Phytoplankton & Rotifers

[Lionel]

I just got my order from florida aqua farms, so if anyone is interested in starting phyto and/or rotifer cultures.. in about a week i'll have plenty grown out to give out starter cultures.

lemme know who's interested!

Lionel

[bethnjeremy]

sure i will take some

[Lionel]

the phyto bottles are getting pretty green...

[bethnjeremy]

bout to post new pics of tank

[Lionel]

gogogo

[tylersdad]

Hey Lionel my algae issue is nearly 100% gone, still have not found a sump tank yet. Did you get your ebay stuff yet? I looked at that acrylic sheet the other day but I donno know how to get it home.

[Lionel]

good stuff. ive actually got a line on about 10 tanks, mostly 20/29g, but one 45 gallon and one acrylic sump that looks to be a size that will fit under your tank.

I'm waiting for these AF guys to call me back about em.. i already went and took a look, but they were supposed to clean them up for me.

I've got a van, if you want we can take a ride to get that acrylic. I dont have any of my good supplies yet, you know how ebay is

[tylersdad]

That sounds good man, I would definitly take the 45 if the price is right, still waiting on my **** from foster and smith. I'm on quarters today, CPT Clarke sent me yesterday for a spinal tap!

[Lionel]

wonderful. hopefully everything is alright.
if you want, i am thinking about making a trip out to the seawall or somewhere else this weekend. let me know if you are interested

[tylersdad]

Yeah man let me know, we wanted to take our dog swimming this weekend anyways, you gonna be snorkeling or just collecting a cleanup crew?

[Lionel]

both hopefully. low tide isnt untill the afternoon, but ive got other things to do tomorrow afternoon. I am planning on leaving the house at around 9am, gotta talk to the wife about where we are gonna go still, but ill let ya know

[Lionel]

I've got about three gallons worth of phyto going right now.. if anyone wants to come get a bit of it to start your own cultures, you are more than welcome to some. The rotifers were transferred to their final culturing tank a few days ago, and are steadily populating that tank. I estimate about four more days before I start harvesting / distributing cultures. So if there's any interest there, let me know.

I've also started a brine shrimp culture, which is something ive got a bit more experience in. When I lived in Texas, I had a self sustaining culture of brine shrimp grown out to adulthood. It'll take a few weeks, but i should be able to offer you guys some live brine shrimp soon!!

Why buy frozen when you can have the real thing, right? If we get a few more people doing this, we can minimize the risk of cultures crashing. Who's with me?

[Sango-chu]

I've always wanted to get that started once I had seen what PPM was doing behind the closed door of the tanks. Their's cost a pretty penny too (pretty yen that is). Sure, Let me know what has to be "pre-positioned" before kicking this football off and I'll take a leap. Tank coming along slowing so I need to know if you know of anyone willing to part with some Chaeto as well...

Thanks Man...

[Lionel]

ive got heaps of chaeto too, you're welcome to whatever you need.

[Lionel]

The lighter colored containers are freshly restarted bottles, the darker ones, of course, are what's been harvested from the culturing. I've got enough full strength phyto to restart all my cultures, feed the rotifers and brine shrimp cultures for the evening, and fill up two 2L bottles with enough phyto to last me untill next week. It takes about seven days to go from fresh to ready for harvest.

[Lionel]

Oh yeah, for supplies:

Rigid airline tubing, naval kadena has the stuff in 3-packs, for a couple dollars.
Decent air pump, I'm running a dual outlet one for all of my phyto.

Some sort of liquid fertilizer.. I'm using micro algae grow from www.florida-aqua-farms.com but I've read that you can use liquid miracle grow.. I'm sticking with the stuff thats made for algae culture.
Flourescent light strips. I'm running one 20w flourescent and one 24W Power Compact.
Bottles to hold the algae. I'm using 2 Liter juice bottles. rinse them with hot tap water a few times, then pour a capful of bleach into em and fill with hot water. let them sit for a bit, then rinse with tap till chlorine smell dissipates. Let them dry out then they are good to go.

[bethnjeremy]

hey you have any extra lionel I will buy some off you. I don't have the space to maek it myself but gladly give you some cash. let me know man.

[Lionel]

Unfortunately, my phyto completely crashed a few days ago. I've got more cultures on the way from florida aqua farms, so hopefully it will arrive soon. I'm pretty sure I know what happened.. I used bleach to clean out all of my bottles.. i rinsed them a ton, but i think thats what did it. Time for sodium thiosulfate.. no more bleach problems next time.

[bethnjeremy]

that sucks bro.......

[tylersdad]

Did you get your phyto going again yet Lionel?

[Lionel]

OK. So i had the phyto, rotifers, and brine shrimp growing out, and then lost the phyto due to improper cleaning techniques.

I'm thinking about restarting all of my culturing.. would anyone be interested in cultured phytoplankton, rotifers, or live adult brine shrimp?

[bethnjeremy]

yes

[Lionel]

Well I'll put in an order for more culture discs then.