Microfood culture: phytoplanktons, Rotifers, ciliates, Artemia, and copepods

[billsreef]

Rigid airline is common in most LFS's. I usually get micron cloth by the yard from Aquatic Ecosystems and use it to make my own sieves.

[GreshamH]

Originally Posted by billsreef

Rigid airline is common in most LFS's. I usually get micron cloth by the yard from Aquatic Ecosystems and use it to make my own sieves.

Or get it from small parts.com (micron cloth)

[herring_fish]

Does the injection of CO2 lower the odds of phytoplankton cultures crashing?

[M88A2]

I'm planning on culturing some live food for tank, but i have never cultured anything before so please excuse my noobish questions. When u guys harvest or split the phyto cultures, do you run the liquid through a filter sock? If so, what size sock do you use?

[billsreef]

Originally Posted by herring_fish

Does the injection of CO2 lower the odds of phytoplankton cultures crashing?

Not really. It just lets you get denser cultures, and might speed up growth as well.

Originally Posted by M88A2

I'm planning on culturing some live food for tank, but i have never cultured anything before so please excuse my noobish questions. When u guys harvest or split the phyto cultures, do you run the liquid through a filter sock? If so, what size sock do you use?

No filter sock. Generally the idea is to harvest the phyto at peak density, which should also coincide with minimal fertilizer left in the culture water that ends up in the tank.

[thewire]

Have you guys considering algae paste like from Reed? I am thinking using them to feed roti since it cuts down the labor and time for culturing phytop

[herring_fish]

I don't know about the paste but I do use the concentrated liquid and I like it quite well.

Going back to aeration, I had a culture of rotifers living four months. Then the pump started to fail. In the 6 foot tube, it went from a strong boil to a trickle and the culture died. I changed the air line to the other port but in a week the bubbles went back down to a trickle and the culture died again.


As the feeding goes higher, the population goes up and so does the amount of ammonia. With a higher population, there is a much higher need for oxygen. Without it you can get crashes. With more air, you can be less accurate with the feeding.

I think that I'm going to change from a large diaphragm pump to a magnetic piston to consistently pump the the depth of about 5 feet.

[billsreef]

Originally Posted by thewire

Have you guys considering algae paste like from Reed? I am thinking using them to feed roti since it cuts down the labor and time for culturing phytop

Reed's algae paste works well. The trick with that stuff is get it well suspended and don't overfeed. With this stuff, less is more

Personally I still like to culture my own as there are some benefits to live phyto that I like. Even with my preference to culture my own, I keep a stash of Reed's algae in the freezer as a back up in event of a phyto culture crash.

[GreshamH]

Originally Posted by herring_fish

I don't know about the paste but I do use the concentrated liquid and I like it quite well.

It's not really a paste, that's just what people call it

[billsreef]

Originally Posted by GreshamH

It's not really a paste, that's just what people call it

[GreshamH]

I see you waving

Have you tried any of the new blends?

FWIW "paste" came about when we first started producing it. It was thicker then and harder to work with. Cryo-paste is what some will remember, if they go back to the 90's with phyto

[billsreef]

Originally Posted by GreshamH

I see you waving

Have you tried any of the new blends?

FWIW "paste" came about when we first started producing it. It was thicker then and harder to work with. Cryo-paste is what some will remember, if they go back to the 90's with phyto

Hey, your dating me there

Haven't had a chance to play with any of the new blends yet. Might be awhile with this whole moving bit before I get to play.

[GreshamH]

Ah no problem. By then we'll have APBreed pumping out new blends as well. Got some exciting news on that front, can't wait to get the new line fully up and running.

[ezhoops]

I got 2 questions

is anyone concentrating their phtyo? and how?

Once I raise BBS how do I get them from their hatchery into their own water and raise into adults. I start feeding them phtyo 6 hrs after hatching.

What are their requirements at this stage?

[apuhl20]

OK so I have a question. Let me start by saying I am not breeding fish. I have an approximate 300 gallon system, 180dt, 2 30 frag tanks, 30g macro display hoping to have pipefish/seahorses.

I currently raise nanno phyto with no problems at all. I am throwing around the options of raising either copepods, or rotifers.

