culturing phyto: which one to use?

[dansemacabre]

Over at florida-aqua-farms.com they have the micro algae disks for growing your own phyto culture. It's all good, and I got great plans on setting up a culture system here:
http://www.sjwilson.net/reef

My question is, they offer several different species. Which do I want?
They have:
Nanochloropsus
Nannochloris
Tetraselmis
Isocrysis
Chaetoceros

I'm thinking I want one of the last 3, and I _think_(?) I heard somewhere that the Tetraselmis are the best? Thanks all!

 

[steve-s]

Actually each type will offer something different as well as being a different micron size.
If you look on >>LiquidLifes<< website it gives you a bit of info on 3 of them. If you only chose one type to culture I would go with the Tetraselmis as you already suggested.

Cheers
Steve

 

[dansemacabre]

Sounds good, I could use 2 bottles of each of the 3. I'll have 6 bottles total. If you take a mature bottle of phyto, pour half into an empty bottle and top-off with saltwater+phyto-fertilizer, it will populate to fill that new bottle, right? Thanks!

 

[steve-s]

If you take a mature bottle of phyto, pour half into an empty bottle and top-off with saltwater+phyto-fertilizer, it will populate to fill that new bottle, right?

As long as you have a culture to start off with and food source, you should be just fine. Try not to produce too much though. You'll end up wasting a fair amount that way. Overfeeding the tank any type of phyto is just as fouling as overfeeding the fish.

Cheers
Steve

 

[dansemacabre]

So, let's say since I have a smaller load of phyto-consuming critters (though I swear the featherduster count is rising daily) I only do 3 bottles, one of each. If I use half of it, I can refill w/ salt-water+fertilizer to repopulate the bottle. So about the half I took out....can I refrigerate it much like DTs and use it as I need?

Or maybe only fill them half-full to begin with, cut to 1/4, and do the whole thing until my phyto-consuming load increases. Thanks for all of your help, Steve!

 

[steve-s]

Or maybe only fill them half-full to begin with, cut to 1/4, and do the whole thing until my phyto-consuming load increases.

I would opt for this. Smaller amounts means less waste. You can still put it in the fridge to preserve the extra but it will probabley not have the same shelf life as DT's. Might get a few weeks out of it. It really depends on the concentration you produce.

You'll know when it goes off. Smells like rotting seafood. 8O

Cheers
Steve

 

[fishfreek]

The culture Im running I find I use less than I make. I started with a simple 2 lt bottle given to me by a fellow hobbists. That grew to 1 gal jug after it was ready to split. That 1 gal jug grew to 2 gal jugs. As you can see the following split would result in 4 gal jugs... With the splits comming every 4-5 weeks I would need to consume something like 2 gal of phyto a month. At that rate my tanks would be green pea soup. If you cant consume it you also need to know about disposal. This stuff should NOT be disposed of by putting it down the drain.

Not sure if im the only one but I found taht site insanly hard to navagate till i realized the side was a menu. Here is a direct link.

http://www.sjwilson.net/reef/phytosteps.html

 

[steve-s]

If you cant consume it you also need to know about disposal. This stuff should NOT be disposed of by putting it down the drain.

Did not know that, makes sense though. The article did not mention alternate disposal methods. Any suggestions?

Cheers
Steve