Phytoplankton - opinions?

[Reef_Geek]

IMO, adding phytoplankton to a reef tank for corals is a very nice to have, but plenty of folks have success without doing so. If you were to worry about the fertilizer in the phytoplankton water being poured into your tank, you can use the same philosophy as larval fish rearing... where you're trying to package nutrients into rotifers. So you could feed phytoplankton to rotifers, and in an hour, strain the rotifers through micron screen, then just rinse the rotifers off the screen and into the tank.

If you were breeding marine fish, however, phytoplankton is essential to larval rearing in 1) it has far more HUFAs than other feeds (ie yeast) for sustaining larval fish development, 2) in larval rearing water quality management (buffer pH in constant light, consumes nitrogenous wastes) especially where you can't really have much flow or filtering in a larval rearing tank, and 3) keep the water darker (along with painted tank sides) so larvae aren't wasting energy swimming against the glass.

Phyco Pure is a good product. I used to work next door to Eric at Algagen.

[Reef_Geek]

somebody else once posted this link, which is a good guide on algae culturing

http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732E/W3732E00.HTM

the hardest part about culturing algae is to keep them from getting contaminated with other micro organisms, leading to crashes. To get around this, use good sterile practices, and split up as much as possible so you always have something left as seed stock.

That is why you would use dozens of small containers, ramping up to just a few large tanks of algae where you harvest from while restarting other new small cultures.

[FitoPharmer]

Originally Posted by tgrover

Ok, so let's say I tried culturing Phyco Pure www.alagen.com. Is it safe to grow? If I split it, add 1.019 and grow it under t5s... Would I be able to successfully feed my tank with it?

Chances are you will not be able to successfully start a culture from a product like this. And even if by chance you did, after a few times splitting your cultures one strain of phyto will always dominate the others eliminating its main benefit. I am pretty sure if you do not split a culture 2 weeks after its peak growth the effectiveness in starting new cultures greatly diminishes if it is not stored properly, which in most cases it is not.

[FitoPharmer]

If you live in Edmonton, A LFS or someone will most likely already have a healthy stable Nannochloropsis culture brewing and maybe some rotifers. Nannochloropsis is one of the easiest types to start with. Once you have found a place to get some fresh Nannochloropsis to start a culture order some of this:
http://florida-aqua-farms.com/shop/micro-algae-grow/
and pick up one of these:
http://florida-aqua-farms.com/shop/p...ulture-manual/

And if you are really in a pinch and cannot get phyto or rotifers in Canada you can order them too:
http://florida-aqua-farms.com/produc...live-cultures/

Once it all arrives you just do a little reading, setup your equipment, and start your cultures.

[tgrover]

Thanks to all!! Interesting discussion and I have some thinking to do. Merry Christmas

[daniella3d]

The benifit is huge. first, it's not really the corals that will eat phyto but the zooplankton. By feeding phyto you will effectively feed the zooplankton and thus the corals.

It is the very base of the food chain, and without it there is not much pods or zooplankton that will thrive in your tank.

It is the only thing that clams eat, and it must be alive for them to eat it as they reject dead phyto.

Feeding phyto is the best way to make a healthy pod population grow.