Which would be better?? Pods would be good for feeding the macro tank, but I believe rotifers would be feeding the corals? Looking for all the help and input I can get. Thanks

[billsreef]

Pods are slow growing, but better food for larger polyped corals and the seahorses and pipefish will often snack on the larger ones. Though for pods you'll want to look into growing either isochyrsus or tetraselmis, the nano is too small and not nutritious for pod culturing in general.

[apuhl20]

What are the differences between the nanno, iso, and tetra?

[billsreef]

There are differences in size and nutritionally quality. Nanno is the smallest at 1.5 to 2 microns , and also the least nutritious of the commonly cultured algaes. Iso is a bit larger at 5 microns and has one of the best nutritional profiles...if you can culture one, this is considered the best by many aquaculturist. Tet is fairly large at 12 microns, and has good nutritional profile.

A lot of aquaculturist will use multiple species, as the mix of nutritional profiles seems to be better than a single species approach. For rots, my inclination would be a combination of half nano and half iso. For pods, I'd iso and tet.

[dela]

Hey guys,

I have a few pod cultures going, to see what works for me. The one that has taken off the most is a 10 gallon tank I started by siphoning out copepods from the glass of the refugium and later added some tigs.

In the interest of having a variety of pods, I was thinking of siphoning out more pods from the tank just in case I have more variety in the tank than in this particular culture.

If I do this again, I could include some gammarian isopods.

I'm wondering if this would be bad news for the much smaller copepods?

How about munnid isopods?

[SpareParts]

Hi - I've been successful at culturing nanno and rotifers in closed systems. I am wanting to make a continuous system. It would be something like this:

Aquarium sump --> Bubble Magus dosing pump --> UV sterilizer --> Geo Kalkwasser reactor --> five gallon bucket (or other container) --> overflow back into sump.

My thought it to use aquarium water, run it through the sterilizer to kill any zooplankton and inject it into the Geo reactor. I like the Geo reactor because it has maxijet closed loop on it that keeps everything circulating. I'd have lights installed around the reactor to encourage phyto growth. I'd use the bubble magus pump to add 1ml of F2 once per day, and 50ml of tank water 24x per day. The effluent from the reactor would overflow into 1) the main display for dosing pure phyto and 2) a container holding a rotifer culture. The rotifer culture would then overflow back into the main display or sump as phyto is added.

I have a couple of obvious concerns. Would the phyto grow without any airstone or bubbling? I was hoping the 50ml. hour injection of tank water would be adequate to provide gas exchange requirements. Also, would the running of the maxijet on the reactor destroy the phyto? I would run an airstone in the rotifer culture and probably break the whole thing down and clean every few weeks. Should I keep the lights on 24/7? Or run them like 12 hours a day and halt water injections while off?

[GreshamH]

Answered in your thread.

[eoliver123]

I recently bought a bottle of phytoplankton from my like store. After reading how to grow it at home I want to give it a try. My question is weather I can use the plankton I bought in the store to start my own culture? If any one has any feedback that would be great.

[billsreef]

Precisely what phyto did you buy? There is a wide array of phyto products avialable via some LFS, ranging from truly live cultures to preserved concentrates. The live phyto can be cultured, while the preserved stuff is dead and can't be cultured.

[eoliver123]

Originally Posted by billsreef

Precisely what phyto did you buy? There is a wide array of phyto products avialable via some LFS, ranging from truly live cultures to preserved concentrates. The live phyto can be cultured, while the preserved stuff is dead and can't be cultured.

The phyto I bought have to be kept in the fridge and came in a bottle. I'm not sure which they are. I can find out later today if this isn't enough info to determine what type they are.

[Luis A M]

Originally Posted by billsreef

Precisely what phyto did you buy? There is a wide array of phyto products avialable via some LFS, ranging from truly live cultures to preserved concentrates. The live phyto can be cultured, while the preserved stuff is dead and can't be cultured.

Wise words that should be kept in mind
Particularly since we hear voices sustaining that frozen pastes can be returned to life
I am now checking the product "Phycopure" from Algagen.It is a mix of live algae,some of them were motile when observed straight from the bottle.Used as innoculant,some green algae are growing.Being it a multialgal blend,one would expect that we end with one species.