setting up a culture station

[kennyman]

I have been feeding live phytoplankton to my reef tank for the past four months and was pretty happy with the effects it had on inhabitans such as sponges, featherdusters and bivalves. There are also some water quality benefits said to come from using phytoplankton. But I really started feeding it because I wanted to try and keep flame scallops. My first attempt to keep them in the winter of 2006 ended in tragedy but I was determined to try again armed with a few more years of practice and understanding behind me.



I began by purchasing ReefCrew phyto and I want to say it is a Great Product. It is very dense and a little goes a long way. But It was going to cost me a couple of hundred dollars a year and frequent trips into the city to keep my little reeftank supplied. I decided to try and grow my own instead. I read all the DIY projects posted on the web and some articles on Reefs.Org and Reef Central before beginning my search for some starter cultrues. I selected a Canadian suplier to simplify delivery and shipping.  Coralscaping in Kitchener Ontario had some good reviews posted on other aquarium club forums and I like seeing my money stay in the country so I went with them. I was very happy with the online ordering procedure, shipping time, as well as price. I am sure there or other suppliers but this is the one I found and things went they way I like. Simple



I got three bottles of Phytoplankton and a small bottle of growth formula to start off with. I choose the formula as a culture medium opposed to other fertilizer sources because I do not believe the culture can utilize most of the nutrients in the media unless they are properly balanced. If you have too much of any macro nutrient in your media you will transfer that excess into your tank when you feed. Also the cost of the formula is quite acceptable.

I set up a 10 gallon tank with 2" of water and a heater in my stairwell closet. This will keep my cultures at a stable temperature and hopefully accelerate growth. I am using 2L popbottles, an old air pump and two lights from old aquarium hoods I had laying around. There is also a boxstyle shrimp hatchery on the shelf I use for periodic batches of bbs. I may expand to culture larger bbs gutloaded with phyto in the futrue if I need them.



I used bottles of Nannochloropsis and Isocrysis to start cultures and kept the bottle of Tetraselmis for feeding my tank right away. These algae are different sizes and have some differnet nutritional value. There are also different cultural requirements for them. Some require more light or different salinity's. You can read more about why you would want more than one species at resources like Advance Aquarist Online



So anyway this how I'm getting started and if it works I'll post an update with what I learned. Happy fish keeping 

[groan]

fix the pics! lol

[kennyman]

fixt