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Rotifers & phytoplankton

Sponge

Sponge

We are going to try and raise a clutch of clown fish as our pair has started there second set of eggs first set was fertilized and made it to the free swimming larva state. But were in the main reef tank so became food. This second set will suffer the same fate as they are on day two and are orange eggs as expected so it seams the clowns are beginning that phase of steady egg production. So I am shooting to be ready by the third set of eggs. We have been studying since the night of the first set of eggs. I have consumed so much information my head is about to pop. we now need to start culturing phytoplankton and rotifers and are reaching out to the NJRC community for any help. I have found a lot of starter kits on the web. But to be frank. Don’t know which company to trust. If anyone has any sources they recommend for these items. Please do not hesitate to respond. I will also be looking for a rotifer sieve and a few ancillary items.
Thank you in advance for any info, links and help on this matter. And as always. Happy Reefing.
 
Mark_C

Mark_C

Staff member
Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
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Phyto...
I grew the stuff like mad for a while.
The two easiest strains are nanochloropsis and tetraselmis, of which, i found nanochloropsis to be a bit more prolific.
The tetra cultures were a hit or miss day by day, but I think I could have peed in the nano bucket and scraped dinner plates into it and they still would have thrived.
Initially I ran 4 different strains of nano from 4 different suppliers and had thre best, by far, result with Florida Aqua Farms.
They're more an industrial supplier to labs, so their website is spartan and their system diagrams are from a 1940's tech manual, but their starter kits are $15 compared to $75-100.
They supply a culture disc, that you put some water on and let sit for 24-48 hours, then use a swab to move the culture into small saltwater vessel of choice - I think I was using a clear plastic Rubbermaid pitcher, but could be just about anything that holds water. Mild airation, put in sun or stick a lightbulb over it, fertiliize every few days (you can use a phyto blend or simple Miracle Grow liquid), and watch phyto go nuts. Just be aware of growth and keep splitting the batches weekly or it will starve out.
You'll probably make so much that you'll find yourself dumping buckets of it.
Here's, imho, the best starter you can order for a small operation... U-Grow™ Culture Kit – Florida Aqua Farms

Rots and Pods...
Again, easy enough. Fill a 5g bucket with 1.021 water, pour in enough phyto as grown above to keep water greenish murky, add a bottle of rot/pods combo of your choice, keep a low level airation, finely crumble up some flake every few days to supplement diet for pods. Note mixed pods will compete, tisbe and rotifier mix is always a good choice as wrasses and dragonettes will both eat tisbe. As phyo eaten and water clears, add more phyto. Every week or so clean it. When bucket is settled you can either gently pour the top contents into another bucket and top it off, or you can pour the water through a fine strainer and move the pods to a new bucket of water. The former is easy as heck (though you may lose a few pods), the later is a pita and can take hours (and you probably lose just as many pods anyway).
To harvest, just grab a few cups out of the bucket and dump into the tank, remembering to re-top up bucket.

Folks make it extremely complicated and over-engineer the bollocks out of it.
2 buckets, 2 airpumps, a bit of line, and a starter of phyto and rots/pods is all you need.
Its easy stuff made unnecessarily complicated through technology.

Please note if you do follow this advice and it benefits you, I'd appreciate you naming the firstborn after me, something like 'Captain Goodlookingwittystud' or such would do fine.
 
Last edited:
MadReefer

MadReefer

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
I wanted to try phyto but the fact you add fertilizer to the water and then dump it in my tank just bothers me.
 
MadReefer

MadReefer

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
Sponge said:
Lol. Manure. Is organic. :)
Click to expand...

It beats chemicals. My wife uses MG in the house plants and they look great and are huge. But if she doesn't continue with it they wither and die.
Why I have issues with adding that stuff to my tank, granted its small amounts. Maybe one day will try.
 
Sponge

Sponge

Although not 100 percent. When you talk organic. We are talking about pesticides. Not fertilizers. In general. Fertilizer is chicken cow and horse poop. Yes of course. There are chemical based fertilizers. And all sorts of nasties. That’s not what we are feeding plankton. For the most part. It Is really just pelatized nitrogen
 
Sponge

Sponge

Alice as entered the rabbit hole. Called absolutely fish. They let me know they Do NOT carry LIVE phyto. So contacted Florida aqua farms. And a nice women on the other end gave Me an education in phyto (pretty much what Mark C laid out. And order has been placed. Hear goes nothin. Oh and I’m not sure how I’m going to tag the first born. But he will be named Captain Goodlookingwittystud. As requested
 
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