[I contacted my son's principal last week to get permission to use the microscope in the chemistry lab to compare some samples taken from my phyto culture to DTs. She said yes, and I took along a few other items as well:
I looked at a number of things, up to 400x magnification.
Looking at tank water and refugium water was llike looking at nothing. It was a boring white screen.
Looking at LS from the refugium was kinda neat. Those tiny grains of sand looked like boulders or giant asteroids, and darting between those boulders were tiny ampipods I'd guess. They moved so fast it was like looking at shooting stars.
Looking at baby brine was fun. I put a droplet of them on the slide, and tried to observe these guys, but they just swim and swim and swim. I couldn't identify the yoke sac even though they were only 72 hours old. Still very interesting to observe and the teacher said she might ask me to bring her up a batch for a class project in the future. I also looked a a few under a coverslip, which rather squished them into place where they'd stay put, and they looked squished. :
:
Looking at DT's Live Phytoplankton was really interesting. There were probably about 100 green algae cells in my field of vision, and they were moving about quite a bit. It was sort of 3-d looking, and worth checking out.
Looking at home grown phytoplankton wasn't nearly as exciting. I saw about 60% as many cells, and they were exteremely sluggish, if not stationary. They looked like the same size and shape as DT's. I'm not sure why my 2nd generation culture is inactive vs. DT's. Hopefully I can figure that out. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I should feed my home-grown phyto on a daily basis, since it isn't as concentrated as DTs. I'm going to look at it again in the near future, and attempt to do a cell count if possible. I'm also thinking that it might be beneficial to spike my own phyto with a measured amount of DTs to boost the nutritional value for the filter feeders.
Looking at dinoflagellates was the coolest of all. Man, that nasty stuff was teaming with life. I saw single cells jerk and twitch, ampipods, all kinds of strange worms, and other stuff. In a way, it seems a shame to remove this stuff from my refugium, loaded with life as it was. If you get a chance to check some out under a microscope, I'd do it.
Marc]
I looked at a number of things, up to 400x magnification.
Looking at tank water and refugium water was llike looking at nothing. It was a boring white screen.
Looking at LS from the refugium was kinda neat. Those tiny grains of sand looked like boulders or giant asteroids, and darting between those boulders were tiny ampipods I'd guess. They moved so fast it was like looking at shooting stars.
Looking at baby brine was fun. I put a droplet of them on the slide, and tried to observe these guys, but they just swim and swim and swim. I couldn't identify the yoke sac even though they were only 72 hours old. Still very interesting to observe and the teacher said she might ask me to bring her up a batch for a class project in the future. I also looked a a few under a coverslip, which rather squished them into place where they'd stay put, and they looked squished. :
:Looking at DT's Live Phytoplankton was really interesting. There were probably about 100 green algae cells in my field of vision, and they were moving about quite a bit. It was sort of 3-d looking, and worth checking out.
Looking at home grown phytoplankton wasn't nearly as exciting. I saw about 60% as many cells, and they were exteremely sluggish, if not stationary. They looked like the same size and shape as DT's. I'm not sure why my 2nd generation culture is inactive vs. DT's. Hopefully I can figure that out. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I should feed my home-grown phyto on a daily basis, since it isn't as concentrated as DTs. I'm going to look at it again in the near future, and attempt to do a cell count if possible. I'm also thinking that it might be beneficial to spike my own phyto with a measured amount of DTs to boost the nutritional value for the filter feeders.
Looking at dinoflagellates was the coolest of all. Man, that nasty stuff was teaming with life. I saw single cells jerk and twitch, ampipods, all kinds of strange worms, and other stuff. In a way, it seems a shame to remove this stuff from my refugium, loaded with life as it was. If you get a chance to check some out under a microscope, I'd do it.
Marc]