New phyto culture

S

suboc

I am 7 days in to my phyto culture it looks good to me, but i was wondering if there is a way to tell if it is a good batch. It kind of smells funny to me but that may be how its supposed to be.
 
not rotten, almost like a slight sulferous smell. If I smell the culture before pouring it in to my container to keep it doesnt smell. it smells in the new container, used an empty water bottle.
 
I got a culture to take off using 15ml of PhycoPure? Reef Blend Phytoplankton. I have not a clue to what decided to grow but happy to have something growing. Now dt's culture died off.
 
I was trying a batch one time and it turned brown and separated on my in a matter of hours.
 
heres a pic of mine. havnt used any yet because im concerned with the smell. Main culture=no smell, pour in to bottle = smell
 
@suboc wrote:
heres a pic of mine. havnt used any yet because im concerned with the smell. Main culture=no smell said:
Just an observation here, take it or leave it...

Everything has a smell. If you are culturing in that open container, the odor has a large volume of air to interact with and minimize the aroma. When you bottle any culture of anything, it will continue to give off smell and exchange oxygen with whatever is in the bottle.

When you check the odor of the bottle, you are in fact getting a concentrated dose of the aroma when you allow it to escape when the bottle is opened. That's why DTs smells too.
Click to expand...
 
Here is what DT's website says about the smell.

Oder:

DT?s Live Marine Phytoplankton does have a noticeable odor and it is normal that the odor is sulfurous. This is due to the fact that a type of sulfide, dimethylsulfide is produced by some phytoplankton and is associated with cryoprotection.

Sulfides produced by living phytoplankton: A small amount of sulfides are produced by phytoplankton that is always in the product. Sulfides are very volatile and they come out of solution and build up in the air within the bottle even at low temperatures. If the phytoplankton is kept at a temperature in the 40?s instead of the 30?s it will have more odor. If it warms up for even a short time, say during shipping, it will have more odor.

We had our product tested throughout its shelf life and beyond. The levels found were very low ranging from 17 to 20 ppm (ppm = parts per million). These levels are very low and were also very consistent from just packaged phytoplankton through phytoplankton that was more than 5 months old (beyond the shelf life). People are extremely sensitive to sulfides, which are detected at the very low levels of 0.5 ppb (parts per billion).

A bottle of DT?s Live Marine Phytoplankton may have a strong odor because dimethylsulfide builds up in the air that has been trapped in the bottle.

The odor from the phytoplankton is most noticeable in the air that is trapped in the bottle, and it builds up over time. That is why a half empty bottle smells more than a full bottle, and a large bottle smells more than a small bottle. While odor intensity is almost impossible to describe; it is normal for the odor of sulfides to be strong, particularly in DT?s that has been in storage for a while.
 
well i figured out the smell problem. The valve in the bottom of the hatchery was collecting some phyto and i guess it was dead. so every day i make sure to get the phyto out of the valve, i havnt had a problem with it since. heres a picture of my first usable batch.
 
Your culture looks good. I'm having great success with Marc's recipe but I've modified the technique to concentrate. Time I'm ready to bottle, light will not pass though it.
 
not rotten, almost like a slight sulferous smell. If I smell the culture before pouring it in to my container to keep it doesnt smell. it smells in the new container, used an empty water bottle.
 
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