PDA

View Full Version : Some phyto culturing ?????'s



george1098
12-21-2006, 04:41 PM
Hi guys
I'm just starting up my first phyto culture, and I had a few questions. I bought a Tetraselmus culture kit from Florida Aqua farms, and it has plenty of info and materials to get me started, but I had some questions about how to keep my culture going.

1) when 'fertalizing' my culture, I plan to use Miracle Gro all purpose plant food. I hope I bought the right stuff, it is all purpose water soluble powder, 24-8-16 (nitrogen, phosphate, potassium). anyhoo, my question is, how much should i disolve in a 2 qt's of sterile culture water?

2) Once the culture is prepared, can I store it in the fridge? I would like to kindof stock up as I am planning a long trip (3 months) later this year, and I was hoping I could keep lots of phyto in my fidge and have my girlfreind feed about a cup or so at a time to the tank once every 2-3 days. Can I keep it in thr fridge? or would the culture die off. would it be better to keep at room temp? if so, in the dark or the light?

so far that is it for the ???'s, I will probably post more in this thread as I think of them. thanks dudes!:showoff:

Small Fry
12-21-2006, 06:46 PM
Make sure you have viewed/ listened to all the pod/vid casts regarding this, i think both questions are addressed there??

george1098
12-21-2006, 08:20 PM
I have many-a time, but I guess once more wouldn't hurt

Rob
12-21-2006, 08:50 PM
1.) i can not give info on the miracle grow as i have never used nor am i particularly fond of it, many people use it will success many dont,i stick with the micro algae grow stuff meant for growing micro algaes

2.) yes this one was covered In show#46 (link below) you can see the show notes here
http://www.talkingreef.com/ShowNotes/TR-Ep-46.html
it was question 6 under Phytoplankton.. :)

here are a list of the phyto related shows
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/podcast-episodes/2370-all-about-phyto-podcast-episode-73-a.html
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/podcast-episodes/2262-starting-phyto-culture-podcast-episode-71-a.html
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/podcast-episodes/726-q-5-podcast-episode-46-a.html
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/podcast-episodes/557-culturing-phyto-video-podcast-episode-39-a.html

george1098
12-21-2006, 09:35 PM
thanks Rob. I thought I'd try the miricle grow because I had some around from one of my other hobbies (bonzi, which i more or less gave up on when a squirl killed all my trees), but if I put another order in to florida aqua farms, I think i'll get some micro algae grow. It's really not expensive when you consider a capfull yeilds a good few weeks of phyto.

jl7854
12-21-2006, 09:55 PM
There is some information here (http://www.melevsreef.com/phytoplankton.html) that may help.