Culturing Phytoplankton For Reef Aquarium Food

very nice article @seabass!

 🙂

Excellent write up.  Easy to read and extremely practical.

The inclusion of Dino, cyno and diatoms as phytoplankton shows how interconnected the algae kingdom is.

How often do you dose the Micro algae grow and Kent essentials?  Would the initial salt batch not include all of the essential elements?

I dose both when starting the culture, and each week when I harvest it.  Depending on how large of a culture you are starting with, you might have to dose weekly without harvesting any (until it darkens up).  Also, when starting a culture, you might choose to double up on the Micro Algae Grow.

So this is what happens when you don't shake your culture and let it go for too long.  If this happens, don't worry, your culture is still probably fine.  Shake the culture, add some more nutrients, and filter out the larger chunks.

Here's the culture after shaking and straining it.

Here's the culture afterwards.

Don't be afraid to add more microalgae fertilizer if you feel that the culture isn't darkening properly.

I'm also going to include this link to some experiments that I performed in starting a phytoplankton culture just from sitting out a bowl of water on my screened in porch:

It demonstrates how easy it is to start a culture.  It also documents how much f/2 I used to get the culture going.

Nice!! I also started my own phytoplankton cultures, I use for my tiger pods. 

My university grows phytoplankton sometimes for experiments. Some of it is done in containers that are on top of machines that shake them constantly, which is a bit noisy but probably very helpful in keeping it from settling it out. Some of it just gets shaken manually, though. 

Okay, Mr Seabass, here’s my Phyto cooking conundrum: 

Im culturing 4 types of green: nannochloris, Nannochloropsis, dunaliella and tetraselmis. They grow but they don’t get super glow in the dark green like others. I’ve only used two culture discs for each, in a two(?) three(?) month span- I lose track of time these days. So I’m getting a pale ale version of everything 🤦🏽‍♀️. 
 

I feed them neophos and neonitro once a week, reef trace once a week and guillards F/2 every three days. I drain some off every three days or so, and add new water about once a week. Keep the salinity at 1.015. I haven’t tested the phos or nitrate level because honestly I was kind of scared to see how high it was. 
 

Today, after reading around more, I decided to get new containers, and split each culture in half, adding new water and more guillards to them. They’re green as I stated but pale green. So I assume that means alive, but not super actively growing. 
 

Now bear in mind I’m growing this stuff in my garage north of Houston where it’s hot enough to be it’s own level of hell in Dante’s Inferno. So that could be one factor. I have (dont laugh) cooling fans and a small personal AC unit on the shelf to blow on the containers. But I’m not sure if I’m not feeding them right or not swapping out containers like I should or just what, to achieve a strong uber green growth. Today was the first time I got new containers- usually I just drain off some volume and add new water and guillards, trying to use the same container forever. 
 

What do you think I could do differently to get the same growth others have?

@Dirté Sanchez, here's what I've been doing which may to differ the most from your method:

• I try to harvest the culture once a week.  When I do, I dose massive amounts into my tanks, but most of it gets poured down the drain (saving maybe a bit more than a quart, out of the two gallons).  Instead of large doses once a week, I should probably put it in a bottle (stored in the refrigerator) and dose smaller amounts daily.
• Then I make new water (2 gallons).  While it's dissolving, I clean out the bottles with a bottle brush and tap water (sometimes some vinegar if the brush can't clean it well enough).  Once the water is fully dissolved, I add the saved culture.
• I'll add 3 to 4 ml of Micro Algae Grow f/2 per gallon of water (so 6 to 8 ml in my case), nothing else.  If your cultures aren't darkening up as you'd like, try upping the dose a little.
• Then I pour the new mixture into the cleaned bottles (and leave them alone for a week).

I find that this works pretty well, even if the starting culture is quite light/transparent in color.

Other notes:

• I use two one gallon bottles.  It's suggested that you harvest one at a time (alternating), but I do them at the same time.  If one looks better than the other, I save the culture from there.
• Lately I haven't been shaking the cultures.  That doesn't seem to be causing any problems.

