Culturing Phytoplankton and Rotifers

blondenaso1

blondenaso1

Member
Ok, well I went to the LFS today and they have set up culture stations for phyto and rotifers. The have a good strain of both and are starting to churn out the stuff like crazy. My buddy there is selling the stuff for $8 for a little jar of phyto, beats DTs but still. So I told him I wanted to start up my own station at home and he gave me the run down of all that I needed to do and kinda left it up to me to do some more research. I am really interested in this and am wondering if anyone else has had any luck. I have been reading all night and found out the basics but I wanted to see what everyone has to say. Thanks :)
 
nm reef

nm reef

Active Member
I once saw a "tank of the month" that had a sweet set-up for cultures...can't remember who's it was. I've never attempted to culture my own so I can't help ya there...but if I ever develope a larger system then I may be looking into developing cultures myself.
 
dinhouse

dinhouse

Member
It is very simple to do. I have been doing it for awhile now. I got the station from a local group of reefers. It is basically a wooden stand with slots cut in it so the the necks of two liter bottles will hang in them. There are two 55 watt power compact bulbs mounted in the middle. all you need is a air pump for water circulation. what I did rather than look for phyto cultures was buy a bottle of DTs and used that. All you have to do is fill the bottles up with saltwater (1.018 specific gravity). put a few cap fulls of phyto in the bottle and then add a few cap fulls of liquid fertilizer.(Mine was given to me so I am not sure what the brand is or where it came from but from what I have heard all it is, is some glorified Liquad "Miracle Grow" It is rather idiot proof if you ask me! If I can do it anyone can! I usually grom mine for about four days then I add another dose of fertilizer and go a few more days until it gets about as dark as the Phyto in the DTs bottle. Then just remove it and store it in the fridge. I have a 55 and I add 4 capfuls every other day when I feed and my tank seems to be doing well.
 
fishfood

fishfood

Member
I've been thinking of doing the same thing and found a place that had DT's locally and bought it.
DINHOUSE - how many bottles do you run at a time. What is the temp of the room you keep them in? I'd only be interested in probably a max of 3 bottles at a time so what lighting do you think i would need.
Drew
 
trompet3

trompet3

Member
go to this site, click on the navigation bar on the right and then click on phytoplankton culture. She has a step by step setup. She is the Jan tank of the month.
 
blondenaso1

blondenaso1

Member
Sweet, thanks for the infor Dinhouse. I have heard that people use Petersons fertilizer?? or purchase a nutrient from florida-aqua-farms. I have heard the downfall of fertilizer is that it has high amount of phosphate and nitrates in it. How about rotifers? Anyone had luck with these?
 
dinhouse

dinhouse

Member
"Fishfood" My station will hold ten two liter bottles but since I on have a 55gallon and I only add 4 capfuls every other day I don't need nowhere near that much. I generally use one liter bottles and I do them two at a time. The station is in my basement where the temp is usually around the mid 70s. the design of my station is so that the PC bulbs keep the cultures at a decent temp. It is not a real exact science from what I understand the only real important thing is to make sure that your water is steralized.
 
blondenaso1

blondenaso1

Member
Dinhouse, do you filter out the phyto before adding to the tank or do you dump the entire contents of the 2liter in? I ask because I have seen both and have heard that depending on the type of nutrients you use there can be extra phosphates/nitrates and other nutrients that have built up and that you wouldn't want to dump that in the tank as well.
 
frozenguy

frozenguy

Member
what in the heck are you people talking about?
what are dt's?
what are you puting in your water??
what are you culturing?
what are phyto whatevers......
not to sound rude....sorry.....i'm just very confused.......
it does sound cool though......=-)
 
dinhouse

dinhouse

Member
I have never filtered my phyto. I have been adding my home grown stock for a few months now and I have never had a problem with phosphate. How do you filter it?
 
blondenaso1

blondenaso1

Member
I saw in one of those DIY sites that a person bought some type of mesh strainer from florida-aqua-farms that they use to strain the phyto.
I just started my first culture and I think it has crashed already. What I think went worng....1. I use about 5ml of DTs that I had left from a while agon. Probably not the best stuff to try to get to grow since most of it was probably dead. 2. I used Peters fertilier as the nutrients and I had no idea how mush to add. I used about 1/2 a teaspoon for a 2 liter bottle. I think that might have been too much.
Din, can you do me a favor? Do you know what type of ferilizer you are using? Is it a powder or a liguid? The stuff I picked up is a powder that needs to be mixed. How much do you add of the stuff you have? Oh and by the way, why do you keep the SG lower in your culture water?
Anyone else you Peters fertilizer? Is there anyone else on this board that cultures there own phyto?
 
eng50

eng50

Member
Just a question for you all growing your own (as I am interested in doing it as well)...
If you are using commercially available fertilizer, won't you be adding a ton of phosphate when you feed this stuff to your tank?? Or is there some way to remove it or strain out just the Phyto?
Just curious..
Thanks,
Bill
 
dinhouse

dinhouse

Member
"Blondenaso1" The fertilizer I use is liquid and it was given to me when I bought the station. It is in a blank white bottle. My guess would be that they bought in bulk and just rebottled it. I will try to get ahold of the guy I bought it from tommorow and see what the stuff actually is and where you can get it.
The specific gravity That I use is 1.018 for my cultures. I am not sure why you are supposed to do this it is just what I was told from the guy I got the station from.
From my experiance if there is a doubt if it has crashed then it probly hasn't. When my cultures crashed there was no doubt about it, they turn a crappy brown color. Also when Phyto is dead it has a funny smell to it. When it is alive it really doesn't have much a smell at all. As far as how much fertilizer to add for a two liter bottle I would add two capfuls (caps from a two liter bottle)
 
dinhouse

dinhouse

Member
"Blondenaso1" The fertilizer I use is liquid and it was given to me when I bought the station. It is in a blank white bottle. My guess would be that they bought in bulk and just rebottled it. I will try to get ahold of the guy I bought it from tommorow and see what the stuff actually is and where you can get it.
The specific gravity That I use is 1.018 for my cultures. I am not sure why you are supposed to do this it is just what I was told from the guy I got the station from.
From my experiance if there is a doubt if it has crashed then it probly hasn't. When my cultures crashed there was no doubt about it, they turn a crappy brown color. Also when Phyto is dead it has a funny smell to it. When it is alive it really doesn't have much a smell at all. As far as how much fertilizer to add for a two liter bottle I would add two capfuls (caps from a two liter bottle)
 
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