Phyto drip methods?

[George]

Rob has covered in fantastic detail all the parts of starting/growing/splitting phyto cultures (thank you), but what are the opinions on delivery?

How are people delivering this stuff? Drip? Dose like DT's by the cap full? Mixed with something else? Serve it to unsuspecting guests as "green tea"?

I set up a system using one of the Rubbermaid growing jars. I use a Aqua Lifter Dosing Pump where I loop most of the flow back into the phyto jar to keep it circulated and in suspension. I have a tee off the tube with a valve set to slow-drip it into my refugium at about 1 drop every 6-8 seconds. This is running 24/7.

Anyone else share their delivery methods?

[Rob]

i just dump the stuff in.
doing a small drip method would never would prevent the density from getting high
im not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. maybe like pitting in one flake of food once an hour every hour.. is this the best method? my gut tells me no, BUT, i have nothing to back this up and it might just be because i have never tried it.

This is a great topic, and i would love to hear other peoples thoughts

[George]

I may end up hooking it into my RK2 to dose a few times a day, but I was looking for a method of keeping the phyto stirred without having to have an extra pump. I suppose I could go long on money and get a solenoid to control the dosing, but that's a bunch of extra $$$.

[Rob]

yeah, again, i just dump it in, no need to worry about it staying constantly stirred.
pull it off the culture shelf and dump it in. or out of the fridge, shake it up and dump it in.

please dont take this the wrong way, are you just trying to find a better way? i mean, it sounds like you are trying to find a solution for a problem that may not even exist...
im all for ingenuity, im just trying to understand the extra effort thats all..

[George]

I'm after a solution that will auto-dose like a kalk reactor or something so that I don't have to dump it in manually every day.

I'm all about automation.

[Rob]

you could use a small pump and a timer.
let it kick on for 10- minutes each day, and pump a bunch of phyto in
you could have the output split so that when the pump first turns on there is a T'ed output that will cause circulation in the holding container to stir it up.

my concern would be keeping phyto at room temprature with no light or stirring could cause it to die. thats why we refrigerate it. slows down the metabolism so it doesn't die as quick

[George]

Originally Posted by Rob

my concern would be keeping phyto at room temprature with no light or stirring could cause it to die. thats why we refrigerate it. slows down the metabolism so it doesn't die as quick

I use the same containers as the culture and it sits where it gets a little light from the fuge (on 24/7) and plenty from the tank (8hrs). I think I'm just going to get a small air pump to circulate the phyto and use one of the lifter pumps as a dosing pump.

[aquafarmer]

As long as you keep it aerated that will stir it up enough and not getting light during that time isn't going to hurt it in my opinion. This is how shellfish larvae are fed in most hatcheries, using a drip method or a peristaltic pump works good too.