Id harvest 2 jars and split the 3rd. Mine go for a week, then harvest.Is this nannochloropsis phyto ready to harvest? Also, Copepods have been "cooking" for three weeks now and I don't know if I should a) Just add enough saltwater to roughly double the volume? b) Sieve it and use all new water? c) Leave it be? Thanks in advance. This is my first attempt at culturing either.
I chose Nanno for the phyto cultures bc I read it was the easiest. Now I wish I'd chosen a motile type so I could easily scope it and tell it was alive. I've also read Nanno is not ideal as food for copepods due to hard cell wall.
I can definitely see them easily with the naked eye and flashlight. The problem is the color making it difficult to see very deep into the jar to judge the density. It also concerns me that I haven't needed to add any phyto since the cultures were started three weeks ago.
Nanno is ok but ideally you want to get them eating some of your more advanced brown algeas
Now that's PHTYO on roids!!!! Sweet.I would not split those phyto cultures yet. It looks like you need more fertilizer and more light. I get mine so dark they look almost black in about 10 days time, with either Nannochloropsis or Tetraselmis.
This is some of my last Tetraselmis harvest held up to a 75W light directly behind it. It is incredibly concentrated. I use 3/4 gallon glass culture jars, a rigid airline with no airstone, and 3mL of Mercer of Montana F2 fertilizer, plus my well water mixed with reef crystals salt at 1.025.
Thanks. So I harvested one since I needed some for my tank, split another into the second and third one in pic., and just added F2 to the first one. Lets see what happens! I'd already ordered more lights to put on it. Thinking ahead, what does it mean if it doesn't get significantly darker? Can it be dead yet still green and not settled? Think I'm going to order some mobile species like Tetraselmis so I can scope it and see it move.I would not split those phyto cultures yet. It looks like you need more fertilizer and more light. I get mine so dark they look almost black in about 10 days time, with either Nannochloropsis or Tetraselmis.
This is some of my last Tetraselmis harvest held up to a 75W light directly behind it. It is incredibly concentrated. I use 3/4 gallon glass culture jars, a rigid airline with no airstone, and 3mL of Mercer of Montana F2 fertilizer, plus my well water mixed with reef crystals salt at 1.025.
do you feed phyto to the pods everyday during those 6 weeks?
Man that looks nice and dark! For the fertilizer you use is it just 1-part? And the 3ML lasts through 10 days or do you add more after the initial one?I would not split those phyto cultures yet. It looks like you need more fertilizer and more light. I get mine so dark they look almost black in about 10 days time, with either Nannochloropsis or Tetraselmis.
This is some of my last Tetraselmis harvest held up to a 75W light directly behind it. It is incredibly concentrated. I use 3/4 gallon glass culture jars, a rigid airline with no airstone, and 3mL of Mercer of Montana F2 fertilizer, plus my well water mixed with reef crystals salt at 1.025.
Just 1 part, and yes, it lasts the 10 days. I basically double dose it every time I reset a culture.
Could you recommend a place for me to get a good starter culture of Tetraselmus?
7 days max to harvest. 5-7 is ok, but keep a very regular schedule and use the same procedure every time.
My slides definitely look like the top pick but I worry I won't be able to tell if they die off since they don't move when alive. Due to that fact, as well as reading nannochloropsis is difficult for pods to consume, I'm thinking I'd like to switch to tetraselmus. All that being said if you've seen the pics I posted today do you think my cultures were dark enough to harvest/split, and what do you expect to happen to the jar I didn't split but rather just added F2 to and will allow the go another week?So I'm gonna share some advice, based on my experience, because I'm seeing some things in this thread that I don't believe are correct.
I've attached pics of nannochloropsus and tetraselmis, and cyanobacteria from the genus synnecochoccus. Notice they are all green?
When phyto cultures get very dense, the pH will rise. When pH reaches ~9, nanno and tetraselmis stop growing. They will not get appreciably more dense, and you need to harvest. This is assuming you are not controlling pH, which can be done using CO2 injection.
Synnecochoccus will continue growing at >9pH. It also grows faster than nanno or tet, and can reach crazy high density. Basically the culture will turn almost black. And in my experience, cyanobacteria contamination is inevitable. If you haven't seen it yet, it's because you haven't been growing phyto long enough. Or you don't know how to recognize it, since it basically still looks like green water.
So in my experience, if you are growing very dense phyto, it's probably turned into synnechoccus. Some of the pics in this thread are almost certainly cyanobacteria.
I anticipate some may not want to hear this. That's ok. Feel free to explain logically, preferably based on your own data, why I may be mistaken.
