Phyto Culture Setup (w/ DIY CO2)

[Collinslice]

Hey all,
So Amber won the January meeting's big raffle, which was a phyto reactor. Needless to say, I had this bad boy up and full of phyto before most people got home from the meeting. During the meeting Chriskid mentioned the addition of CO2 being beneficial to a phyto culture. Off to youtube I went to find the planted tank guys had already come up with a DIY CO2 "reactor" that will pump out enough CO2 for up to a 40 gallon tank. Thinking that's plenty more than I'll need, I went ahead and built myself one.
So here's a write-up for anyone interested in starting their own phyto, but the thought of adding CO2 seemed like only an idea.

This was the reactor right when I got it setup. (Hopefully Chriskid can chime in with the species of phyto)

Here it is right before I added this new rig

 

[Collinslice]

And to add CO2 to the mix you will need:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp yeast
Airline tubing (Silicone preferred, I plan on switching mine out as soon as I can)
Large container (I used a 3L because it was on sale, the video showed using a 2L bottle)
1/4" Drill bit
Airline diverter (I grabbed this one quick, will replace it with something a little better in the future)

Drill a hole in the bottle's cap and thread the airline tubing ~1" in

Connect your airline tubing and new CO2 line to both run into the reactor (This is where mine gets a bit messy, and it'll be cleaned up if it actually works out haha)

That's the entire reactor! Now time to make up the mix that pumps out CO2

1cup water mixed with 1cup sugar
1/8 tsp yeast activated
mixed altogether in your "reactor"

Simple as that! I put a little bit of silicone around the tubing where it meets the cap just to be sure its a tight fit. I'll report back on how its going every other day or so. Anyone need some phyto near Madison?

A couple last notes about the yeast mixture:
with this size bottle, it should produce CO2 for about 2 weeks. 1L=1week and 20oz=4-5 days
put your yeast packet in the fridge after you only use 1/8 tsp. It will last much longer that way

 

[Collinslice]

And a big thanks to the CTARS BOD who put together an awesome meeting. Left with not only a raffle prize, but the knowledge to get it up and running

 

[captc07]

Pretty sure the phyto is nannochloropsis

 

[Collinslice]

Copepods and Brine are on the list next hopefully. If I can, I'd like to feed mostly live foods and see what happens

 

[sassAwrasse]

Pretty neat idea with the CO2. How long have you had it running?

 

[Collinslice]

Pretty neat idea with the CO2. How long have you had it running?

Almost 6 hours now haha. Ill keep you guys updated on how it works. And how green the phyto gets

 

[chriskid]

Nannochloropsis

 

[Collinslice]

Nannochloropsis

Thank you sir. I might try my hand at a different species next time around. Been exploring the Florida Aqua Farms site you guys mentioned at the meeting.

Isocrysis is what I think I'm going to go with next.

Slight update to the reactor as well. I don't know if it was the little bit of CO2 I added in, or the fact its been up and running for just over a week, but I can no longer see through the chamber. Yesterday I could still make out some shapes. I'm going to split the culture this week, and see what happens. Anyone need some phyto?

 

[Collinslice]

The verdict is in. I definitely have a phyto culture cruising right along. I emptied half of the reactor and replaced with new water 2 days ago, and its already a thick green again. Time to set up the other cultures. Updates to be posted

 

[jservedio]

Thank you sir. I might try my hand at a different species next time around. Been exploring the Florida Aqua Farms site you guys mentioned at the meeting.

Isocrysis is what I think I'm going to go with next.

Slight update to the reactor as well. I don't know if it was the little bit of CO2 I added in, or the fact its been up and running for just over a week, but I can no longer see through the chamber. Yesterday I could still make out some shapes. I'm going to split the culture this week, and see what happens. Anyone need some phyto?

Nanno is really good to learn culturing and will grow in **** near anything as long as it has even incidental light. Unfortunately, it isn't all that good and is the smallest particle size of any phyto. Most good phyto mixes, like the Reef Nutrition and a bunch of local ones, contain a lot of the larger sized brown phyto and diatoms which are really useful.

