Electrobes
05/04/2005, 08:51 AM
Okay so I thought I would go over some culturing of phytoplankton. I will start in a couple weeks again, but with Isochrysis this time. Of course this thread is meant for all species.
I am sure most here know the generals with phyto culturing. Pretty much need the essentials like a couple coke bottles (depending on the size of your tank) rigid airline hosing, flexible airline hosing, an air pump, a clean container to hold phyto medium in, cheapo light, a culture, and voila a set up in the making.
A couple of important subjects that I would like to tackle is the following... light duration, bubble size, higher concetratin methods, temperature, storage life, and cleaning maintainences.
Light duration: I hear people usually using one of the two... 16 hour light cycle or 24/7 light cycle. I used the 16 hour light cycle because the light still entered my small home and unfortunately I have to sleep and so does my wife :( - A couple of advantages to using a 16 hour cycle is less electricity, if you ran the cycle at night and it is not indoors, there's less heat in the culture, and the culture won't develop as fast (for those of you who do not need to cut it faster). Another thing I should mention is about light type. When I first started I was anxious to speed up my culture growth, so I used a PC bulb that you can find at a wal-mart. The difference b/w this and a regular shop light bulb is that PC bulbs put out more light and are shorter and smaller. The other difference that needs to be taken into account is that these bulbs produce more heat. So if your culture is near this bulb it will heat up more, causing it to grow faster.
Bubble Size: Now, most times people aren't too worried about this. But since different species culturing is coming more and more real and common, I believe it to be a necessity in talkign about. Some species of phyto do not have such a tough cell wall that can withstand the constant pounding caused by air bubbles. For instance the species Isochrysis, its wall is pretty fragile, which makes this specied a bit harder to grow, but much easier to digest than most others. With this in mind I either have to put an air stone that produces smaller bubbles and/or put the bubble producing at a slower rate. The typical species being cultured (nano. oculata) by the common aquarist needs not to worry with this because the species is pretty tough by most standards. But only producing the needed bubbles and not overdoing it is something that should be followed for a couple of reasons.
Higher Concetration methods: There isn;t much that I could find on this subject. I only learned one method of doing this.. though a bit simple. That is after you've cut the culture and grab what you want to store in the refrigerator, let it sit in the fridge for a night. In the morning with most of the phyto settled on the bottom, you can take a clean airline hosing and syphon out the top half (or more) of the water and then later shake to mix the phyto back up again. Letting it settle for too long will start having the phyto smushed together on the floor. Having this happen for too long ends up havign the phyto die... and some of the more fragile spiecies more so than others. Just a note: One advantage of some species over others is that they can move on their own. For example Isochrysis has cilia that whips around to let the phyto cell move. This mayt cause a problem for those trying to up their concetration level....
Temperature: Keeping thetypical room temp is best when growing most species. But having it go one way or the other has its advantages too. Having the phyto culture in a slightly higher temp location causes the phyto to have a higher motabolism. This will mean a higher reproducing rate which makes cutting phyto happen sooner than it typically did. With that in mind this means that the aquarist would have to be pretty good about cutting the phyto in time before they use up all the nutrients and then starve which would cause a crash. Having a colder room temp causes the opposite in phyto. Its the same reason we keep phyto in the fridge.. to have it stay god for longer... we slow its motab down where it will not need the nutrients like it did before.. so it fouling takes a lot longer than usual. The only issue that comes with this is that cutting will usually take a couple days more, and they may be more nutrients in the culture than usual if the aquarist is not careful. Having nutrients in our aquarium may result in algae blooms.. which of course noone wants.
Matainence: Okay the nice thing about phyto is that it is not nearly as prone to crashing as rotifers are... and thank goodness too.. it would drive most of us nuts. But like any sensitive culture.. we need to keep things clean. I usually replace the culture bottle every two times I used the bottle. After the second time I usually just threw out the bottle and got a new one... bleached it and then used it for later. Having a spare bottle ready to go is best. Also you need the medium bottle to be clean, and the storage bottle to be clean as well.. though not nearly as clean as the others. The weapon of choice in cleaning is the wonderful product known as bleach. A couple of things should be taken into account. If you decide to use any container that had just been bleaned in the same day.. its usually a good idea to dechlorinate it. Buuuuuut if not using it in the same day the chlorine will go bye bye around in a day or two all the while keeping the container nasty-free. Up to you how you want to have this work. I usually had everything ready days before in case I had an emergency or did not have the time to fiddle with my culture.
