When can you tell when the phyto culture is ready?
Tomorrow, 7/29 it will be a week.
Tomorrow, 7/29 it will be a week.
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Well I would have thought so, I have the air valve all the way open, it’s non stop bubbles. I’ve wondered if the tube inside was almost too long, it’s pressed all the way against the bottom of the container, maybe I should trim it off a hair?You shouldn’t be getting the settling after only the 2nd day.
do you have enough air injection to keep the culture in suspension ?
Sounds like your culture is contaminated with cyano. I recommend checking under a microscope. Synechococcus (sp?) is darker green than nanno or tetraselmis, grows faster and gets more dense. It also settles faster and can get kind of "slimy" when it settles out. Phyto (especially nanno) can settle with no agitation but it takes more than a couple days.For you guys using Mercer, I’m trying them out after not having much success with Poseidon. Kept crashing after my 3rd harvest every time I started with new culture.
anyway, with Mercer, their phyto seems a lot darker green. After 2nd day, I get a lot settling on the bottom of the jar and the water is clearer up top. I shake the jar a little and it all turns dark green again. Is this normal?
I started a new batch. And this time instead of using water out of my 100g storage tank, I used it straight out of the RODI unit. Seems to be doing better with almost no settling.Sounds like your culture is contaminated with cyano. I recommend checking under a microscope. Synechococcus (sp?) is darker green than nanno or tetraselmis, grows faster and gets more dense. It also settles faster and can get kind of "slimy" when it settles out. Phyto (especially nanno) can settle with no agitation but it takes more than a couple days.
Unless you have a microscope you can't really tell the difference between phyto and cyano cultures.
Under a microscope, nanno is small ~4micron spheres. Tetraselmis is larger oval-shaped, ~15 x 10 microns and moves around with a flagella. Synechococcus is tiny and you won't be able to see individual cells unless under high mag (250× or more).
That's a really nice setup!Finally got around to restarting my phyto cultures. Nanno and Tetra compliments of Mercer of Montana. Looking forward to seeing how this set up works out.
Nano is non-motile. But many have synechococcus take over and they look similar. See pics for comparison:I am using a Nano culture from Mercer. Was wondering, when looking at a sample under a microscope (sample was from refrigerated dosing batch) the phyto was pretty dense but not motile. Is that normal for Nano or is my culture “dead” and not useful?
Hello. Looks like it's been a while, but do you still make these, and what do you charge? Also, if you do still make them, can you print them in black? Thanks!I grow the same culture from mercer and feed my pod culture with it, and they really flourish. As others have said, the DT and refugiums really benefit due to the added mico fauna. Plus Clams and NPS coral will thrive. The type of plankton we add to our tanks does not contribute to added nitrates, or negative parameter directly. Indirectly i would assume the elevated parameter could come from the fauna increasing which would directly increase the waste they produce. How much though? probably undetectable in most of our systems, but it is always a good idea to test more when adding a steady culture of phyto to the tanks.
However I have fabricated a custom 3d printed phyto grow pod with oxo flip lock containers. I DO make these for people and if you are interested please PM me, I run 4 off of 1 power supply.
I can't give away all of our secrets, but here is a starting point:
This is where the equipment gets expensive.