Isochrysis is really good and is a much better phyto to culture if you are planning on culturing pods as well. Pods are fairly easy to culture, isochrysis is NOT. Make sure you have a very, very good sterilization and cross-contamination prevention process or you are going to lose a lot of cultures, and Isochrysis isn't cheap and it is very easy to lose a culture overnight.

For pods, tigger pods and tisbee are really easy as long as you keep up with water changes and don't overdo it with the feeding. Nanno is a bad food for them, and they will be far less nutritious for the fish that eat them than a pod raised on iso.

 

[Collinslice]

Nanno is really good to learn culturing and will grow in **** near anything as long as it has even incidental light. Unfortunately, it isn't all that good and is the smallest particle size of any phyto. Most good phyto mixes, like the Reef Nutrition and a bunch of local ones, contain a lot of the larger sized brown phyto and diatoms which are really useful.

Isochrysis is really good and is a much better phyto to culture if you are planning on culturing pods as well. Pods are fairly easy to culture, isochrysis is NOT. Make sure you have a very, very good sterilization and cross-contamination prevention process or you are going to lose a lot of cultures, and Isochrysis isn't cheap and it is very easy to lose a culture overnight.

For pods, tigger pods and tisbee are really easy as long as you keep up with water changes and don't overdo it with the feeding. Nanno is a bad food for them, and they will be far less nutritious for the fish that eat them than a pod raised on iso.

This is all very very good info. Thank you. Do you have any preferred sterilization techniques? I'll definitely be sure to do my reading before wasting money haha

 

[jservedio]

Boiling water and chlorine tablets that are then neutralized chemically (don't waste your money on Prime, buy it in bulk because you will use it 3-4 times a week if you have staggered cultures). Make sure you have glassware, sieves, and tools that are ONLY used for culturing and sterilize them between cultures. Also, IMO the biggest problem with pollution and cross contamination is from your air source and your air-pump. With this I ordered a packet of N100 filters for use on a half-face respirator (they are circles about 3" in diameter) and block out 99.7% of all contaminants and cut them to replace the "cotton ball" filter on my air-pump. They are good enough to be used when dealing with antrax, so they will stop any household bacteria, spores, etc. from making into your cultures.

Keeping salinity low helps a lot. I don't remember the exact levels since I got traded away my mandarins about 6 months ago (the culturing was just too much hassle) - but you can look up the optimal salinity for everything.

Never use tank water, never put anything that was in your tank remotely close to your cultures.

When mixing fresh SW, use a dedicated box of IO salt with dedicated tools and only mix that into neutralized, sterile water. Also, the F/2 media from Florida Aqua Farms is awesome and that site will be your best friend for finding stuff.

Lastly, when you get tired of culturing phyto and pods, start hatching baby brine. It is far less tedious, completely foolproof, and they are even more nutritious.

 

[chriskid]

i find around .011 ish works best for me.

 

[Rodney G Woelfel]

And to add CO2 to the mix you will need:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp yeast
Airline tubing (Silicone preferred, I plan on switching mine out as soon as I can)
Large container (I used a 3L because it was on sale, the video showed using a 2L bottle)
1/4" Drill bit
Airline diverter (I grabbed this one quick, will replace it with something a little better in the future)

Drill a hole in the bottle's cap and thread the airline tubing ~1" in

Connect your airline tubing and new CO2 line to both run into the reactor (This is where mine gets a bit messy, and it'll be cleaned up if it actually works out haha)

That's the entire reactor! Now time to make up the mix that pumps out CO2

1cup water mixed with 1cup sugar
1/8 tsp yeast activated
mixed altogether in your "reactor"

Simple as that! I put a little bit of silicone around the tubing where it meets the cap just to be sure its a tight fit. I'll report back on how its going every other day or so. Anyone need some phyto near Madison?

A couple last notes about the yeast mixture:
with this size bottle, it should produce CO2 for about 2 weeks. 1L=1week and 20oz=4-5 days
put your yeast packet in the fridge after you only use 1/8 tsp. It will last much longer that way

Nice write up.