I'm thinking that you may need to harvest a larger percent (more new water).

18 minutes ago, seabass said:

@Dirté Sanchez, here's what I've been doing which may to differ the most from your method:

• I try to harvest the culture once a week.  When I do, I dose massive amounts into my tanks, but most of it gets poured down the drain (saving maybe a bit more than a quart, out of the two gallons).  Instead of large doses once a week, I should probably put it in a bottle (stored in the refrigerator) and dose smaller amounts daily.
• Then I make new water (2 gallons).  While it's dissolving, I clean out the bottles with a bottle brush and tap water (sometimes some vinegar if the brush can't clean it well enough).  Once the water is fully dissolved, I add the saved culture.
• I'll add 3 to 4 ml of Micro Algae Grow f/2 per gallon of water (so 6 to 8 ml in my case), nothing else.  If your cultures aren't darkening up as you'd like, try upping the dose a little.
• Then I pour the new mixture into the cleaned bottles (and leave them alone for a week).

I find that this works pretty well, even if the starting culture is quite light/transparent in color.

 

Other notes:

• I use two one gallon bottles.  It's suggested that you harvest one at a time (alternating), but I do them at the same time.  If one looks better than the other, I save the culture from there.
• Lately I haven't been shaking the cultures.  That doesn't seem to be causing any problems.

 

I'm thinking that you may need to harvest a larger percent (more new water).

I forgot to add I use 4in air stones turned down low for aeration- I don’t remember why I chose that route other than maybe comfort? Each container is a gallon though the news ones are slightly larger. 
 

I hate the thought of pouring it down the drain, but I’m afraid nobody will want my Phyto if it’s not super green like expected, even though it’s still a live culture. But we shall see. I’ll work on culling more and see if that helps and maybe rotating out the containers to keep them clean.

You don’t think the heat is killing it? I guess that’s my biggest fear that maybe I shouldn’t culture it during the summer. 

1 hour ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

You don’t think the heat is killing it? I guess that’s my biggest fear that maybe I shouldn’t culture it during the summer. 

I culture indoors.  Yes, the heat could be affecting the cultures.  According to the book Clownfishes (which I recommend, even if only culturing phyto and/or rotifers):

• Nannochloris oculata - Temperature (˚F): 50-97 (77-86 preferred)
• Nannochloropsis oculata - Temperature (˚F): 50-86
• Tetraselmis - Temperature (˚F): 45-86 (68-82 preferred)

On a sidenote, for lighting, I'm using a standard 75W equivalent LED bulb (daylight spectrum).  I also am not using an air stone, as they are harder to keep clean than rigid air line tubing.

I think I want to start dosing phyto in my reef tank, to try and get my copepods to multiply. I'm trying to help them rebound from my latest incident, but it seems like it could also be good to do on a regular basis. My fish mostly eat pods, so I don't have to worry about feeding them more than a couple times a week. 

I think my tank holds about 3.5 gallons of water? It's 4.5, but of course has rockwork. Any idea how much phyto I'd be dosing, if I wanted to add it roughly once weekly, to get copepods to multiply and flourish? And hopefully to maintain a few mini feather dusters, I'd like to find and add a few of those little red ones. 

I'm trying to figure out if it's worth starting a culture. My LFS sells a 16-ounce bottle of mixed species phyto that says to dose 1/4oz per 10 gallons, daily or every other day. Dosed daily, that would last my tank 168 days, and it says it lasts 4-6 months if refrigerated. Rounding up a little and dosing once a week, that's an ounce a week and a 4-month supply. 

Any idea what an ounce of phyto a week would do in a pico tank? It doesn't look super concentrated, it's not really dark green. 

I assume there aren't any reasonable cultures that give just an ounce a week. 

It's too bad phyto doesn't keep if you freeze it. Otherwise I could run a couple of big cultures for awhile and get a few years' supply. 

