Culturing Phytoplankton

[xclusive252]

I am currently doing this for fry.

 

[pshootr]

Are you guys actually finding this to be cost-effective? After looking at the write-up, it seems that you need a fair amount of materials, as well as a fair amount of time and effort. Not to mention the electricity cost for the lighting.

In the long run is it that much more expensive to use a prepared food?

 

[Ray668]

Will be giving this a try can’t cost a whole lot

 

[reelredfisah]

So whats the best setup folks have found? I am limited on space so was thinking about two of the one gallon glass jars. One for Phytoplankton and one for pods. The online kit they sale is way to over priced for what it is.

 

[Doctorgori]

So whats the best setup folks have found? I am limited on space so was thinking about two of the one gallon glass jars. One for Phytoplankton and one for pods. The online kit they sale is way to over priced for what it is.

I culture gallons of it...4-6 white 5 gal buckets with a dbl 4ft shop light and air bubble is plenty cheap...I use f/2 and no air stones ... I’ve tried pure cultures but wild ones are probably ok if the nutritional profile works for you... I can go into detail but suffice to say I don’t do much work

 

[Sam Osborne]

Hey everyone great thread, ive ordered a starter culture of nanno and f2 ect and will begin to culture when it arrives! A couple questions I have...

I’ve seen some people online selling phytoplankton which is super concentrated and really really dark and almost thick, you mention that if you leave it too long it will crash because it runs out of f2. If it got to the 10 day mark could you just add more f2 and it would continue to grow and so on or would that not work?

Also how much f2 to culture would you recommend and what spitting ratio do you use and think works best? (Amount of photo to saltwater to start culture)

 

[Doctorgori]

So whats the best setup folks have found? I am limited on space so was thinking about two of the one gallon glass jars. One for Phytoplankton and one for pods. The online kit they sale is way to over priced for what it is.

I use f/2 and no air stones ... I’ve tried pure cultures but wild ones are probably ok if the nutritional profile works for you... I can go into detail but suffice to say I don’t do much work

correction: I should clarify that by saying the buckets are outside with ample CO2 and surface movement from air....cultures indoors need water movement ..
but yes I have got green water from just leaving white buckets outside in the right spot....

 

[Siggy in CR]

Interesting subject. Is anyone aware of someone who has tried to implement a continuous feed type system to dose a tank with zoo/phytoplankton? I'm imagining a system where you take the water that you would normally flush down the drain for water changes on a reef tank and collect it maybe even with skimate from the skimmer and sterilize it before storing it. Adjust the nutrient content with your fertilizer of choice and then have it drip into your phyto cultures.
Have the cultures set up with a drain that functions like siphon when a high water mark is reached, draining a portion of the phyto culture into the zooplankton culture, which would in turn have a similar setup to feed the reef tank.
The way I imagine it, you would be able to maintain a stable population level in the cultures by maintaining them in a constant state of growth and reproduction by regularly adding fresh nutrients and exporting part of the culture out.

 

[fastgoby]

Interesting subject. Is anyone aware of someone who has tried to implement a continuous feed type system to dose a tank with zoo/phytoplankton? I'm imagining a system where you take the water that you would normally flush down the drain for water changes on a reef tank and collect it maybe even with skimate from the skimmer and sterilize it before storing it. Adjust the nutrient content with your fertilizer of choice and then have it drip into your phyto cultures.
Have the cultures set up with a drain that functions like siphon when a high water mark is reached, draining a portion of the phyto culture into the zooplankton culture, which would in turn have a similar setup to feed the reef tank.
The way I imagine it, you would be able to maintain a stable population level in the cultures by maintaining them in a constant state of growth and reproduction by regularly adding fresh nutrients and exporting part of the culture out.

Continuous systems like you describe is really hard to get right. The biggest issue is having some redundant system in place... what happens if your culture crashes? You'll be feeding sludge into the main tank if you have no reliable way to detect it. The other issue is reusing tank water is a recipe for an eventual culture crash, because it's introducing contaminants that the phyto don't need (including copepods if your system has them).

 

[Poriferabob]

I know yellowing, or browning cultures equals contamination and crash but has anyone had their green culture suddenly go clear?

 

[Blutspitze]

Hoping that @CJO and/or others can help me out with this. I've been trying to set up a phyto/pod culture system for a few weeks now, but can't figure out what's going wrong. My setup is very similar to what's outlined here in the OP, but just extended to multiple containers. I'm also using the F1 formulation, rather than F2 (2X concentration of F2 and into 1.025 water). I took a couple weeks to verify the temperatures were on point (~77 F), cleaned and heavily rinsed the glasses before using proper soap and RO water, etc., then added new growth water and initially used 4 drops of Phyto Feast as an inoculent and left it for two weeks.

Testing fittings before finalizing everything.

After initial inoculation

Up and running!


After said two weeks I realized that Phyto Feast has quiescent phyto that are in growth suspension, so they don't divide. Well.... lame. I picked up a bottle of Phyto Feast Live and tried again (new water batch, washed out jars again, etc.). It's been about a week but there's essentially nothing happening:

Here's yesterday morning's pic.

