Who else cultures their own rotifers?

[surfnsalt]

Just looking for more info/experiences and tips from those who actually do this? From what info I found online and from my lfs it's pretty simple. I got food and some a culture from my lfs and made the set up you see in the pic. (1 gallon)I plan to use 20% a day and replace with new water and food. Now I'm not sure what effect dumping x amount of rotifers a day in my tanks is going to have seeing as I only have nanos? I did get a sieve but saw that some dump the water right in dt. Just thought it be cool to give it a shot. Any info is appreciated.

 

[jerseypete]

I was doing it with pods. Used to hold the container over the tank and open spout. The only thing that sometimes happened was the skimmer would go nuts. Now I use a sieve.

 

[zeeGGee]

what do you feed your rotifers? Can I use Kent Phytomax/phytoplex?

 

[gar732]

It's surprisingly easy to culture rots, I had 2 5g buckets going when I was raising clowns. I had a rigid airline with a slow rolling bubbles of air. I'd harvest 2 16oz cups a day and replace with new water and rotigrow+. Other than that I'd change out to a clean bucket once a week. Had them going for over 6 months and never had a crash.

I'd recommend using the sieve especially since you have a nano, maybe even rinse with clean salt water. That water is filthy and high in ammonia. In a small system I'd be a little causious.

 

[rjl45]

I culture phytoplanton so I can culture tisbe pods for my manderin. Fairly easy. Just need an air pump and some f/2 for the phyto. I harvest a "big scoop with my sieve" out of 1 bucket every day and feed to my tank. Do water changes every 2 weeks on the buckets and dose extra phyto to the tank whenever I have extra. Ignore the numbers...just some notes so I can keep track of progress.