Pod culture

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#1
This is a project I started over Labor Day weekend. My pod culture has nearly quintupled in visual observation of organisms. The consumption of resources has tripled in its implementation; they seem to be growing.

1 5 gallon paint bucket
1.19sg water
Aerator pump w/gang valve set to about 2 bubbles a second
A big bag and bottle of pods

Food - phyto feast and ocean magic (I use both, but i will split the culture this weekend and measure relative growth between them). I add food to clear culture water into it just starts to change color, and then observe until 1 to 2 days later, the water is completely clear and then add more food.

These pictures are terrible, but ill add them and try to explain.



Basic culture design. Water with airstone. I only illuminate it for about an hour (not sure what photo effects are, but i might find out after i find out what the best food is), mostly just so i can count how many organisms i can see and how clean the water is.



When pouring into a new bucket / splitting the culture or straining it, i use this lid with a 4 inch pvc coupler on i.


I can drop a couple different 3" pvc couplers into it which will allow me to strain only what i wish out. (detritus? Rotifers? Large pods? Small pods?)



Large pod strainer



This lid allows me to pour the culture out of the bucket and into the strainer and not lose a single drop due to spillage. Simple paint pour spout.

I'll probably take more pictures this weekend.

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#3
*I might end this experiment between phytofeast and Ocean Magik prematurely.

The PF smells something terrible in comparison to Ocean Magik. Makes the whole room reak like beached seaweed for a couple of hours when i use it.

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#4
Okay, so after splitting the culture last weekend and putting phyto feast in 1 bucket , and Ocean Magik in the other, I thought I was going to just stick with phyto feast.

THe Ocean magik seemed to not have any growth in its population.

Well, Thursday night, I checked the cultures, and the Ocean Magik budget almost tripled overnight in its population density. What was once one or two pods in any little sector I would map out, there are 6 to 10 in each little area I keep my eye fixed on.

THe phyto feast still has more visible pods, but the numbers in the Ocean Magik side is huge. It also smells great by comparison.

The phyto feast isn't too bad a smell, it just smells like the beach after a hard rain (you know, when the storm drains have flushed into the ocean). I Just keep the lid on, and it does not bother me too much.

The ocean magik one smells fantastic. I keep the lid on as well, but it is not as necessary.

I'm going to harvest the phyto feast side today and feed the display tank again.

I'll continue to monitor both sides for additional growth, but even though the Ocean magik had great growth, because of how inexpensive Phyto Feast is, I would say it might still be the better value. The Ocean magik is an expensive product, but it sure smells great, and ideally, if cost was not a consideration, I'd probably stick with it. However, because I am doing this in order to offset the cost of constantly purchasing more pods, I would say that doing this with phyto feast potentially brings the cost of pod supplementation way, way, way down.
 
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#6
I'm not sure why i didn't think of it before, but if i harvest at the same time i do a water change, all i have to do is pour the culture into my fresh saltwater before i add it to the tank.

It is a little dirty, but from what i have read, the detritus from a pod culture is mostly good, anyhow.

I did a 5% water change and tossed in about 1.5 gallons of pod culture. THOUSANDS of pods. So many, my fish didn't even give chase.

2 minutes later, the mandarins were feeding like mad.

Total cost into this culture has been about $140, including my phyto feast, ocean magic, tisbe pods and tiger pods. If i stick to using phyto feast, it should only cost me about $8 a month to maintain,which is quite a bit less than purchasing tisbe or tigr pods once every two weeks, or one a month as some mandarin keepers suggest (bull corn IMHO).

If i choose to go with ocean magik, cost will go up to about $22 a month, which still edges the line in cost comparison.

I would love to find out a way to see the pod amino acid content and nutritional benefit between the two products.

My father and brother both have labs, but I have no idea how to approach either with an experiment. I would love to do this though.

**Talked to brother. I need to look at a sludge-gel of them under a mass spectrometer. I might consider doing this, but I'm going to need a crap-ton more pods.

For now, I'll just go back and forth between each pod, and continue to purchase both phyto feast and ocean magik.


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jamie1210

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#7
Are you separating tisbe and Tigger pods or are they being cultured together? I'm wondering if the Tigger pods will eat the tisbe since they are so much bigger

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#8
Are you separating tisbe and Tigger pods or are they being cultured together? I'm wondering if the Tigger pods will eat the tisbe since they are so much bigger

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That was my initial concern as welll. Everything i read is that general pod farmers keep them together, and while tigger pods can eat smaller organisms in general, it amounts to little casualty in the big scheme of things.

Funny observation. Tigger pods from reef nutrition are orange. After a week, they are as black as pepper in this culture and have stayed this color.

I keep them all together.

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#9
And further down the rabbit hole I go.

As I learn more about the awesomeness of the Ocean Magik phytoplankton (most live phytoplankton are only Nannochrloropsis), and how to maximize the use of materials and minimize my expenses. I have figured out the best place to move this process along in effectiveness is to brew my own phyto culture from the same method of stock I use, just like my pods.

How far down does the rabbit hole go? Far enough. Once I have the phytoplankton growing on its own, I might look into blending my own fertilizer for the phyto itself.

----

Pod cultures doing well so far. Phyto feast side pods are slow swimmers. Ocean magik side pods are very very active. I have several other species of pods on order that do not eat eachother that I will add to both cultures.
 

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