Phyto culture

Bigpapii

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#1
Just started a phytoplankton culture for my clams and sea apple
Does anyone have any tips I can use this is the first time trying this
SPECS-
nannochloropsis oculata
salinity: 1.020
Bulb: 15w full spect led
New saltwater filtered thru a uv sterilizer
f/2 fertilizer








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dontavo27

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#2
You probably want to raise that salinity slowly to .025ish
That's a cool idea though, I just got a clam my self and will probably manually dose phyto once a week
 

Bigpapii

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#4
I'm about to start my own culture, soon, using a live culture of 4 strains. I just need to purchase the f/2.
That's awesome
Hey I heard if you try to culture multiple strains all in one container it would crush due to competition of nutrients tho
I got my f/2 fertilizer on Amazon for pretty cheap but I think there's cheaper ones out there from other websites. You only need about 1ml per gal of water so I think my 8oz last a long time
Post pics when you do set up I wanna see ahah


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#5
Thanks for the heads up. I didnt know that, so I never researched it. I WILL check it out.

Re: f/2, yeah. The funny thing about culturing and DIY anything is that initial cost always feels like it isnt worth it, but I am doing this because I culture pods for my mandarins, and figure I might as well do for the pod food source as welll.

I am going to start rotifers and brine shrimp next.

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Bigpapii

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#7
Alright, this article pointed me in the right direction:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/8/breeder

I think what I will do is, I will take my existing culture of 4, split them into 4 jars like yours and culture them in their respective environmental which they are s upposed to have and see how that goes.

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I haven't researched about it
I just heard about it from this person at the max expo. She told me if I'm gonna start one I should use single strain cultures. But I mean if it works out by all means that's awesome ahah. I guess maybe cuz it's easier to concentrate on the needs of one stain I'm not sure aha. Anyways I'm actually gonna culture brine shrimp too
I'm just gonna try and stabilize this culture first and when everything goes good Ima start a brine shrimp culture.
Post pics of your culture too I wanna see other set ups
Maybe I could learn a few things seeing other peoples set ups.


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#8
I just got my f/2 medium this week (finally), and I got a couple different options for culture jars, aeration, etc, but I think I am going to try and find a slightly better jar at (of all places) the 99 cent store.

Hopefully, I'll have a decent setup this weekend and go from there.

I wanted to build a dedicated and enclosed box for all of them to be in, but I was looking at my expenses this month (hello christmas, hello thanksgiving), and I would like to pull it off, as ugly as it may be, to know that it will work properly before I just dump the money into a fancy setup, so I'm going to use what I have, and I'll build the enclosure later, if I have to.
 
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#9


I got these bottles from the 99 cent store. They're cheap enough, yet also modular enough that if this pulls itself off, I can arrange a couple rotations of containers from "culturing" to refrigerating, etc. The containers come in 3 or 4 different lid colors, which will ultimately, potentially, help me sort batch orders, etc.

Because this is just the first batch, I was very, very lenient with the f/2. I'll post an update in a week, and maybe one will be more dense with phyto.

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Bigpapii

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#10


I got these bottles from the 99 cent store. They're cheap enough, yet also modular enough that if this pulls itself off, I can arrange a couple rotations of containers from "culturing" to refrigerating, etc. The containers come in 3 or 4 different lid colors, which will ultimately, potentially, help me sort batch orders, etc.

Because this is just the first batch, I was very, very lenient with the f/2. I'll post an update in a week, and maybe one will be more dense with phyto.

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Oh sickk that's really awesome
I was lenient on the f/2 also just incase cuz I only have one culture but a week after the density doubled and you couldn't even see bubbles anymore ahah
And yeaaaa keep me posted :)





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Bigpapii

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#12
Do you think people here would want any? I feel like I'm gonna have a lot of extra at this rate


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#13
If they don't want it, and my cultures work out for me, i plan on selling it by any means possible.

I have plenty of other cultures that I can feed it to besides my DT, so i do not actually forsee a surplus unless this takes off rather remarkably.

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Bigpapii

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#14
Update on my culture
I am currently running 4 1/2 cultures
The half being the vodka bottle
Everything's running smoothly so far :)
Once a week I generate about 2000ml so about 70oz
I use round 35oz a week so that means I'm yielding at least 35oz :)



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#15
Mine is finally starting to color up and darken. I think the cultures I have were perhaps just dormant. I'm going to give it another week to darken before I scrap this whole culture. But it finally seems to have promise.


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Bigpapii

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#16
Mine is finally starting to color up and darken. I think the cultures I have were perhaps just dormant. I'm going to give it another week to darken before I scrap this whole culture. But it finally seems to have promise.


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Maybe increase the amount of light you're using. I'm using one 15w bulb just for one culture and I'm running it 24/7. My culture blooms like crazy. Also it's in my sump and it's pretty warm there. I measure temp of the culture and it's about 77-78. Warmer temp increases cell division.


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Bigpapii

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#17
Ohhh don't use air stones
It attaches to the phyto and potentially kills them. The air bubbles are just for circulation. That's why there's some greenish settlement on the floor of the bottle. That's all the phyto settling. They're not motile so they won't be able to move around by themselves. That's why they settle on the bottom. Without circulation they could pile on each other and die out


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#18
I'll try to rearrange it a little bit. I've read that the airstones are fine as long as they are not producing skimmate. I'll try to resituate them.

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#20
Heebus. Go ahead and consider me the color up challenge winner.


What a difference a day makes.

I bumped aeration way up, and stirred them all a couple times in the last 24 hours.

Additionally, I ordered ridged tubing, multiple lights and metal gang valves.

As long as no one bugs me this weekend, I am going to build an enclosure for up to 4 bottles running at a time with room for my daphnia and 4 lights running on all of them.

It is amazing how much these have darkened up, now that they are free floating.

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