so after reading and listening and watching the podcast here, i finally got my phyto going. i ordered the culture kit from florida farms, and some Iso disc. my Nano is doing awesome. even the Rotifers are now doing good. but my Iso isnt doing good at all. i pretty much did the same setup as my nano. they are seperated from on another, so i dont think cross catamination is the problem. but i started the first disc. soaked it for 24hrs in saltwater (1.019 SG), rubbed it from the disc with a sterile swab, put it in about 500ml of culture media, lightly aireated the water. and after the next 24hrs or so it starts to lighten. the first disc im pretty sure is dead, as it is almost completely pale yellow now. i started my last disc yesterday, and it looked like it was doing great this morning. now i can see it is much lighter than it was this morning. i spent extra time making everything as sterile as i could for this one, so i dont know what is going on. any ideas? should i try to get some liquid starter T. Iso and try again or what LOL. im pretty lost right now.

well i think i solved my problem. today i noticed that the first culture i started about 2 weeks ago has started to get a slight green tint to it. i think the contamination came from the air system. i have one pump with 2 outlets running both cultures. apparently the nano made it into the Iso culture through the air line, as i have a nice green ring around the rigid airline in the Iso culture. and im getting green build up inside the vessal as well. of course i didnt think it could happen LOL. lesson learned.

Glad you solved your problem.

Thanks for updating us and sharing your dective work. :)

no problem. i have just started doing more Nano. it may be a few weeks before i get another Iso culture, and the stuff to have a complete seperate culture system. but i will be doing updates. i really want to get a Iso culture going.