Getting the right amount of phyto

[CaseyWagner]

My clownfish have been breeding again recently so I figured why not make a go of it.
I've got rotifer cultures from Copepods.ca (I think it's the same company as Copepods.com in the US)
The bottle of included phyto is labelled high concentration, and the only directions say to add 1-2 ml per 200 gallon tank per day to maintain a natural population in a tank.
Meanwhile all the rotifer culturing vids show people tinting their water a nice deep green for just a couple of gallons of water, and that needs way more than 1-2 ml to do so.
I've been keeping my two buckets going with just 1ml per day, so I don't overfeed and crash, but would like someone more knowledgeable to chip in.
The cultures are definitely showing rotifer activity so it's just a matter of dosing. Can change the source of phyto if needed if it makes consistently dosing for small batch production easier

For the heck of it I just took a glass jar and sampled one of the buckets and then dosed that jar until it was a good green with a tint of yellow to try out and see if that differs in rotifer output from the buckets.

The clownfish babies seem happy for now at least
Those that the parents didn't eat like popcorn before I got them out.

Vossen trap is on the way so I can save the next batch.

 

[Rtaylor]

It should be tinted green

 

[Kasrift]

My clownfish have been breeding again recently so I figured why not make a go of it.
I've got rotifer cultures from Copepods.ca (I think it's the same company as Copepods.com in the US)
The bottle of included phyto is labelled high concentration, and the only directions say to add 1-2 ml per 200 gallon tank per day to maintain a natural population in a tank.
Meanwhile all the rotifer culturing vids show people tinting their water a nice deep green for just a couple of gallons of water, and that needs way more than 1-2 ml to do so.
I've been keeping my two buckets going with just 1ml per day, so I don't overfeed and crash, but would like someone more knowledgeable to chip in.
The cultures are definitely showing rotifer activity so it's just a matter of dosing. Can change the source of phyto if needed if it makes consistently dosing for small batch production easier

For the heck of it I just took a glass jar and sampled one of the buckets and then dosed that jar until it was a good green with a tint of yellow to try out and see if that differs in rotifer output from the buckets.

The clownfish babies seem happy for now at least
Those that the parents didn't eat like popcorn before I got them out.

Vossen trap is on the way so I can save the next batch.

I culture phyto and dose heavy amounts to my tank (not for breeding purposes, just general feeding). I read a thread on R2R that was talking about the dosing recommendations from bottles and they compared the amount to something like how dropping in a couple of pellets of chum into a huge lake, most of the first would be unfed. Essentially they were saying that dosing small amounts would hardly feed copepods since they wouldn't find it.

That made me laugh and realize that dosing more isn't bad if you want to feed populations. I have a Christmas tree worm rock, clams, and other things to feed as well as the copepods in my tank.

 

[Rtaylor]

I culture phyto and dose heavy amounts to my tank (not for breeding purposes, just general feeding). I read a thread on R2R that was talking about the dosing recommendations from bottles and they compared the amount to something like how dropping in a couple of pellets of chum into a huge lake, most of the first would be unfed. Essentially they were saying that dosing small amounts would hardly feed copepods since they wouldn't find it.

That made me laugh and realize that dosing more isn't bad if you want to feed populations. I have a Christmas tree worm rock, clams, and other things to feed as well as the copepods in my tank.

Agree, I’ve put better than a half gallon in my 150…. a few ml in even a small tank won’t do much.

 

[CaseyWagner]

Testing the amount out of the bottle of phyto I'd only be able to keep the 3 gallon cultures going for a week or two off a 30+ dollar bottle if I go for the tint level I see people using with the home-cultured phyto.

Hmmm. And people talk about freezing a single bottle into ice cubes and getting 6+ months out of it.

So many differing takes. I wish RG Complete was available locally. I can't order it from the States because it's $130USD for shipping to here in Canada. Ouch.

 

[CaseyWagner]

I was able to get RG Complete and the Roti-clean Filter through Marinescape in Ottawa! Yay! Saved a ton of money over having it shipped from the states.

The RG Complete is awesome. Way more phyto per ml than the stuff I got from Copepods.ca
I can't fault the rotifer cultures from the latter at all, but the phyto mix just wasn't up to snuff.

Now I just gotta wait for another clownfishy hatch.

 

[joekidwell]

Those who just add a couple mils are feeding corals, if your trying to sustain rotifers you'll need about 5 mils of concentrate several times a day, if using a 5 gallon bucket.