Phyto culture
- Thread starter Jilly92
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I just run an airline with little flow in a 2 liter soda bottle. Wouldn't go open top to avoid contamination.
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Jilly92
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Does it need air? If I were to just use the magnetic stirrer? I don't have an extra air pump right now and I want to set it up tonight.I just run an airline with little flow in a 2 liter soda bottle. Wouldn't go open top to avoid contamination.
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I've never seen anyone run one with a magnetic stirrer, but it should work, the air is just to help keep the phyto suspended.
If you go this route, take pictures and post your results. It should be interesting and informative if it works.
Good luck!
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I would just run it without a heater. Give it a go.
ZoWhat
10K Club member
Jilly Jilly Jilly.
Just buy an airpump at Walmart meant fir a 20gal tank and use air tubing
The phyto look like this:
You go running a propeller blade, you'll chop them up for sure with no chance for them to populate by the billions.
The purpose of the air bubbles is to GENTLY ROLL the water over and over so the phyto can grow in suspension.
Phytoplankton left in still water will sink to the bottom and then turn to slime.
Any aggressive agitation like a propeller blade will kill the culture in about 3-days turning tge while container into a tan murky muck.
Tan looking phyto = dead phyto (and an inability to further culture)
Deep green looking phyto = live phyto ready to do its job in your tank.
Plz stick with best practices
.
Just buy an airpump at Walmart meant fir a 20gal tank and use air tubing
The phyto look like this:
You go running a propeller blade, you'll chop them up for sure with no chance for them to populate by the billions.
The purpose of the air bubbles is to GENTLY ROLL the water over and over so the phyto can grow in suspension.
Phytoplankton left in still water will sink to the bottom and then turn to slime.
Any aggressive agitation like a propeller blade will kill the culture in about 3-days turning tge while container into a tan murky muck.
Tan looking phyto = dead phyto (and an inability to further culture)
Deep green looking phyto = live phyto ready to do its job in your tank.
Plz stick with best practices
.
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ZoWhat
10K Club member
Yes the Sun.
Look at all this gorgeous phyto in the water in the Destin FL harbor that I took a pic of this past June
Anthony Scholfield
Valuable Member
I also agree that its best to stick with the air bubbles.
Ive been documenting my phyto and copepod culturing journey over on the instagram. check it out if ya like. Its @ doubleadeejay
Ive been documenting my phyto and copepod culturing journey over on the instagram. check it out if ya like. Its @ doubleadeejay
DrZoidburg
Valuable Member
You would want the air cause it adds more C02 to the water.
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Jilly92
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Split again tonight. Going to experiment the magnetic culture VS airline culture to see which crashes first. I did the f2 wrong and only added .2 mL into the culture of 64 oz in the previous 2 batches ( magnetic stirrer batches) instead of 2.0 ml, but it was still successful. So now I have 64 oz in magnetic batch and (2) 32 oz airline cultures and (6) 8 oz bottled phyto in fridge.
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Jilly92
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#3 harvest. Cultures with airline in front of East sun window darker this round, main culture magnetic stirrer in North sun window lighter colored. Airline culture only sun, main culture blue and red lights.
