i tried it for a while but im getting anywhere with this.

i used a light and air pump. and instead of it getting greener it got cloudy and white.

before i used miracle gro plant food but it seems to kill most of the plankton.

any advice? i heard DT brank works. is there a trick to it?

I've never had any problem using dt's to start phyto cultures. I used the same method as you mention above.

I've recently changed over to growing pure cultures started from florida aquafarms stock. I use about a teaspoon of miracle grow in 2l of 1.019 water and let it grow. One of the last cultures I started turned a milky white color after starting it. I forgot about it for a week or so and next time I checked it, it was a nice green color. It's been multiplying ever since.

i guess i'll try it again later this week.

I've got a culture going right now. Did 2ml miracle grow, 5 drops Kent EE and 10ml DT in a 20oz bottle (Sobe)

I use about 3-4 ounces of DT's, fill the bottle about 2 in max from the top with 5 mil liquid miracle grow all purpose plant food and 1 mil. Kent Marine Essential Elements. ( place the fert and the essential element sin the water BEFORE you add the phyto and mix it well.)

Its worked flawlessly for me for about 3-4 gallons of nice and dark phyto culturing so far.

yeah thanks prop. i guess that was my problem. i put the element and plant food in last. that must have killed a few...

Oh yeah ! That will burn it up because it falls through it in concentrated form before it dilutes.

hmm, how long have you guys been using dt's because i always thought that one phyto would outcompete the rest overtime and you would really wind up with only one strain, someone correct me if im wrong

yeah thats why some people grow different species in different bottles.

That's true one phyto out competes against another phytoplankton

along with phytoplankton in general stored loses a bit of it's nutritional value Evey day which is why its best to culture your own or buy and use with in a month from when it was cultured imo

Florida aqua farms is a great company

What kind of light are you guys using? I think my lights may be what has been my problem. I have tried Props exact recipe about three times with no luck. I tried it with an 18w 50/50 pc, and then I used a 10 watt 10,000k + 10 watt 6500k with no luck.

I have mine inside a five gallon bucket and it never gets over 80 degrees and never drops below 70. Or am I just using the wrong amount of air? about how many bubble a second should I be seeing?

I just cant get mine to grow. It just does what coolwaters does. And it seems to just settle really fast and die off. One more thought, when it is about 35 deg in the fridge, does it shock it severely by just pouring it into 80 deg water?

lol old thread. but i was wrong my did grow. turns out The Propagator was right. you need to add the plankton last so it doesnt get burned by the plant food or the Kent Marine Essential Elements.
mine eventually grew after 2-3 days. and got very dark green after a few days after.
i was using 2 X 1watt blue and red LEDs. with a mylar sheet keeping the light from bleeding out. grew super think. had to stir it every day.

yep, almost a month. I do add my phyto last after a good shake up. Still just turns white and settels. Meh, only reason I am trying to get it to go is to grow pods. Need lots of phyto for pods.

how old is your plankton?

if it helps im using a air stone for my bubbles. also your using old tank water right? the water your taking out during water changes is good.

Not sure if this help's but I use the dual output jetstream 3500 using one output for 1 G of phyto with nothing on the end of the tubing or restricting flow = a rough rumble which really stirs things around I bought them from walmart and also petsmart
http://www.hagen.com/canada/english/aquati...=01104600011001

For lighting I used dual 48", 40 watt normal output work shop fixture and plant/aquarium lights from home depot

fertalizer,culture,density stick and 53micron screen filter from florida aqua farms

never had a culture totaly crash in 5 years




8x 1G container from walmart I think they come in square container now that still do the job


I'm culturing using r.o water but heard tap water is fine @ 1.019 and room temp

I shut the culture down for 3 month for moving I think I was using approx 5 ml of fertalizer for 1G then split the culture around 9 days

that should be more then enough. also i wont use tap water because eventually its going into your tank.

the bulb at walmart (fish section) (very purple and red) is really good for growing algae.

Thaks guys. I think I will give it a go again and try the wally world bulb. I have to stop by there again tonight.

I read on melevs reef( the original source of the recipe) to run the air so that it is bubbling but not like a rolling boil. You say you just let it boil away?

Also I have tried both old tank water @1.024, declorinated tap @ 1.019, and RO @1.019.

I will agree if u can avoid tap water avoid it only because it is the thing to do even know its a sterilizer and high in nitrate/phosphate in which algae/phyto eats

I'm not sure about tank water because of the amount of weird stuff that will grow along with the phyto

there are a number of organisms that will grow with the phyto and I don't know on how they will react together

tap water has a large amount of chlorine which is a sterilizer that keeps things steril along with phosphate/nitrate that feed phyto

boil away imo as long as the pressure is the same or less then what I posted

I have some crazy observation's over the last 7 year's that the worlds scientist's like to say are false lol
something tells me they never owned a tank lol

green water is your friend lets just say that it feeds everything its the bottom of the food chain it feeds hundreds of natural scavengers inwhich they feed larger scavenger's/corals

Thanks for the input guys. I will be giving it another go. I do think that I will set the phyto out for a few hours to let the temp stabilize before I just go dumping it in. You would have to think that the large temp swing like that copuld shock about anything.

i just throw it in from the frig. make sure to dilute stuff before putting it in. the high concentration will kill them in contact.