culturing phytoplankton

[jlinzmaier]

Anybody have any ideas or know where I can get some info about setting up an aquaculture system for live phytoplankton? Is it really worth the trouble or is the preserved and bottled plankton just as good?

 

[Anonymous]

Anybody have any ideas or know where I can get some info about setting up an aquaculture system for live phytoplankton? Is it really worth the trouble or is the preserved and bottled plankton just as good?

I culture phytoplankton and rotifers. I just use 3- 2 leter coke bottles for phyto and three more for the rotifers. I also use a single 4' 2 tube utility shop fixture behind them to provide light.

I use two seperate air pumps one for the phyto one for the rotifers. The phyto I keep moving with a rolling boil and a little less for the rotifers.

I use florida aqua farms micro algae grow to feed the phyto and then use the phyto to feed the rotivers.

Every couple of weeks I clean the bottles with a bleach, rinse, vinegar. And rotate the cultures to bottles that were last cleaned.

I take about 200ml of the rotivers and 300ml of the phyto and feed the 55g each day. Then add 200ml of phyto to the rotivers and add 500ml of nuked tank water with added tap water and the micro algae grow to the phyto.

I have been doing this for over two years now. The cultures are in an unheated garage.

I got starter cultures from a local club member.

In my opinion and in general whenever possible it is always better to feed live foods vrs dead stuff. Not possible with most foods but the ease of culturing phyto and rotifers this is very possible.

Some use a white bucket with a single light tube as pictured here:


http://www.melevsreef.com/phytoplankton.html


As I stated I use the two tube fixtures like about half way down in this article:


http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/ ... reeder.htm

Florida aqua farms has a kit with starter cultures, a rotifer harvesting filter, and a good book and all types of various cultures fresh and salt. Which you can get if you want. But I do highly recommend the micro algae grow. Much better than home depot type fertilizers and definately makes the phyto grow. As I found out when I went a few days without. once

.02

 

[amonhen]

Anybody have any ideas or know where I can get some info about setting up an aquaculture system for live phytoplankton? Is it really worth the trouble or is the preserved and bottled plankton just as good?

I've done this before, too (including rotifers); my system was pretty much the same as above, and I got great results with it, too. Nothing difficult about it, only drawback is the time (not a lot, but frequent.) Be careful not to get rotifers in your microalgae culture!!

--Jeff

 

[centratus]

beaslbob
Hi
I am trying to grow algae and rotifers. Are you still doing this?
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Phyto:
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/podca ... -39-a.html

Its been a while since I've watched it but I think they kinda leave out feeding the cultures. I think its because they want to leave it up to the viewer to decide how they want to feed. - I've used Miracle Gro before but heard it contains copper which over time could cause issues if you're feeding your tank directly. - Since I only used the phyto for feeding rotifers though, I never had issues in my tank. - I've heard others use skimmate too but don't know much about that..


Rotifers:
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/podca ... -42-a.html

More video/audio podcasts can be found from the main site...


As to the OP's main question.... - My understanding is that the commercial phyto's are far superior to the stuff you'll grow at home for the (main) reason that they are condensed using centrifuge. This eliminates a lot of the excess nutrients you'll wind up putting into your tank if you are feeding it directly. There may also be other quality issues too, depending on what you use to feed your cultures. (See my note on using Miracle Gro and copper above....)


Hope that helps!

Norm

 

[Anonymous]

To expand on Norms commercial phyto.... It's also superior as it's grown under proper conditions. Just because you can grow phyto does not mean it's nutritious. If grown at the wrong temp, use the wrong portions in your F2 media, etc, you'll be compromising the nutritional value of the phyto.

Only one commercial operation uses a centrifuge, the others use other methods.

www.rotifer.com