Well this is about it... please if anyone has anything to add or object to.. etc.. post! I love hearing from you all!
I am sure most here know the generals with phyto culturing. Pretty much need the essentials like a couple coke bottles (depending on the size of your tank) rigid airline hosing, flexible airline hosing, an air pump, a clean container to hold phyto medium in, cheapo light, a culture, and voila a set up in the making.
A couple of important subjects that I would like to tackle is the following... light duration, bubble size, higher concetratin methods, temperature, storage life, and cleaning maintainences.
Light duration: I hear people usually using one of the two... 16 hour light cycle or 24/7 light cycle. I used the 16 hour light cycle because the light still entered my small home and unfortunately I have to sleep and so does my wife :( - A couple of advantages to using a 16 hour cycle is less electricity, if you ran the cycle at night and it is not indoors, there's less heat in the culture, and the culture won't develop as fast (for those of you who do not need to cut it faster). Another thing I should mention is about light type. When I first started I was anxious to speed up my culture growth, so I used a PC bulb that you can find at a wal-mart. The difference b/w this and a regular shop light bulb is that PC bulbs put out more light and are shorter and smaller. The other difference that needs to be taken into account is that these bulbs produce more heat. So if your culture is near this bulb it will heat up more, causing it to grow faster.
Bubble Size: Now, most times people aren't too worried about this. But since different species culturing is coming more and more real and common, I believe it to be a necessity in talkign about. Some species of phyto do not have such a tough cell wall that can withstand the constant pounding caused by air bubbles. For instance the species Isochrysis, its wall is pretty fragile, which makes this specied a bit harder to grow, but much easier to digest than most others. With this in mind I either have to put an air stone that produces smaller bubbles and/or put the bubble producing at a slower rate. The typical species being cultured (nano. oculata) by the common aquarist needs not to worry with this because the species is pretty tough by most standards. But only producing the needed bubbles and not overdoing it is something that should be followed for a couple of reasons.
Higher Concetration methods: There isn;t much that I could find on this subject. I only learned one method of doing this.. though a bit simple. That is after you've cut the culture and grab what you want to store in the refrigerator, let it sit in the fridge for a night. In the morning with most of the phyto settled on the bottom, you can take a clean airline hosing and syphon out the top half (or more) of the water and then later shake to mix the phyto back up again. Letting it settle for too long will start having the phyto smushed together on the floor. Having this happen for too long ends up havign the phyto die... and some of the more fragile spiecies more so than others. Just a note: One advantage of some species over others is that they can move on their own. For example Isochrysis has cilia that whips around to let the phyto cell move. This mayt cause a problem for those trying to up their concetration level....
Temperature: Keeping thetypical room temp is best when growing most species. But having it go one way or the other has its advantages too. Having the phyto culture in a slightly higher temp location causes the phyto to have a higher motabolism. This will mean a higher reproducing rate which makes cutting phyto happen sooner than it typically did. With that in mind this means that the aquarist would have to be pretty good about cutting the phyto in time before they use up all the nutrients and then starve which would cause a crash. Having a colder room temp causes the opposite in phyto. Its the same reason we keep phyto in the fridge.. to have it stay god for longer... we slow its motab down where it will not need the nutrients like it did before.. so it fouling takes a lot longer than usual. The only issue that comes with this is that cutting will usually take a couple days more, and they may be more nutrients in the culture than usual if the aquarist is not careful. Having nutrients in our aquarium may result in algae blooms.. which of course noone wants.
Matainence: Okay the nice thing about phyto is that it is not nearly as prone to crashing as rotifers are... and thank goodness too.. it would drive most of us nuts. But like any sensitive culture.. we need to keep things clean. I usually replace the culture bottle every two times I used the bottle. After the second time I usually just threw out the bottle and got a new one... bleached it and then used it for later. Having a spare bottle ready to go is best. Also you need the medium bottle to be clean, and the storage bottle to be clean as well.. though not nearly as clean as the others. The weapon of choice in cleaning is the wonderful product known as bleach. A couple of things should be taken into account. If you decide to use any container that had just been bleaned in the same day.. its usually a good idea to dechlorinate it. Buuuuuut if not using it in the same day the chlorine will go bye bye around in a day or two all the while keeping the container nasty-free. Up to you how you want to have this work. I usually had everything ready days before in case I had an emergency or did not have the time to fiddle with my culture.
Well this is about it... please if anyone has anything to add or object to.. etc.. post! I love hearing from you all!