Live plankton culturing

[Achilles Tang]

Hi again,

A new topic, this time on live plankton culturing to feed your reef tank.

I just like to do a poll to see how you guys feed your corals....

oh.. please exclude brine shrimp culturing as plankton culturing.... what I mean is phytoplankton and zooplankton.

[hongqixian]

Where do I get starter cultures?

Qixian

[dfstan]

is there such starter kit available ?

[CKS]

Few months back, someone is offering Zoo at $5 for 100,000 rotifers

and $20/L of Phyto, you might wanna contact lamcy@cwc.nus.edu.sg on getting a starting culture.

[hongqixian]

Few months back, someone is offering Zoo at $5 for 100,000 rotifers

and $20/L of Phyto, you might wanna contact lamcy@cwc.nus.edu.sg on getting a starting culture.

They are all live, right? A bit pricey, but still seems worth it. Do you know anyone who purchased some?

[CKS]

Yep, they'r all live

They'r imported from oversea, so the price is quite reasonable for that quantity.

Ive bought the rotifers, but i couldnt keep the culture alive for long :|

[Achilles Tang]

You need to feed the rotifers with Phytoplankton... or yeast. But be careful if you do that... you might spike the water with NO2.

If you feed phytoplankton, they will actually help to clear the waste products in the rotifer culture before they before food for the rotifers...

Rotifers need to be enriched before feeding them to your reef tank.

FYI I imported my cultures.

[hongqixian]

Yep, they'r all live

They'r imported from oversea, so the price is quite reasonable for that quantity.

Ive bought the rotifers, but i couldnt keep the culture alive for long :|

I think the quantity of phyto you need is at least 3 to 1 rotifer culture cos got to feed the rotifers....If any rotifers get into the phyto cultures they wil multiply like siao...Then no more phyto.

[AlfaRomeo]

Anyone using the funky Plankton Light Reactor and the Plankton reactor from Aquamedic?

Read that can sort of automate the dosing from PhytoPlankton (From Light Reactor) to Zooplankton (from Plankton Reactor) to Tank. Way cool and can choose to dose both either at night or day or even both night and day! :-)

Any reviews on this?

[ervine]

Anyone using the funky Plankton Light Reactor and the Plankton reactor from Aquamedic?

Read that can sort of automate the dosing from PhytoPlankton (From Light Reactor) to Zooplankton (from Plankton Reactor) to Tank. Way cool and can choose to dose both either at night or day or even both night and day! :-)

Any reviews on this?

Yah I can't seem to get any info on this, eg how it works etc... heard it can last for a long time before a recharge is required...

[Morgan]

Go and ask Hon...he has 1

If you are interested you can buy it off from him.

[ervine]

Eh actually I just went to read up a little more, seems pretty easy... the Aquamedic one... something like a kalkreactor, but with light...

[AlfaRomeo]

ervine, can point to the web address when you learnt more about it? kinda interested to see also :-)

[ervine]

ervine, can point to the web address when you learnt more about it? kinda interested to see also :-)

Ah crap.. din bookmark it... anyway very easy to find lah, just go www.google.com search for DIY plankton reactor or was it a search from reef central... one of them lah...

[DaY]

Edmund our sponser is carrying the aquamedic plankton equipment now. U can check out his webside for more info on the equipment.

[AlfaRomeo]

Got it but wanna know about how to set it up to run semi-automatic...

[ervine]

Oh that's easy what, just connect a dosing pump running on a timer to pump in your tanks saltwater to the reactor, which will then force the plankton out.

But need to filter the water being pumped into the reactor somehow...

[Cookiemunster]

bro you can't do that. Growing plankton requires freshly made saltwater. Using tank salt water will contaminate and kill off the plankton you are trying to grow. Bacteria and diatoms or even cyano can easily overrun and crash your station. Its not feasible.

I am also learning about it now and it looks alot simpler than it really is.

Will share my station photos once I am successful with a culture.

In fact for those who want to try out, bawater is the resident expert here and has already posted photos and instructions of how to grow plankton.