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I do, and I started with bigger jars no problems.

Lights on a timer, double check there's good air flow, etc. I harvest and swap containers out on the weekends. I didn't bleach anything. I only use f2 on harvest day w/ whatever new section is starting up. I measure basically nothing. Going great though.
 
danieyella said:
I do, and I started with bigger jars no problems.

Lights on a timer, double check there's good air flow, etc. I harvest and swap containers out on the weekends. I didn't bleach anything. I only use f2 on harvest day w/ whatever new section is starting up. I measure basically nothing. Going great though.
Click to expand...
This is my kind of reefing...

Normal reef salinity?

How long on lights?
 
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danieyella said:
I do, and I started with bigger jars no problems.

Lights on a timer, double check there's good air flow, etc. I harvest and swap containers out on the weekends. I didn't bleach anything. I only use f2 on harvest day w/ whatever new section is starting up. I measure basically nothing. Going great though.
Click to expand...
Lucky.

I failed and measured everything.
 
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Fish Styx said:
I do, but don't have cultures up at the moment.
Click to expand...
Same. I do lights for 16 hours and total darkness for 8 hours. I use f2 fertilizer. Harvest in 7 days. Using gallon jugs I keep 250ml for new culture. Starting new culture with too much phyto can result in the culture reaching a dense plateau phase too soon and may crash the culture. I start dosing to tank at 5ml per 10 gallon and increase weekly
 
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tbrown said:
@Kasrift does phyto I believe.
Click to expand...
I do! There are already responses, but I'll give my two cents.

1) Culture at 1.022. Evap will raise the salinity slightly and if you do it at reef 1.025, it will be high and can crash. Also, if you are dosing to a small aquarium, higher salinity will raise that aquariums salinity.

2) 16 is the prescribed amount, I actually only do 14 hours. I think it depends on the light source. I use the Poseidon Reef Systems and the LED strips that are glued directly to the jar are too bright and will burn the phyto on the bags on the inside when left on too long. Also, be aware that different phyto strains need different light requirements. I couldn't culture Iso and bought from both Pod Your Reef, hobbyists, and TSA and they always crashed until I read they need lower light. I bought the dimmer from Poseidon Reef and a lower light works perfect for Iso Galbana culturing. Also Rhodomonas Salinas likes blue light.

3) Depending where you are, maybe consider reversing the light schedule. I run lights overnight to keep temp warmer and it will be pretty much the same during daytime as at nightime.

4) Not all F/2 are the same. I don't know why this is, I used Mercer of Montana's f/2 from Amazon for the first two years of phyto culturing then on some stupid whim I bought another brand on Amazon and it crashed the cultures. I tried restarting from backups, they crashed again. I tried again (fail once and learn nothing) and just doubled the dose of F/2 and it works. I had to do that to use up the bottle, but long story short I went back to Mercer of Montana's F/2.

5) If culturing multiple strains, just be aware that you can cross contaminate a culture. In other words, if you are pouring off your culture into bottles and using a measuring cup, funnel, etc. and don't clean it with rubbing alcohol between use, the cultures could get some other strain in which can become dominant and take over the culture. For this reason, even though I use clean utensils, I always pour and bottle my Nanno culture last because apparently this is the easiest to take over in a mix of phyto.

6) Some strains of phyto have different requirements, so be aware of the salt you use. In general, cheap salt is used, but Reef Crystals for example is high in Calcium and that causes phyto to fall out of suspension faster (ie. settle in your bottle). I switched from Reef Crystals to the Aquaforest Sea Salt (the one for FOWLR) tanks and it is better, however Reef Crystals has more silicates in it which might be needed for things like Phaedo cultures. F/2 has some silicates in it I believe, but not enough and Phaedo cultures will crash.

7) Get the highest amount of bubbling you can, it helps.
 
Kasrift said:
I do! There are already responses, but I'll give my two cents.

1) Culture at 1.022. Evap will raise the salinity slightly and if you do it at reef 1.025, it will be high and can crash. Also, if you are dosing to a small aquarium, higher salinity will raise that aquariums salinity.

2) 16 is the prescribed amount, I actually only do 14 hours. I think it depends on the light source. I use the Poseidon Reef Systems and the LED strips that are glued directly to the jar are too bright and will burn the phyto on the bags on the inside when left on too long. Also, be aware that different phyto strains need different light requirements. I couldn't culture Iso and bought from both Pod Your Reef, hobbyists, and TSA and they always crashed until I read they need lower light. I bought the dimmer from Poseidon Reef and a lower light works perfect for Iso Galbana culturing. Also Rhodomonas Salinas likes blue light.

3) Depending where you are, maybe consider reversing the light schedule. I run lights overnight to keep temp warmer and it will be pretty much the same during daytime as at nightime.

4) Not all F/2 are the same. I don't know why this is, I used Mercer of Montana's f/2 from Amazon for the first two years of phyto culturing then on some stupid whim I bought another brand on Amazon and it crashed the cultures. I tried restarting from backups, they crashed again. I tried again (fail once and learn nothing) and just doubled the dose of F/2 and it works. I had to do that to use up the bottle, but long story short I went back to Mercer of Montana's F/2.

5) If culturing multiple strains, just be aware that you can cross contaminate a culture. In other words, if you are pouring off your culture into bottles and using a measuring cup, funnel, etc. and don't clean it with rubbing alcohol between use, the cultures could get some other strain in which can become dominant and take over the culture. For this reason, even though I use clean utensils, I always pour and bottle my Nanno culture last because apparently this is the easiest to take over in a mix of phyto.

6) Some strains of phyto have different requirements, so be aware of the salt you use. In general, cheap salt is used, but Reef Crystals for example is high in Calcium and that causes phyto to fall out of suspension faster (ie. settle in your bottle). I switched from Reef Crystals to the Aquaforest Sea Salt (the one for FOWLR) tanks and it is better, however Reef Crystals has more silicates in it which might be needed for things like Phaedo cultures. F/2 has some silicates in it I believe, but not enough and Phaedo cultures will crash.

7) Get the highest amount of bubbling you can, it helps.
Click to expand...
Very helpful. Thank you

Any tips on rotifers?
 

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