UV disinfection for phyto culture???

[Levinson]

I was thinking of using a UV-c lamp to disinfect the glass bottles, water, and other equipment for my phyto culture.
It won't be my only means of disinfection of course and I'll be using rubbing alcohol as well. Bleach or hydrogen peroxide are just too much hassle, though I might use them too time to time.
The idea is to have a box and put whatever I want to disinfect and a UV-c lamp inside then turn it on and off from outside so I'm protected from the UV. I could dip the UV lamp inside the phyto culture bottle/jar with mixed saltwater in it and disinfect the vessel as well as the water before putting the live phyto in it (like the picture below). In theory, the distance between the UV light is quite close to the surface I want to disinfect so I'm thinking it should be relatively effective.

My questions are:
1. Will this work? Is this worth a shot? Any inputs are welcome.
2. Are the cheap Chinese aquarium UV sterilizers really germicidal and not fake?
I'm thinking about whether to go for a cheap aquarium UV sterilizer like this (the exposed one and not one of those that needs a pump) or make one with a bulb like this. If the cheap aquarium UV sterilizer works, that'd be nice and easy but I'm worried it might be one of those face UV-c lamps that are not germicidal. I have a UV-c bulb at home that claims to be germicidal but I tested it with a banana peel and tape for about 20 minutes and it turned out to be a fake. To be honest I'd hate to DIY one with a bulb, just because don't know much about the G23 socket the UV-c bulbs sold uses, and electronics in general (balasts and all).

 

[Levinson]

3. Can I use aquarium UV sterilizers out of water or does it have to be fully submerged? (or partially submerged?) Will it get too hot if I use it out of water?

 

[taricha]

I don't know for certain the phyto growth media properties in UV absorbance, but depending on what's in it - it's possible that the sterilizing 254nm only penetrates a cm or so into the water and if so you might need to add a mixer of some sort in the jar to get good sterilizer coverage on the media.

 

[Levinson]

I don't know for certain the phyto growth media properties in UV absorbance, but depending on what's in it - it's possible that the sterilizing 254nm only penetrates a cm or so into the water and if so you might need to add a mixer of some sort in the jar to get good sterilizer coverage on the media.

Thanks for the response. By "the phyto groth media" do you mean saltwater? I guess what I could try to do is,
- put the UV lamp inside the empty glass jar first to disinfect the surface then put the saltwater inside and/or
- gently shake the box from outside to stir the water in the glass jar with UV lamp in it .....maybe?

 

[taricha]

By "the phyto groth media" do you mean saltwater? I guess what I could try to do is,
- put the UV lamp inside the empty glass jar first to disinfect the surface then put the saltwater inside and/or
- gently shake the box from outside to stir the water in the glass jar with UV lamp in it .....maybe?

I mean sterilizing the saltwater + f/2 ....everything but the added phyto.
I was thinking maybe an airline to bubble just a little to move the liquid around.

 

[Levinson]

I mean sterilizing the saltwater + f/2 ....everything but the added phyto.
I was thinking maybe an airline to bubble just a little to move the liquid around.

Oh yeah that also sounds like a good idea.

 

[Borat]

There is no point in this disinfection device (my personal opinion - take it with a pinch of salt).. if you have some pathogens - they will be in your culture. If you don't - all you need is to rinse culture bottle with hot tap water and let it cool.

Generally freshwater pathogens do not fare well with saltwater, so no chance of contamination from tap water.

 

[Levinson]

There is no point in this disinfection device (my personal opinion - take it with a pinch of salt).. if you have some pathogens - they will be in your culture. If you don't - all you need is to rinse culture bottle with hot tap water and let it cool.

Generally freshwater pathogens do not fare well with saltwater, so no chance of contamination from tap water.

I think you are right about the culture being the most likely source of the pathogens (in fact, I suspect I might have something mixed in my Nanno culture that is not Nanno) but then why would the experts alike put so much emphasis on the sterilization of equipment when culturing phyto?
I watched this MACNA video on youtube the other day and it got me thinking about ways to ramp up the sanitization if I can. It could all be in vain as we are not doing this in a lab and I could be doing 100 things to prevent something and it would simply not work. It's hard to gauge just how much is 'reasonable'.

 

[LordofCinder]

It seem overly complicated to achieve a simple result, why not just rinse the bottle and tools with vinegar?

 

[Borat]

I think you are right about the culture being the most likely source of the pathogens (in fact, I suspect I might have something mixed in my Nanno culture that is not Nanno) but then why would the experts alike put so much emphasis on the sterilization of equipment when culturing phyto?
I watched this MACNA video on youtube the other day and it got me thinking about ways to ramp up the sanitization if I can. It could all be in vain as we are not doing this in a lab and I could be doing 100 things to prevent something and it would simply not work. It's hard to gauge just how much is 'reasonable'.

I kept my culture of tetraselmis alive for 18 months... And generally I cultured phyto for about 3 years. I just didn't listen to those nonsense things that I didn't think were right.

 

[Levinson]

It seem overly complicated to achieve a simple result, why not just rinse the bottle and tools with vinegar?

Well, rubbing alcohol will also be used for that purpose but I thought it would be best if I could disinfect the actual water the phyto will be growing in and vinegar doesn't do that. I've read here somewhere that some people use bleach to disinfect the culture water and then use sodium thiosulfate to neutralize the bleach afterward (then add phyto and F/2). I was just wondering if I could use UV to achieve something similar.

 

[Levinson]

I kept my culture of tetraselmis alive for 18 months... And generally I cultured phyto for about 3 years. I just didn't listen to those nonsense things that I didn't think were right.

I hope my culture will be like yours. I guess I'm more paranoid since the live-starting phyto cultures are very hard to get a hold of where I live so the pressure to keep them alive is high. I wouldn't be as anxious if I could just order them online.

 

[Borat]

I hope my culture will be like yours. I guess I'm more paranoid since the live-starting phyto cultures are very hard to get a hold of where I live so the pressure to keep them alive is high. I wouldn't be as anxious if I could just order them online.

The proper way to keep the culture alive for as long as possible is to run mutiple (but smaller) bottles in parallel. Ensure you don't mix them and if a given sub-culture shows a sign of weakness - don't use it, split another bottle's culture and continue.