DIY Phytoplankton Culture

eleet · Dec 8, 2016

I dose the tank with both. I have a thing for fish that have extremely high metabolisms. Mandarins, wrasses, anthias. They need to eat really frequently. Pods help.

ReefNerd76 · Dec 8, 2016

eleet said:
I dose the tank with both. I have a thing for fish that have extremely high metabolisms. Mandarins, wrasses, anthias. They need to eat really frequently. Pods help.

I just need to get a good starter culture of pods and then I'll make more in my lab

hollback · Dec 8, 2016

ReefNerd76 said:
How much you have ready to sell? My Cheato Algae needs a good cleaning

Sorry, I just sold them all. It will be a little while as they take a while to reach adulthood and become dense.

I've been culturing nannochloropsis in 2ltr bottles for just as long. I rarely add the nanno to my tank. It's to grow the copepods. I do however, feed pods to my tank every other day.

djd3mon · Dec 8, 2016

ReefNerd76 said:
Phytoplankton is used for feeding rotifers, copepods,ampapods and feeding filter feeding corals and other corals as well

clams (filter feeders as you mentioned), inverts, etc

djd3mon · Dec 8, 2016

Filtered out my 3 pod cultures and put them in their new vessel.
Added TIsbe pods to the other vessel.
Picking up 3 more vessels for phyto, brine shrimp and mysis.
The wait is on.

The green tint is wat darker than it looks in person...still lighter than my last pod culture

ReefNerd76 · Dec 8, 2016

djd3mon said:
Filtered out my 3 pod cultures and put them in their new vessel.
Added TIsbe pods to the other vessel.
Picking up 3 more vessels for phyto, brine shrimp and mysis.
The wait is on.

The green tint is wat darker than it looks in person...still lighter than my last pod culture

Looking awesome

djd3mon · Dec 8, 2016

ReefNerd76 said:
Looking awesome

thanks

Tbabcock · Dec 8, 2016

Where did you get them containers? I would love to have some for my rotifers as well as making my own phyto.. im spending a bundle on RG complete to feed these things.

hollback · Dec 8, 2016

Looks good! Be very careful with cross contamination. It can easily ruin your cultures. Rotifers are the worst. The tiniest little drop of them in my copepod cultures will out-compete and crash my pods in less than a week. I'm constantly sterilizing my copepod equipment (hoses, buckets, sieves gloves...) with muriatic acid.

djd3mon · Dec 8, 2016

Tbabcock said:
Where did you get them containers? I would love to have some for my rotifers as well as making my own phyto.. im spending a bundle on RG complete to feed these things.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Creative-Bath-3-Gallon-Beverage-Dispenser-with-Ice-Core/21130892

Tbabcock · Dec 8, 2016

Nice and thanks for the link.. how did you run the air line?

djd3mon · Dec 8, 2016

Tbabcock said:
Nice and thanks for the link.. how did you run the air line?

I cut a piece of rigid airline tubing and put it in the vessel. then used microwaved watwr to soften regular airline tubing. slipped the sirloin tubing over the rigod tubing. I am running each vessel on one tetra quiet air pump with a backflow preventer and 2 adjustable air valves to get a very precise air flow.

Wh00pS32 · Dec 8, 2016

"Looks good! Be very careful with cross contamination. It can easily ruin your cultures. Rotifers are the worst. The tiniest little drop of them in my copepod cultures will out-compete and crash my pods in less than a week. I'm constantly sterilizing my copepod equipment (hoses, buckets, sieves gloves...) with muriatic acid."

I find exactly the opposite, i find culturing my pods together with rotifers gives better results for myself. The culture has been going for almost 2 years and works great.
I got the tip for doing the two together from a guy who cultures pods commercially.

hollback · Dec 8, 2016

Wh00pS32 said:
I find exactly the opposite, i find culturing my pods together with rotifers gives better results for myself. The culture has been going for almost 2 years and works great.
I got the tip for doing the two together from a guy who cultures pods commercially.

That's funny. You never know what will work for someone and not someone else.

I know the Columbus zoo if very careful about cross contamination for there large fish breeding feed cultures. It happens occasionally and production decreases.

I would think you'd have to thin the rotifers since once a rotifer culture gets dense it will make a dark green culture tank completely clear in less than 24 hrs. I assume the adult copepods could be feeding on the rotifers and keeping the population in check.

Irishman · Dec 9, 2016

ReefNerd76 said:
Looking awesome

When I want to start the cultivation do I need to get the dish full of the phyto or can I just grab some phytoplankton from the store and cultivate from that?

ReefNerd76 · Dec 9, 2016

Irishman said:
When I want to start the cultivation do I need to get the dish full of the phyto or can I just grab some phytoplankton from the store and cultivate from that?

You can do it either way

CastAway · Dec 10, 2016

Not all store bought phyto's are live. "Phyto-Feast" for example, by Reef Nutrition cannot be used to start a culture. Most store bought phyto's are blends I think.

ReefNerd76 · Dec 10, 2016

CastAway said:
Not all store bought phyto's are live. "Phyto-Feast" for example, by Reef Nutrition cannot be used to start a culture. Most store bought phyto's are blends I think.

You are correct, I had a long Friday and wasn't even thinking about that. I should of had some coffee before I answered him.

Irishman · Dec 10, 2016

CastAway said:
Not all store bought phyto's are live. "Phyto-Feast" for example, by Reef Nutrition cannot be used to start a culture. Most store bought phyto's are blends I think.

What would be the best phyto to start off with? Aren't there like three different types?