phytoplankton growing Set up
- Thread starter Chrisshoup420
- Start date
Definitely get a single strain as a starter. and getting them local (like from OGReef) is FAR superior.
Do you have the setup already or not? Couldn't tell between a few of your posts. I would familiarize yourself with a couple setups and ways to grow - some people grow batches, some people grow continuous cultures, and a few crazy people do chemostats / bioreactors. Each has a little different shopping list and pros/cons.
You can use 'fertilizer' - i'm assuming you mean like miracle grow or hydroponic fertilizer or whatever. Technically this can work, i've grown some on it in a pinch, but by far the most commonly used one is called F/2 or Guillard's F/2, typically bought in liquid form at a 1000x concentrate (so 1 mL per 1 L seawater). If you're on the fence about whether you can grow it or not, miracle grow can work, but since you need to get a single strain, you might as well pick up F/2 for another $10.
BTW Setups run the whole gamut - the best way to do it is like OGFrenchHorn does, check out his thread - glass bottles you can autoclave/bleach and acid-wash, round with rigid airline tubing to get even, strong flow, fully sterilize all seawater before inoculating. Basically treating it like the microbiology science that it is.
But you can also run it low tech, this is how I run it in the garage. Flexible airline in re-used bottles, clean Instant Ocean but not sterilized, with 0.5-1 mL F/2. Very janky but it works for me, and since I'm not selling i don't really worry about it being axenic (bacteria-free), just that no pests or coral-harmful bacteria pop in, and that's basically it. Full disclosure this is NOT the most repeatable way to do it, but if you have skills doing aseptic technique / growing microbes in some context, you probably have enough knowledge.
Do you have the setup already or not? Couldn't tell between a few of your posts. I would familiarize yourself with a couple setups and ways to grow - some people grow batches, some people grow continuous cultures, and a few crazy people do chemostats / bioreactors. Each has a little different shopping list and pros/cons.
You can use 'fertilizer' - i'm assuming you mean like miracle grow or hydroponic fertilizer or whatever. Technically this can work, i've grown some on it in a pinch, but by far the most commonly used one is called F/2 or Guillard's F/2, typically bought in liquid form at a 1000x concentrate (so 1 mL per 1 L seawater). If you're on the fence about whether you can grow it or not, miracle grow can work, but since you need to get a single strain, you might as well pick up F/2 for another $10.
BTW Setups run the whole gamut - the best way to do it is like OGFrenchHorn does, check out his thread - glass bottles you can autoclave/bleach and acid-wash, round with rigid airline tubing to get even, strong flow, fully sterilize all seawater before inoculating. Basically treating it like the microbiology science that it is.
But you can also run it low tech, this is how I run it in the garage. Flexible airline in re-used bottles, clean Instant Ocean but not sterilized, with 0.5-1 mL F/2. Very janky but it works for me, and since I'm not selling i don't really worry about it being axenic (bacteria-free), just that no pests or coral-harmful bacteria pop in, and that's basically it. Full disclosure this is NOT the most repeatable way to do it, but if you have skills doing aseptic technique / growing microbes in some context, you probably have enough knowledge.
This is my set up... I get my cultures local and they usually last about a month+ with me just splitting the cultures. Then I will crash them for whatever reason. I am not very consistent with my care. But getting new cultures is a 2 min drive so... But if I was selling, I would be much more on point.
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nice that's a good kit. is that the version that comes with single-use sterile bags? either way, suggest you start with an 'easy' one like nannochloropsis or tetraselmis, strains, bank some in your fridge just in case first go doesn't work, and give it a whirl. Also don't feel you need to fill up at start - it's better for culture to be low volume than low density sometimes. Like start with 100ml starter in 500ml total, once that starts to get dark, add another 500 or 1500ml.
I'm really curious how I will do this summer, I did phyto in house in summer last year but was watching garage temps, my garage is shaded by a tree so it was only peaking around 90 in there. Anyway, I have been growing my phyto in garage in winter, range of about 45-80f so far and it's been sufficiently happy. You might be able to swing it without AC, at least for most of the year? Time I get, it does take a little bit of extra bandwidth, not much to do about that one.
