My Phytoplankton and Copepod Culturing Experience

[Steve2020]

Wow that is some straight nasty goop! Well done! I just ordered some Mercer of Montana f2 off Amazon. I don't see instructions. Do you add 4ml/week at once?

I am going to follow your lead and use 1.5l of my first harvest for the next batch and will switch to the new fertilizer if it gets here this week.

I have a plan for copepods. Do you think this will work?

Every Saturday, siphon 1l from the Pod Phytotank with a turkey baster. I'll siphon from the bottom at first to get some of the nasty out, but ill make sure not to remove too many pods. Add that 1l to my display. Then I'll add 1l of my phyto harvest to top off the PhytoTank. The plan would be to do this for a month or so until there is too much crap at the bottom. At this point I'll sieve them and do a water change and use 1l fresh phyto. If I get the nasty goop like you have, I'll probably have to use less phyto. I suppose I can gauge it by how clear it gets by the end of the week.

I'm still on the fence with using these phototanks to raise pods. I really like what you did with the Amazon tubs. If I had a spare light hanging around, I'd probably just do it and use this second PytoTank for FL Reef Labs Tetra.

Thanks for paving the way for me. This is going to allow for copious amounts of harvest without much experimentation. A daily shake of the harvest is not something I considered. Thanks for the tip!

The Mercer of Montana F2 is 1ml/L so when the Phyto tank is filled to the line it equates to approx 3L. So 3ml of F2. I used a 3/8" tubing to syphon the pods from my bins. 1L of phyto per week to feed the copepods to me seems like a lot. I am no expert in culturing pods in the Phyto Tank. Maybe someone with experience with this can give better info.
When I cultured the pods I used approx 10-12 drops of Phyto Feast every other day for approx 1gal of water.
Pods require very little light. Ambient daylight should be fine.

 

[Mikeltee]

The Mercer of Montana F2 is 1ml/L so when the Phyto tank is filled to the line it equates to approx 3L. So 3ml of F2. I used a 3/8" tubing to syphon the pods from my bins. 1L of phyto per week to feed the copepods to me seems like a lot. I am no expert in culturing pods in the Phyto Tank. Maybe someone with experience with this can give better info.
When I cultured the pods I used approx 10-12 drops of Phyto Feast every other day for approx 1gal of water.
Pods require very little light. Ambient daylight should be fine.

I appreciate all the help brother! My Florida Reef Labs package landed today. They were very helpful! I also had my first harvest today. It's not bad considering that it was a 250ml starter. It went 8 days. I planned to get phyto feast but my tank sprung a leak so I'll be stockpiling phyto for a few months as I'll be bleach curing the rock. The dinos got to go!

I'm feeding my Tisbes a little scoop of reef roids + tetra and nano. The tiggers are getting phyto only. I didn't notice that much of a population increase with the tisbes. The 16oz Tigger population from Florida Reef Labs was very dense. As long as they enjoy my 2 strain diet, they should do well.

 

[Steve2020]

I appreciate all the help brother! My Florida Reef Labs package landed today. They were very helpful! I also had my first harvest today. It's not bad considering that it was a 250ml starter. It went 8 days. I planned to get phyto feast but my tank sprung a leak so I'll be stockpiling phyto for a few months as I'll be bleach curing the rock. The dinos got to go!

I'm feeding my Tisbes a little scoop of reef roids + tetra and nano. The tiggers are getting phyto only. I didn't notice that much of a population increase with the tisbes. The 16oz Tigger population from Florida Reef Labs was very dense. As long as they enjoy my 2 strain diet, they should do well.

Sorry to hear about your tank. Phyto looks good.