First Time Culturing Phytoplankton

[Shadows Reef]

I like your jar. Im thinking of adding fittings to mine. Is there another push fitting inside thats threaded to the one on the outside to hold the rigid tube in place?

Yeah it's push connect on both sides, just the BRS push connect bulkhead, what I will do next time it just use new RO tubing for the airline inside to keep it sterelie INSTEAD of the 1/4 acrylic rod which is hard to remove when it get time for cleaning

 

[Shadows Reef]

Here's day 8 of our culture using a glass vessel, air line & the blub referenced above. This was started with 20oz of phyto & 40oz of water (different ratio then what I mentioned above as I gave some away). I'll let this grow for 2 more days but it can give you a color target if you don't already have one. By keeping the vessel in our refugium, the temp remains constant at 79 degF. It isn't necessary, but based on what I've read & our experimentation, it will grow more consistently with a constant warmer temperature.

Thanks man I know the ratios are different but I've been told it should still work just take a little longer to get to the nice dark green I also have another bottle as back up just in case. Lol

 

[Saltyreef]

Yeah it's push connect on both sides, just the BRS push connect bulkhead, what I will do next time it just use new RO tubing for the airline inside to keep it sterelie INSTEAD of the 1/4 acrylic rod which is hard to remove when it get time for cleaning

I tried using semi rigid poly tubing but with the heat, would not stay straight and lose contact with the bottom of the jar and cause the cells to settle too much.
Those rigid airline tubes arent expensive and i just keep a couple clean spares and swap them when they need cleaning.

 

[Shadows Reef]

That's a better idea as I can always just swap the bulkheads for the other one! Thanks man!

I have another jar I made exactly the same but with another bulkhead and tube for dosing to the tank so when I split the culture I can dose my new split culture and grow that with 50/50 ratio phyto/seawater but It's going to be hooked up to my DOS to automatically dose throughout the day. Still not sure on the dosing amounts yet though. How much do you dose per day and how many gallon is your tank?

 

[R.Weller]

How much do you dose per day and how many gallon is your tank?

This seems to be a universal recommendation that you build up to:

5ml / 10gal x3 / week

Our system is around 450 gallons, so we’re adding 100ml daily. At that volume, culturing our own is essential.

 

[Shadows Reef]

This seems to be a universal recommendation that you build up to:

5ml / 10gal x3 / week

Our system is around 450 gallons, so we’re adding 100ml daily. At that volume, culturing our own is essential.

At what point would I want to end the culture, I wanted to dose it live but with a 60 gal tank I definitely wont have enough time to dose 3 liters lol
But the plan is after this culture is grown I will split the culture in a 2nd identical vessel but with a dosing line in it to dose to the tank but ill have to stop it and refrigerate eventually , when would that be? once I reach my end color? How long could I dose it like that if I dimmed or turned off the lights?

Thanks for your help!

 

[R.Weller]

At what point would I want to end the culture, I wanted to dose it live but with a 60 gal tank I definitely wont have enough time to dose 3 liters lol
But the plan is after this culture is grown I will split the culture in a 2nd identical vessel but with a dosing line in it to dose to the tank but ill have to stop it and refrigerate eventually , when would that be? once I reach my end color? How long could I dose it like that if I dimmed or turned off the lights?

Thanks for your help!

Just getting started, it’s going to take you awhile to get through 3L. You want to build up to the recommended dosage allowing zooplankton time to respond accordingly. Keep in mind this is adding nutrients to your system so balance is important.

Once it reaches the color target, or the population is dense, then the culture should be refrigerated. It has to be turned daily, but otherwise, I’ve had it last 45 days before using it to start another culture. If it’s kept at room temp, I would expect not much beyond 14 days but that’s guessing. When it does crash, it happens fast.

We manually add phyto as part of our daily maintenance plan. We’ve also used it to grow our own Pod cultures. Combine 1gallon phyto to 3gallons of water, buy a 16oz bottle of Pods from another hobbyist, add an air stone & wait 20 days. Live food!

I’ve seen a few threads from people that have designed auto-dosing mechanisms for this, but that seemed like more work than I’m willing to invest.

 

[Shadows Reef]

Just getting started, it’s going to take you awhile to get through 3L. You want to build up to the recommended dosage allowing zooplankton time to respond accordingly. Keep in mind this is adding nutrients to your system so balance is important.