I've cleaned the lines and materials a few times, but contamination still worries me. Is the inoculent not a good starter? I don't know what/where else to get GOOD live phyto to start. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Silver14SS]

I use a Poseidon Reef Systems phyto reactor and grow more nanno than I can use. I do not have a culture running all the time, only when I need to replenish the fridge. I restart it with phyto that's been in the fridge for weeks (maybe a couple months) and I haven't had any issues.

Maybe try cultures and fertilizer from them?

Starter Cultures & Phytoplankton | Poseidon Reef Systems

Live Phytoplankton

poseidonreefsystems.com

 

[Blutspitze]

I use a Poseidon Reef Systems phyto reactor and grow more nanno than I can use. I do not have a culture running all the time, only when I need to replenish the fridge. I restart it with phyto that's been in the fridge for weeks (maybe a couple months) and I haven't had any issues.

Maybe try cultures and fertilizer from them?

Starter Cultures & Phytoplankton | Poseidon Reef Systems

Live Phytoplankton

poseidonreefsystems.com

The Poseidon reactor was a heavy inspiration for my build (if it's not obvious). I don't have the one-way valves and everything, but it should still work. Their cultures would probably be a solid way to go, though I was just hoping that it'd be a mix of species, rather than single ones.

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

Did you ever do the writeup on copepods?

I dont see anything stickied and would love to see your write up!

 

[TomTee]

Following

 

[ysper20]

Just started my culture today! super pumped

 

[CJO]

The Poseidon reactor was a heavy inspiration for my build (if it's not obvious). I don't have the one-way valves and everything, but it should still work. Their cultures would probably be a solid way to go, though I was just hoping that it'd be a mix of species, rather than single ones.

You really shouldn't do a mix of species in one vessel. It will quickly become a single species. If you want to do multiple species, you have to do a separate vessel for each species and then combine them later. One-way valves are important if you intend to do this.

As far as the source of the cultures, I used Florida Aqua Farms and North Carolina Biologic Supplies.

 

[CJO]

Did you ever do the writeup on copepods?

I dont see anything stickied and would love to see your write up!

I'm sorry, but I never did get it written. I no longer have the time to do the cultures. However, the copepod cultures were pretty easy. The copepods are very resilient.

I did two different cultures- one with tigriopus californicus (Tigger Pods) and the other with tisbe.

• I started with a one-gallon bucket for each and added the phyto I had cultured. Only add enough so that the bucket is no more than half full so that there is enough surface area/volume for gas exchange. This allows it so that you don't have to run a bubble line, which can damage the fry.
• Every week or so, I would use a very fine sieve and strain the water through it to get rid of the old water and waste.
• I would then rinse the copepods retained on the sieve back into the culture buckets and add new phyto.
• After a while, I had a large enough population to expand it to 5-gallon buckets. Once the population had built up in the 5-gallon bucket, I divided the population so that about 1/3 went into my tank and the rest was used to continue the culture.

As I said, they are very resilient. I had weeks where I didn't have time to do anything with them. There was no phyto to be seen and the water was about half its initial volume (which would have doubled its concentration). I used my regular procedure to strain and rinse them back in and didn't see much impact to the population.

Hope this helps.

 

[Blutspitze]

You really shouldn't do a mix of species in one vessel. It will quickly become a single species. If you want to do multiple species, you have to do a separate vessel for each species and then combine them later. One-way valves are important if you intend to do this.

As far as the source of the cultures, I used Florida Aqua Farms and North Carolina Biologic Supplies.

OK; I didn't realize that they'd out-compete with one another, though obviously makes sense. My culture is working wonderfully now, but I don't know what species is dominating (I used a live mix to start), and my filters are working to keep out contaminants for the time being, along with washing and swapping containers between cultures.

 

[Blutspitze]

I'm sorry, but I never did get it written. I no longer have the time to do the cultures. However, the copepod cultures were pretty easy. The copepods are very resilient.

I did two different cultures- one with tigriopus californicus (Tigger Pods) and the other with tisbe.

• I started with a one-gallon bucket for each and added the phyto I had cultured. Only add enough so that the bucket is no more than half full so that there is enough surface area/volume for gas exchange. This allows it so that you don't have to run a bubble line, which can damage the fry.
• Every week or so, I would use a very fine sieve and strain the water through it to get rid of the old water and waste.
• I would then rinse the copepods retained on the sieve back into the culture buckets and add new phyto.
• After a while, I had a large enough population to expand it to 5-gallon buckets. Once the population had built up in the 5-gallon bucket, I divided the population so that about 1/3 went into my tank and the rest was used to continue the culture.

As I said, they are very resilient. I had weeks where I didn't have time to do anything with them. There was no phyto to be seen and the water was about half its initial volume (which would have doubled its concentration). I used my regular procedure to strain and rinse them back in and didn't see much impact to the population.

Hope this helps.

I've started a pod culture myself - do you need to add anything to the buckets other than the pods and phyto? Any sort of agitation, heat, light, etc.? Happen to know/remember the sieve you'd use?