Phyto culture

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#21
I'm about to go mad scientist on this.

I need to figure out how to design an automated stirrer device - one that will not also tip the containers over.

If I can tie it onto a small motor, i can just rig them all along the same branch, and then gently stir them in a circular configuration while they aerate at the same time. There is a noticeable bit of happiness then they are constantly stirred.
 
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#23
How much do you guys think you have into your setups?
money sunk in?

Mine is ridiculously cheap. More time than money, and more into the f/2 and phyto.

My containers were $4 total (99 cent store purchases), my puck light I use is like $8, with the dc adapter, and the airstone/gang valve setup they're currently on is only about $5, and the air pump I got on a discount, possibly for free.

I would say that even at this point, despite now spending about $30 on a couple higher quality gang valves and additional puck lights, and the 2-4 hours that I will spend building the enclosure that will house them this weekend, 2 or 3 packages of phyto is still more expensive than this entire setup, which will yield 3 times that in the first harvest.
 

Bigpapii

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#25
How much do you guys think you have into your setups?
Here's my setup and its prices
Starter culture(food grade from lab): $15 for 8oz
F/2 fertilizer: $5 for 8oz
15watt led Light fixture(4): ~$20 (5 bucks each)
Half Gal glass containers: $8 (2 bucks each)
Air pump: $5
Air tubing: $2
10 way Split valve: $5

That totals $60 for my setup
It payed for itself already from selling a few bottles



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Bigpapii

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#27
I'm about to go mad scientist on this.

I need to figure out how to design an automated stirrer device - one that will not also tip the containers over.

If I can tie it onto a small motor, i can just rig them all along the same branch, and then gently stir them in a circular configuration while they aerate at the same time. There is a noticeable bit of happiness then they are constantly stirred.
Buy servos and a micro controller
You'll spend about $30 on it and you can program it to spin in different directions at different speeds
You can even put intervals like every 5 mins it stirs at full power and low on resting periods
You could even buy a wifi version and hook it up to your phone if you wanna go bigger ahaha


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#28
It's looking good! Maybe buy one of those solar moving toys at the 99 cents store and attatch a plastic spoon to it so it constantly stirs them up? Just a cheap idea before you go mad scientist!
 
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#29
Where did you guys get your starter culture from?
I cheated and bought from algaebarn, their ocean magik live phytoplankton mix of 4 specimens. Supposedly, only one of them is going to propogate. We'll find out.

After 4 batch generations, I will look at them both under a microscope to see the differences between the two.

My hypothesis is that Nanochloropsis will be the only one that stands out. We shall see.

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#31
Okay. I had two of my 3 crash, so i cancelled everything and started over. I stopped the culture that survived and popped it in the fridge. I ordered the rigid tubing, installed it, and made an enclosure for my phyto and my daphnia. I also made an order for 3 more of my lights.

http://vimeo.com/193298991
[video=vimeo;193298991]http://vimeo.com/193298991[/video]


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Bigpapii

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#34
overnight it goes from green to almost clear/white.

That was one. The other was just barely holding on, but was turning brown, so I dropped it in the sink as well.
Smell it
If it smells bad then it means the culture has gone bad
Even tho it looks green and stuff if it smells bad it's bad
It should have a pleasant to no odor at all
It could possibly be the airstones


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#35
There are a couple of kinds of crashes. In my case, I am fairly certain my crash occurred because I have 4 types in the same container, and very likely, they started to eat off eachother. I am not certain.

I didn't get the rotten egg stink of phyto gone bad, and neither did I get the soy sauce smell of phyto at its end, but I had 0 live phyto and alot of detritus.

I wiped the two in that state, refrigerated the one that worked, and started 3 new cultures with better metered parameters.

We'll see how these work. The previous cultures ran for almost 3 weeks before crashing. This next trial will be for one week only (the max it is supposed to run per culture), and then I will run 3 more, etc.

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Bigpapii

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#36
There are a couple of kinds of crashes. In my case, I am fairly certain my crash occurred because I have 4 types in the same container, and very likely, they started to eat off eachother. I am not certain.

I didn't get the rotten egg stink of phyto gone bad, and neither did I get the soy sauce smell of phyto at its end, but I had 0 live phyto and alot of detritus.

I wiped the two in that state, refrigerated the one that worked, and started 3 new cultures with better metered parameters.

We'll see how these work. The previous cultures ran for almost 3 weeks before crashing. This next trial will be for one week only (the max it is supposed to run per culture), and then I will run 3 more, etc.

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They're actually primarily photosynthetic so they won't eat each other but they will compete for nutrients. I think what happened was one specie died due to starvation or whatever and caused a small ammonia spike and killed the rest.


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solitude127

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#37
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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Have a link for the f/2 fertilizer by chance? I think I want to give this a try.
 

Bigpapii

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#39
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