Phyto culture questions

[Levinson]

I wouldn't worry about the chunks. I get phyto growing on the walls and bottom of the bottles and eventually some of it comes loose. I only strain when I harvest. I would give it more fert and leave it one more week. Here is my culture for comparison.View attachment 3118662

That looks thick!

 

[Levinson]

Today is the 7th day since I got started.
I could be seeing things but I think I might be getting some growth, of something at least.
One issue is that I'm getting some chunky bits in the cultures. I had some to begin with but I feel like there are more of them now. It's not yet at a dense where many people would normally harvest but I think I might harvest it today just to strain all the chunky bits.

2nd day
View attachment 3118375

4th day
View attachment 3118376

5th day
View attachment 3118377

6th day
View attachment 3118378

7th day. It's getting darker! Yay~!
I didn't harvest it today. I will probably harvest one of the bottles tomorrow.

 

[Levinson]

I harvested one of my cultures (the smaller one) and started a new one today. I'm going to let the other one grow for just a bit longer.
I've looked into a drop of the harvested culture under a toy-grade microscope (got it for about US$2 secondhand, it was a real pain to work with). I found something moving and from what I've read the Nannochloropsis is not motile so I'm suspecting there might be something else mixed in the culture. It's just my guess but I'm thinking the tiny dots are the Nannos and the bigger moving ones are the uninvited things. Of course, I could be wrong on all of this.