Live food culture questions

[Reefer Dan]

I have been gathering a lot of information and starting to plan some live cultures. I haven’t been able to find the answers to these specific questions— any help would be greatly appreciated.

Would this light be sufficient to use for 64 oz Phyto cultures? https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B077QN3BBF/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

Would a whisper air pump 20-40 gallon be sufficient with a gang valve for four 64 oz Phyto cultures, a 5 gallon rotifer, and 5 gallon copepod culture or should I get the bigger pump?

Would this much Phyto sustain the other cultures or be cutting it close?

I’ve read that tap water is fine for cultures, but wouldn’t this cause problems down the line when adding to reef tanks?

It looks like for rotifers specifically a lot of feeds/companies use an ammonia reducer, which is reef safe/recommended to minimize problems when adding to reef tank?

I haven’t found anywhere a step by step instruction for making sure cultures are clean/sanitized when starting (to reduce contamination’s)— anyone have any resources on this? I imagine could use chlorine and declorinate - if so which product is one that won’t cause problems down the line in a reef tank?

 

[sde1500]

Would a whisper air pump 20-40 gallon be sufficient with a gang valve for four 64 oz Phyto cultures, a 5 gallon rotifer, and 5 gallon copepod culture or should I get the bigger pump?

Splitting the air pump to multiple sources really cuts down on the airflow for each. I think I use a whisper 150 for my 4, 1 gallon phyto cultures.

Would this much Phyto sustain the other cultures or be cutting it close?

Hard to say for certain I think. May take a little trial and error to get dosing levels down.

It looks like for rotifers specifically a lot of feeds/companies use an ammonia reducer, which is reef safe/recommended to minimize problems when adding to reef tank?

Prime should be fine.

 

[biophilia]

The aquaculture industry commonly uses powdered Chloram-X as an ammonia reducer, but Prime is pretty much the same thing and might be easier to pick up locally. Amquel or similar would also work...

As for sterilization of the water and vessel, sodium hypochlorite (bleach) followed by a neutralization with sodium thiosulfate is pretty common. If you're working with a much smaller volume you can also consider sterilizing with heat (throw it in the microwave). Here's a good link: https://thefishsite.com/articles/phytoplankton-culture-for-aquaculture-feed

 

[afboundguy]

I use distilled water for my phyto cultures. 1 gallon is only $1 at the grocery store and it's easier than boiling water and with phyto you need to focus on sterilization and a freshly opened gallon of distilled water is the easiest and fastest way for me.

I would think tap water could cause issues if you don't remove the chlorine but for pod and rotifer cultures I could see it working but IMO I wouldn't risk it. I usually just used RODI water for my pod cultures or left over mixed saltwater (if I have any) that I've made with the distilled phyto saltwater mix.

 

[Reefer Dan]

Thanks guys! This is all very helpful information, I appreciate the insights. I never thought about microwaving or using Distilled water! Any additional tips and insights are welcome.

I think I’m going to try the whisper 60-100 gallon for the cultures, I’m hesitant because I’ve heard they are extremely noisy— but it sounds like it could be a better option.

Any feedback on the light? I’ve been trying to find an energy efficient, cheap light strip and this looked to be the best bang for the buck.

 

[afboundguy]

I use a daylight cfl floodlight bulb been working quite well for me so far and was super cheap...