Once it reaches the color target, or the population is dense, then the culture should be refrigerated. It has to be turned daily, but otherwise, I’ve had it last 45 days before using it to start another culture. If it’s kept at room temp, I would expect not much beyond 14 days but that’s guessing. When it does crash, it happens fast.

We manually add phyto as part of our daily maintenance plan. We’ve also used it to grow our own Pod cultures. Combine 1gallon phyto to 3gallons of water, buy a 16oz bottle of Pods from another hobbyist, add an air stone & wait 20 days. Live food!

I’ve seen a few threads from people that have designed auto-dosing mechanisms for this, but that seemed like more work than I’m willing to invest.

much thanks!
I know 3l is a bit excessive but my next tank will be a little over 240 gallons so everything I'm doing now is for that tank, moving in a few months and excited AF for my new tank. My wife and I wanted a bigger tank but when I was looking at a 110ga she was like that's as big as you will want to go? So of course you know you If your wife said that you immediately double the size lol

I have a few extra dosing head so I'm willing to give it a tackle.

But I will definitely grow some pods, posiden reef systems has this I will add to my 2nd or 3rd vessel once I'm ready to grow pods

 

[Shadows Reef]

Here's day 5, decided to wrap some foil around the light to minimize light spillage and to help keep the very little heat the light puts out, inside.
It gets chilly at night

 

[californiarob]

by the tag on the bottom of the pic you are growing Nanno, I always have 2 x 5 gallons going at all times minimum, it can take any lighting even old flours which I used back in the old days, now I use AI refugium LED's now, my crashes are usually over fertilizing or Rot contamination, salinity can range all over due to your yield, I bet because of the small containers crashes can be more of an issue, Reed Mariculture has what I think is the best product out there. keep up the posts

 

[Ronnell]

Here's day 5, decided to wrap some foil around the light to minimize light spillage and to help keep the very little heat the light puts out, inside.
It gets chilly at night

The (Mutatagin) green goo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

 

[Shadows Reef]

by the tag on the bottom of the pic you are growing Nanno, I always have 2 x 5 gallons going at all times minimum, it can take any lighting even old flours which I used back in the old days, now I use AI refugium LED's now, my crashes are usually over fertilizing or Rot contamination, salinity can range all over due to your yield, I bet because of the small containers crashes can be more of an issue, Reed Mariculture has what I think is the best product out there. keep up the posts

Well here is one week one, not sure how much darker it should be getting but I dont think it's quite there yet. What do you think?

 

[Shadows Reef]

So I decided to bottle 500ml of my culture to compare to my other 500ml bottle and they are the same color! Didn't consider all the light blasting through the culture would make it look much lighter lol

Left is the culture from Mercer and the one on the right is my culture, I’m content, maybe it’s about one shade lighter so I’m going to leave the rest for today and split the culture tomorrow

 

[Cole.mormon]

could you ship me some?

 

[Shadows Reef]

could you ship me some?

More then happy to share to people locally so if you live in Las Vegas HMU
but I’m not too sure about shipping it unless I can be sure I get all my costs covered and get it to you alive but at that point honestly it may just be better for you to just order directly from Mercer of Montana on Amazon since probably be about the same price with their discounted shipping rates vs my I never ship anything rate lol

 

[Blakjax]

So now what...? Will you completely empty the vessel? Or leave 1/2 and fill with new salt water and start again?

 

[Shadows Reef]

So now what...? Will you completely empty the vessel? Or leave 1/2 and fill with new salt water and start again?

I bottled half of what I made and stored it in the Fridge,I could then pull the bag out and pour that half left over into a new a new gallon bag which I then put inside the gallon jar and filled the rest with 1.020 salt water and added 2ml each of part a and b of the fritz f2.

I think I’ll keep at it till I have a good supply

 

[Blakjax]

The bag may be the trick. It seems no matter how I sterilize them glass vessel, my culture always crashes after the 2nd or 3rd split. I will try bags.

 

[Shadows Reef]

The bag may be the trick. It seems no matter how I sterilize them glass vessel, my culture always crashes after the 2nd or 3rd split. I will try bags.

Yeah I really felt the bags make a big difference in the sterilization, I ordered the pod nest from Poseidon reef systems so my next culture I’ll split with some pods. Then I’ll get a mandarin dragonette. I have enough of a pod population now... I could just get him now....that’s it tomorrow I’m getting him lol

 

[Shadows Reef]

Day 3 into my 2nd culture split successfully so far.