5 minutes ago, Tired said:

Any idea how much phyto I'd be dosing, if I wanted to add it roughly once weekly, to get copepods to multiply and flourish? And hopefully to maintain a few mini feather dusters

With cultured phyto, I feel that you can dose more without a negative impact.  Just speculating, I'd guess up to about a ½ cup would be alright.  Maybe work up to that.

You could easily culture this much with just a typical water bottle.

3 minutes ago, Tired said:

it says it lasts 4-6 months if refrigerated

The longer that phyto is refrigerated, the less nutritious it becomes.  Ideally, you would keep phyto refrigerated for less than a month.

Good to know about the shelf life, thanks. 

Are there any alternatives to an airstone? Will a tiny pump of some sort also work? I've never been able to find an airstone that's silent enough for my liking, they always vibrate too much, but I've found some pretty quiet pumps. Or maybe even one of those magnetic stirrers chemistry labs have, though I'd have to see how loud those are. 

I might just pop some of this bottled phyto and a small pump into a clean jar, see if that goes anywhere. 

2 minutes ago, Tired said:

Will a tiny pump of some sort also work?

I imagine that would work for a much larger container; maybe not so much for a water bottle.  You'd definitely want to use Nannochloropsis, which has a thicker/tougher cell wall than many other varieties.  This will hopefully help protect the culture from the small fountain pump.

Or maybe you just need to find a place where the vibration sound isn't annoying.

Part of the problem is that I have really sensitive hearing, and this culture would be coming with me to a college dorm room. I'd have a hard time finding anywhere in there where the pump wouldn't be annoying. 

I'm gonna give this a shot with a gallon jug, a small fountain pump, and some of the bottled phyto I have in the fridge. If it fails, oh well, I've lost nothing significant. 

Hello, I think I’ll give this a shot too.

I will need phyto primarily to feed Copepods. My tank is a 32g. 
I’m guessing a 2 litre glass jar would do?

Now, is there a species that would satisfy both Copes and Roits …. or is that a stupid question. X

3 hours ago, Tritone said:

I think I’ll give this a shot too.  I will need phyto primarily to feed Copepods. My tank is a 32g.  I’m guessing a 2 litre glass jar would do?

You typically see people use plastic bottles with screw on tops (which are easy to drill a hole in).  However, just about any container will do.  You could probably use an open container, but I feel that a covered top will help keep things out while preventing most of the evaporation.  It might also do something to help heat the culture.

3 hours ago, Tritone said:

Now, is there a species that would satisfy both Copes and Roits …. or is that a stupid question.

Definitely not a stupid question.  Nannochloropsis oculata is probably one of the easiest to culture.  However, it has a tougher cell wall than some other species, so it's harder for some of the pods to digest.  Still, I'd guess that it's likely fine for both.

Another option might be spirulina powder, which is also used to culture pods.

4 hours ago, seabass said:

You typically see people use plastic bottles with screw on tops (which are easy to drill a hole in).  However, just about any container will do.  You could probably use an open container, but I feel that a covered top will help keep things out while preventing most of the evaporation.  It might also do something to help heat the culture.

 

Definitely not a stupid question.  Nannochloropsis oculata is probably one of the easiest to culture.  However, it has a tougher cell wall than some other species, so it's harder for some of the pods to digest.  Still, I'd guess that it's likely fine for both.

 

Another option might be spirulina powder, which is also used to culture pods.

Thank you as always. I shall look into both options at once.

T

What is the phyto/salt water ratio to start the culture? 

31 minutes ago, Kindanewtothis said:

What is the phyto/salt water ratio to start the culture?

As much as you can spare.  The more you use, the sooner you have good phyto to harvest.  But in theory, you could start a culture with just a few ml (but it'll take a month or so before it's dark green).

What about the foaming? Isn't it when haversting is overdue?

Typically.  Although it might also be to much air flow.

The very top pic (with the Greenwater title), shows a decent amount of flow.  I might run just a tad bit more today (but not a whole lot).