Pod and phyto cultures

[Chew]

Nope not yet pal but I can give you enough pointers to get you started if you like. Is it pods or phyto you are planning on?

I have to admit to crashing my phyto culture recently though. Completely my own fault mind. Due to everything that been going on with the other half etc I've been so short on time and I started taking some short cuts and the result was a complete crash. I'll set it back up again at some point in the future when I have a little more time available.

[andylowe04]

Cheers Chew,

Interested in the lot, phyto, pods and rots.

Just at the research phase at the moment but something I am keen to start up.

Any pointers or links to useful info would be much appreciated.

Andy

[Chew]

I'd get your phyto going first as this will then be used to feed your pods as well as your tank. And there are many many different ways to run a culture. Some are considered more stable, others are less work so its really down to you. The one I chose is known as the batch method. Basically you grow the phyto in batchs which takes between 1 and 2 weeks each batch. Its a little more prone to crashing than some of the others but is simple and you can avoid a total crash by having several batches on the go at once. You'll need a few things to get you started, an air pump that is meaty enough to power upto 6 air stones, a shed load of empty 2l pop bottles, an old plant grow T8 or 2, some rigid tube to insert into the pop bottles and a shed load of air line and taps etc. You'll also need some chlorine crystals used for steralising swimming pools and hot tubs which you can get from any hot tub place or plenty of online shops and some normal aquarium dechlorinator such as aquasafe. The chorine and dechlorinator are used to steralise all the equipment and you need to do this every time you start a new batch. Its bacteria and tiny creatures which crash most phyto cultures. Some people also use an air filter in the line from the air pump to help avoid contamination too and I found a place that sells them fairly cheaply. The last thing you'll need is some food for the algae to grow. There is alot about people using miracle grow and claim alot of success, but for me it was going to end up in my tank and since I don't know whats in miracle grow I opted for the slightly more expensive but safer F2 fertaliser designed and made by florida aqua farms. I can give you a link if you can't find it anywhere.

So first thing is to wash and clean a pop bottle and then fill with warm warter and chlorine. Add the rigid tube you will use so this gets cleaned too. Leave for half and hour then empty and rinse well. Add a tripple dose of dechlorinator to the last rinse.

The basic idea is you start with a 500ml live culture from someone else or from ReefPhyto. It'll likely be chilled and been without aeration for a while so the first thing is to bring it to room temp. Then pour it into your empty steralised pop bottle and start to aerate it. The bubble rate wants to be fairly fast but not too strong as you don't want a skimming effect. Then leave it for a day.

Next you will add a couple of drops of fertaliser and leave it for a week. At this point you need to start topping the bottle up with fresh salt water. The SG is dependent on the algae species and the person you get the starter culture from should be able to tell you what they use but I ran mine at 1.022 to 1.023 with no problems. Mix up a couple of litres of salt water they same as you would for your reef. Then stick a jug full in the microwave for 7 mins on high to steralise it. Leave it to cool to room temp propperly before adding it a little at a time to the culture over the space of a week until the pop bottle is full to the point where the bottle starts to narrow. Any further up and you seems to get a froth from the skimming effect increase. You need to add some more drops of fertaliser too once you get it full as directed on the bottle.

You then leave it for another week or 2 in which if all is well you will see it darken to the same sort of colour it was when you got the starter culture. Once ready don't take any for your tank yet. Split the culture into 2 steralised fresh bottles and top both up with steralised salt water. When they are ready you then split them into 4 bottles and so on until you have 4 to 6 cultures which should be enough to protect against loosing them all in a crash. Ideally move half to a different room too so temp swings in the room are less likely to crash it all too. Also never leave a bottle going more than a week past when its got really dark as this will start it to crash too.

Once you have them all running you are basically ready to start harvesting some. The process is simple. When you split the bottle you use half to start the new one and half gets put in a fresh bottle and in the fridge to use for your pod cultures or added to your tank. You should by this point be generating plenty and be able to sell the excess or give it away. If you get them right you should have a pair of bottles to split each week and atleast one pair on the go still.

I'll try dig out some of the write ups I followed for you fella too and if you have any trouble finding anything I can point you at some links where you can get most things from. Compaired to this the pods and rotties are simple and I'll give you some info on what I did with them when you are ready!