of light source. I run about 16w of LED lights for 2L of culture, how strong is your reactor light source?

 

[Forty-Two]

Bad strategy.. ohh well we all learn by mistakes.

By harvesting early you did not allow for all existing fertiliser to be used. Now you added more fertiliser - and you don't know the concentration. Your culture should be dense enough that you don't see light through a 200ml glass full of culture.

I’ll have to see what happens. The reactor is leaking anyways - it has a hole I couldn’t plug despite using epoxy several times so I’ll likely need to start over anyways. It’s a learning adventure.

 

[Forty-Two]

I just harvested mine 5 min ago - I harvest once every 8-10 days, but culture maturity is very much dependant on the intensity of light source. I run about 16w of LED lights for 2L of culture, how strong is your reactor light source?

That looks almost black. Mine was definitely not that colour - more like a deep toxic slime green colour.

I went with the Pacific Sun phytoplankton reactor (small). It has some nice features. Eventually I would like it to be automated as much as possible

Phytoplankton Reactor PR series - Pacific Sun EU

Plankton Light Reactor (phytoplankton reactor) Micro-algae cultivation unit. The Phytoplankton reactor is a simple system for producing plankton in a natural food chain. The products of the reaction are light, fertilizer, CO2 and the micro-algae itself . The micro-algae can be fed directly to...

pacific-sun.eu

 

[Forty-Two]

Any idea what this is? Copepods? Bacteria?

 

[Borat]

Do they move?

 

[Forty-Two]

I

Do they move?

It’s hard to tell due to the motion in the water but they seem to be sticking in place

 

[Borat]

Can you describe how you prepared your culture and water for culture?

 

[HuduVudu]

Hi all - I have a growing challenge I’m not quite sure how to solve at this point. While a solution is likely not critical - I believe it to be very important to the health and well being of my livestock.

I believe it’s fairly essential to have live phytoplankton. Some will debate this but that’s not the purpose of this thread.

I cannot seem to get live phytoplankton where I live (Israel). None of the fish stores sell it - and none seem to know how to get it - and none seem to really be interested in it.

I am attempting to order some from Europe - although it’s likely it will not be alive once it arrives - however I am taking the risk/trying.

One other option came to mind - and I wanted to know if anyone knows how to do it - create a culture of live phytoplankton from the ocean.

I can drive to the coast and grab some ocean water - however from there I’m not sure how one works go about creating a phytoplankton culture of it’s even possible.

Has anyone tried this? Are there other options I’m not considering?

I started mine with a rotton bottle of Reef Nutrition Phytoplankton. Seriously it was rotten as in smelled awful. I dumped it in and put it in the sun. Poof phyto.

You should be able to really take advantage of the all of the free lighting.