Setting up a phytoplankton culturing system. Any advice?

[reret10]

Hey everyone. I just purchased a baby tridacna clam and my clown have paired off and will hopefully mate in my 30 gallon tank so I decided it would be good to have a phytoplankton culture running. I plan on having 2 separate cultures running in case one crashes. I think I'm going to just use 2 litre bottles and some Old plant grow lights from my freshwater days. Any advice for increased growth? Where should I get my Phytoplankton? Any other tips?

[MondoBongo]

i'm not quite clear on why you want the phyto?

phyto cultures are easy. buy a bottle of phyto from pretty much anywhere. then get some rigid airline, empty 2 liter soda bottles, normal airline, extra saltwater, and some liquid miracle grow.

fill up your bottles, add in some fertilizer, add your seed phyto, and sit them on a windowsill with the rigid airline tubing in them through a hole you drilled in the cap. shake and stir every other day or so to keep them from settling. in roughly 4 - 8 weeks it will be thick enough to harvest and either dose to the tank, feed pod cultures with, split in to new cultures, or share with friends.

melev's reef has a pretty good write up, but if you go with a window sill that gets good light, you don't even need additional lighting:

http://www.melevsreef.com/node/1614

[MondoBongo]

oh, and if you're going to save it for later use, refrigerate it. it will last about a month give or take.

[hkgar]

Another Melvins reef link re Phyto growing
http://www.melevsreef.com/phytosteps.html

[vikubz]

I was growing phyto for rotifers a while back. While it is easy to grow, you also get culture crashes for no apparent reason. Check out Reed Mariculture/Reef Nutrition. They have super concentrated phyto blends that are way easier to deal with. Some can be frozen for long term storage. Worked great for me!

[reret10]

The idea is to feed my Clam phytoplankton as well as have an established colony to feed rotifers if my clown lay eggs