Culturing Phytoplankton

[djkms]

Just a heads up to everyone in the Denver Metro area I am going to start culturing live Phytoplankton (Nannochloropsis)

I guess I need to know who would be interested in getting some from me, what your estimated needs would be and such so I can plan accordingly on building my station.

I will probably not have a set fee for this but will do it more on a donation, trade basis, unless there are a huge number of people interested, then I might have to set a price which works best for you and I.

If your interested let me know.

Thanks

 

[Zooid]

I'd probably want some on an IRREGULAR basis.
Depending on the cost.

 

[Cake_Boss]

there is a guy doing it in longmont, he's on CL. Might check out his prices and base yours from there.

edit: he was doing it, can't find him anymore. He was selling it out of plastic water bottles

 

[Tajjo]

I've been putting a lot of thought into making my own and having a constant supply to my dt.

This may sound ignorant but how well will supplementing phyto into our tanks help. Will we have to change our collection cups more often?

 

[Ummfish]

Phyto is the base of the food chain. The hope is that a supply of phyto in the water will help support populations of zooplankton that'll feed fish and corals. Phyto is also the main food for things like bivalves, so having lots of phyto in the water will help feed clams and such.

All that said, clams eat a _lot_ of phyto. And so do little zooplankton. To keep the right balance, your water should likely be a little green constantly (at least when you look from the ends). Skimmers and mechanical filtration certainly pull out phyto, so you'll likely need to reduce or eliminate the use of those types of filtration. And phyto can be expensive to buy or grow, especially at the volumes necessary to feed a whole display. And the easiest phytos to grow are not necessarily all that nutritious. A lot of people who decide to head this direction culture the zooplankton separately and just add that to their tanks.

 

[Tajjo]

Im gonna start my culture soon, ill keep you guys posted on my set up...

 

[djkms]

Pulling a thread necro here.

I am almost ready to distribute my cultures. I will have 2 types of plankton available. Both these planktons should be available at Elite Reef and possibly other LFS. I have been working with CJ and Heather and hope to have my first supplies over there in about a month.

The first plankton that will be available is Phytoplankton. The phytoplankton will consist of Nannochloropsis & Tetraselmis. I am looking into adding Isocrysis but I have to make sure that I can culture Iso consistently without crashes.

The second plankton that will be available is Zooplankton. The zooplankton will consist of Rotifers and Tisbe Copepods. These will be cultured and packaged together. It is possible that I will be adding Tigger pods to the mix as well.

All plankton will be packaged in 16oz clear dispensable bottles. All culture water will be RO/DI with 0 TDS. Each bottle will also list a born on date so you know your getting the freshest plankton possible.

Up until now adding plankton has been either costly or time consuming. I hope to make adding these important beginning food chains not only easy but affordable. The phytoplankton cultures will have a density comparable to other big name companies & the zooplankton cultures will have roughly double the amount of copepods per bottle! Give your reef the food its missing at a price much cheaper then the big companies!

Pricing and more info to come soon.

Thanks

 

[KhensuRa]

Sweet bro I would be down for a bottle.