Phytoplankton Culturing

[TheReefDiary]

Okay so just wondering if my setup will work for culturing phyto? I have a pump with air lines into each controlled by valves. I have a decent led light.

These are .5 gallon jugs.

How much phyto to saltwater should I put in these to start the culture.
How often do I fertilize the culture? Just in the beginning and then leave it?

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Following

 

[reef_1]

Okay so just wondering if my setup will work for culturing phyto? I have a pump with air lines into each controlled by valves. I have a decent led light.

These are .5 gallon jugs.

How much phyto to saltwater should I put in these to start the culture.
How often do I fertilize the culture? Just in the beginning and then leave it?

Yes this will work.

You can fill it up with saltwater, then tint the water a little bit. A little is enough.

If you use standard fertilizer you can measure nitrate etc in their water with normal test kits and refuel when it drops to 0. For me it was refuel once towards the end and got extreme dense culture.

 

[TheReefDiary]

Yes this will work.

You can fill it up with saltwater, then tint the water a little bit. A little is enough.

If you use standard fertilizer you can measure nitrate etc in their water with normal test kits and refuel when it drops to 0. For me it was refuel once towards the end and got extreme dense culture.

I'm using fritz fertilizer. And sounds good, appreciate it!

 

[reef_1]

I'm using fritz fertilizer. And sounds good, appreciate it!

I see.

I used standard plant fertilizer from a garden center, vaguely same ingredients and worked out much cheaper, cultured zooplankton wiht phyto, no side effects were observed, everything thrived. After all both are photosynthetic stuff, so eat very similar. Only issue was diatoms/isochrysis, the silicate based ones.

Good idea to have a slight tint, then with your lights you should see it darkening in 24 or worst case 48 hrs.

 

[TheReefDiary]

I see.

I used standard plant fertilizer from a garden center, vaguely same ingredients and worked out much cheaper, cultured zooplankton wiht phyto, no side effects were observed, everything thrived. After all both are photosynthetic stuff, so eat very similar. Only issue was diatoms/isochrysis, the silicate based ones.

Good idea to have a slight tint, then with your lights you should see it darkening in 24 or worst case 48 hrs.

How long do I keep lights on for?

 

[reef_1]

How long do I keep lights on for?

Mine went 0-24. I had a single household cool light LED bulb hanging into a similar box in the middle, phyto cultures closely around in a circle, walls covered in tinfoil to maximise reflected light as well.

But anything I say is not an advice, just my experience, follow it at your risk. And think of risks, for example you spill your phyto culture and your light can get soaked and burn down house. + I would move the air pump outside for similar reasons + to get fresh air. In an enclosed box think about humidity as well etc

1st be safe
2nd grow phyto

 

[G Santana]

I eyeball it, never measured, I do 2 liters bottles of soda, I add 2ml of fertilizer and harvest after 7 days. I do not add anymore fertilizer unless I see the culture getting light but I have only done that once in the last year.

Make sure you clean your hands, clean everything with alcohol and then rinse with tap water, rigid tubing, the jars and lid before starting.

In 1 year I only lost 1 culture.

Good luck with your cultures.

 

[CoralB]

I eyeball it, never measured, I do 2 liters bottles of soda, I add 2ml of fertilizer and harvest after 7 days. I do not add anymore fertilizer unless I see the culture getting light but I have only done that once in the last year.

Make sure you clean your hands, clean everything with alcohol and then rinse with tap water, rigid tubing, the jars and lid before starting.

In 1 year I only lost 1 culture.

Good luck with your cultures.

Clean with what kind of alcohol? Will a good 14 year scotch do ?? Lol !!! Kidding !!!

 

[TheReefDiary]

I eyeball it, never measured, I do 2 liters bottles of soda, I add 2ml of fertilizer and harvest after 7 days. I do not add anymore fertilizer unless I see the culture getting light but I have only done that once in the last year.

Make sure you clean your hands, clean everything with alcohol and then rinse with tap water, rigid tubing, the jars and lid before starting.

In 1 year I only lost 1 culture.

Good luck with your cultures.

What type of alcohol? Isopropyl? Also, is cleaning with distilled vinegar fine?

 

[GarrettT]

I found using a steripen instead of bleach preformed better. Not really sure why…

You add fertilizer ever time you split a culture, not just in the beginning. The amount of fertilizer you add is based on the overall volume (nsw + phyto culture). By the time you split a culture, the fertilizer should be fully depleted.

 

[reef_1]

Sorry to steal the answer one last time, I just share this one about cleaning.

Theoretically you should clean stuff properly to avoid crosscontamination, or between batches or to avoid dropping a drop of roti into a phyto culture, but in practice its a pain so I gave up on that very fast, I washed my hands, rinsed bottles with hot water and had some simple rules that I always touch phyto cultures first and zoo second.

I crosscontaminated a culture more frequently - once or twice a month lets say, but could always restart it without big mess:

1st line of defense: I had at least three bottles going from each type, so could refill from another bottle

2nd: I got small, lighter 50ml starter cultures kept in fridge, replaced once a month or similar - for the case all bottle from a type got crosscontaminated

3rd: I tried the petri dish method to separate single species from mixed culture, then restart culture from that, it worked very well and to my amazement culture restarted from a single piece of algae - but never needed this in real life, only did it for fun

4th: You can buy a culture once again if none of the above works, its not a huge price to avoid dealing with disinfectants

But I had at least 15 bottles going, so maintenance was really painful, needed to make it simpler.

 

[ddc0715]

does anyone filter their phtyo when harvesting? if so what micron rating media do you use? 100,50,25,10,5,1?

 

[Anthony Scholfield]

Here is a video you may find helpful in your journey.


Also, if you’re on Instagram I have made a breakdown series of videos on my procedure of culturing phytoplankton from beginning to end. You can find it under the videos tab. @doubleadeejay

 

[chello]

I found using a steripen instead of bleach preformed better. Not really sure why…

You add fertilizer ever time you split a culture, not just in the beginning. The amount of fertilizer you add is based on the overall volume (nsw + phyto culture). By the time you split a culture, the fertilizer should be fully depleted.

I also followed the recipe, that after one week, the fertilizer shall be consumed and therefore nitrate should read 0 - that I usually check before using the phyto. Recently I have more and more cultures, which do not consume the nitrate - I have high (30-50ppm) nitrate even after 9-10 days. Also, they are not as dark as I would like it. Do you have any theory, what do I miss?
Photo attached about my setup. I have 2 Led light bulbs, 6500K 17w each. I’m wondering if the light could be too strong, or if they warm up too much (I try to keep the door slightly open, cultures did not seem very warm by hand.) Furthermore when I split the culture, I use ~40% phyto and 60% nsw. So definitely more than tinting it as the others said above. Not sure if it makes a difference..

Fun fact: the one culture with magnetic stirrer is always growing best (but it might be because that gets less light as well.. not necessarily due to water movement)

 

[Nano_Man]

This is my second cultured so far went ok
The only light I used was day light at the window