Culturing Phytoplankton Experiment

[TheShrimpNibbler]

I can see that some of the bottles are a noticeable amount darker than others. I definitely think that the larger amount of fertilizer made a difference.

 

[Dilan Patel]

I can see that some of the bottles are a noticeable amount darker than others. I definitely think that the larger amount of fertilizer made a difference.

Think your right. Ill probably keep the lighter phyto as back ups and use the darker ones rn. im hoping adding the extra food up to 5ml will help me determine the amount of food I should be using.

 

[Aqua Man]

Looking good Dilan. The one does look a tad lighter green.

How often are you splitting?
What salinity is your culture?
Are those 2 liter bottles that you are culturing in?

 

[Dilan Patel]

this is my second time splitting and today was the 6th day. I did not see any noticeable color change and I was thinking it ran out of food and hit that time period where no growth/very little was happening and was time to split. My salinity for this current batch is 1.019 which is within the range of 1.018-1.020 the card I received said was acceptable. And yes those are 2 L bottles. I kept about 33% of the grown cultures to start the next batch.

 

[Dilan Patel]

All tools are steralized with White vinegar and rinsed thoroughly with hot water before being used including the culturing vessels..

 

[Dilan Patel]

I think the left bottle has started to crash? It is significantly lighter than the rest. I found out that 5ml of fertelizer is producing a really nice green so I added 2 more ml's to this bottle to see if it would darken but instead seemed to get lighter. Also is the bigger chunks of phytoplankton a problem?

 

[Dilan Patel]

Both vessel 1 and 3 have officially crashed. Will split tomorrow!

 

[Aqua Man]

Any idea why those crashed?
If chunks are forming, maybe not enough air movement?

 

[Dilan Patel]

no idea why they crashed. 1 had 4ml of food and 1 had 2ml of food. while the other twop had 2ml of food and 5ml of food. So food was not an issue.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

That stinks! At least you have two other containers to split and start over with. Definitely make sure to sterilize the crashed culture containers well.

 

[Dilan Patel]

thankfully. I think my problem was the saltwater I used...I used a bag which was rock hard which I just broke up by hand. This basically made some of the mionerals precipitate out and not mix completely clear. This time around I ditched that bag of salt and opened a brand new one not clumped and mixed it until clear.

 

[Dilan Patel]

All bottles crashed...going back to basics. only going to do 2 cultures filled 1/3 with phytoplankton culture filled the rest with 1.019 SW. All bottles will be sterilized with alcohol instead of vinegar as well as brushed inside. The other componets will be cleaned with alcohol as well. both bottles will have 5ml of food.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Oh no! Hopefully, you will have better luck this next time.

 

[Dilan Patel]

im thinking its a contamination issue some how.

 

[Dilan Patel]

Great quality batch today! sitting at about 20 million cells per ml!

 

[Dilan Patel]

Just a little update. I have found that steralizing with isopropyl has helped me in keeping them from crashing. Eachtime I split it gets darker and darker!

 

[Aqua Man]

Nice and dark! Looks good.

Is that with the 5.0 mL F2 per 1 liter?
I haven’t been able to get mine to darken up as good as yours.

 

[Dilan Patel]

5.0ml per 2 L. and salinity anywhere from 1.020-1.018. With good amount of bubbles. I can usually split within 5 days but let it run for 6-7 because im lazy and don't clean the bottles on time lol.

 

[Dilan Patel]

Here some progression pics for this weeks phyto.
1st pic is starting out with 500ml or less of phyto and then backfilled with saltwater around 1.020. Add 5ml of f/2 for each 2l bottle.
2nd pic is a couple days after culturing
3rd pic is todays which is day 6 and will either be harvested and or wait till tomorrow when I have time.

This batch was harvested with phyto I cultured OVER a month ago.

 

[Aqua Man]

Wow that’s really dark! Thanks for update
More f/2 is definitely helping