Thoughts on phytoplankton

[BAMatter]

I used to culture phyto, brine shrimp, and copepods on a shelf with nothing more than a 24” fluorescent 2 bulb shop light fitted with some cheap Home Depot plant bulbs, some mason quart jars and a Whisper air pump. I used four jars total, and kept up a pour from one jar into the other cycle for years. The heat from the light fixture kept the temp steady during winter, and during summer I just aimed a fan on it. Super low budget and it provided plenty for my tanks.

Did you do any sterilization in between cultures? I keep reading about how important that is but can’t seem to find many people elaborating on that much…

 

[BaghdadBean]

Did you do any sterilization in between cultures? I keep reading about how important that is but can’t seem to find many people elaborating on that much…

This is a yes and no answer. Hopefully I can be clear here with more coffee. For the shrimp and pods, I was harvesting pretty often, and I would pour them off into a home built filter thingy (filter screen glued to the end of a piece of pvc pipe) and then feed that into the tank. I kept a few of those screen thingies so that I could bleach and wash them between uses so that I wasn’t dragging weird stuff from my aquarium backwards. The brine shrimp I would empty out all the way, then use a new clean jar and eggs to restart their culture. Not so with the pods. I kept a small amount of them still in their jar, then would add fresh saltwater to the pod jar, and pour in some of the darkest phyto culture, and whenever it got too light, I added some more in. There was definitely some trial and error involved in this, and I wiped out my copepods a few times by not feeding them enough, or feeding them too much. A bottle of pods would be a new start in those cases.

For the phyto itself, I kept two jars running at all times. Usually the second jar was the oldest, most dense, and I would use about 1/3 to 1/2 of that to feed the pods and brine shrimp, and almost the rest I bottled to feed to my tank. The first jar was my renewal jar. When I harvested the oldest, densest culture, I’d get a clean jar, fill it with clean saltwater, add the remnant phyto culture from the used up jar, and a little bit of phyto food. Important note here: just because orchid/miracle gro/whatever fertilizer grows phyto doesn’t mean you should actually use it to grow phyto you pour into your aquarium. Don’t cheap out, get good grade aquarium safe fertilizer for your phyto. You can buy it nowadays if you search online, I used to get mine from the local college lab techs. Anyways, then I would pour in the dregs of the harvested culture, and go from there. You’re basically playing musical chairs with clean jars and old jars, and a 6 pack of quart jars provides exactly enough for this scale. You’ll end up with one really dense jar at any given point, and one jar that’s pretty fresh starting, and for me at least, the timing was pretty spot on with the phyto, but the timing on the pods was a play it by ear trial by error sort of thing. I got really good at judging when they needed fed, but it wasn‘t a sudden success kinda thing.

 

[BAMatter]

This is a yes and no answer. Hopefully I can be clear here with more coffee. For the shrimp and pods, I was harvesting pretty often, and I would pour them off into a home built filter thingy (filter screen glued to the end of a piece of pvc pipe) and then feed that into the tank. I kept a few of those screen thingies so that I could bleach and wash them between uses so that I wasn’t dragging weird stuff from my aquarium backwards. The brine shrimp I would empty out all the way, then use a new clean jar and eggs to restart their culture. Not so with the pods. I kept a small amount of them still in their jar, then would add fresh saltwater to the pod jar, and pour in some of the darkest phyto culture, and whenever it got too light, I added some more in. There was definitely some trial and error involved in this, and I wiped out my copepods a few times by not feeding them enough, or feeding them too much. A bottle of pods would be a new start in those cases.

For the phyto itself, I kept two jars running at all times. Usually the second jar was the oldest, most dense, and I would use about 1/3 to 1/2 of that to feed the pods and brine shrimp, and almost the rest I bottled to feed to my tank. The first jar was my renewal jar. When I harvested the oldest, densest culture, I’d get a clean jar, fill it with clean saltwater, add the remnant phyto culture from the used up jar, and a little bit of phyto food. Important note here: just because orchid/miracle gro/whatever fertilizer grows phyto doesn’t mean you should actually use it to grow phyto you pour into your aquarium. Don’t cheap out, get good grade aquarium safe fertilizer for your phyto. You can buy it nowadays if you search online, I used to get mine from the local college lab techs. Anyways, then I would pour in the dregs of the harvested culture, and go from there. You’re basically playing musical chairs with clean jars and old jars, and a 6 pack of quart jars provides exactly enough for this scale. You’ll end up with one really dense jar at any given point, and one jar that’s pretty fresh starting, and for me at least, the timing was pretty spot on with the phyto, but the timing on the pods was a play it by ear trial by error sort of thing. I got really good at judging when they needed fed, but it wasn‘t a sudden success kinda thing.

Awesome thanks for that! Yea I saw F2 fert for the phyto- when cleaning old jars is just a good rinse with hot water and then some RODI? Or do you need something like bleach like with the pods?

 

[BaghdadBean]

Awesome thanks for that! Yea I saw F2 fert for the phyto- when cleaning old jars is just a good rinse with hot water and then some RODI? Or do you need something like bleach like with the pods?

I would love to tell you that I was a responsible lab tech who used bleach but nah, I was a single mom with a accident prone toddler on my hands. I straight up threw those babies in the dishwasher, rinsed them once extra and put them back on the shelf. If they started getting that weird crusty build up I would just use baking soda and a wash rag to scrub it out.

 

[BAMatter]

I would love to tell you that I was a responsible lab tech who used bleach but nah, I was a single mom with a accident prone toddler on my hands. I straight up threw those babies in the dishwasher, rinsed them once extra and put them back on the shelf. If they started getting that weird crusty build up I would just use baking soda and a wash rag to scrub it out.

Thank you

 

[damsels are not mean]

Seeing most people's operations going on in houses (some with some nice looking backyards too!) Any tips for those of us living in apartments or other close quarters? I'd like to culture pods, phyto, brine, etc but my 500 SF apartment seems to say otherwise lol.

This is going to sound bizarre, but is there any way to successfully do any of the above in a cabinet?? My small window sill doesn't have much capacity haha

I just started a culture in my windowsill. It is growing but slowly. The window is north facing so it will do better in the summer I suppose. I think a cheap strip light on amazon would do it faster but I had all I needed lying around already for this so I didn't feel like buying anything.

 

[Jerrym21]

I would love to tell you that I was a responsible lab tech who used bleach but nah, I was a single mom with a accident prone toddler on my hands. I straight up threw those babies in the dishwasher, rinsed them once extra and put them back on the shelf. If they started getting that weird crusty build up I would just use baking soda and a wash rag to scrub it out.

I wipe the inside of my culture vessels with alcohol then rinse with Rodi. For my bottles, I rinse them in hot water and then rodi. so far, I’ve never had a crash.