Phyto Pharm and Rotifer Ranch

S

shse666

I just can't see paying for live food for the life of my hobby. So! We kicked off 3 projects.

Phyto Pharm:
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We have 4 different cultures/strains going here to see what takes.

Rotifer Ranch:
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We have two different strands of Rotifers on the bottom two tanks.

The large top tank is a culmination tank with phyto, rotifers, pods, and chaetomorpha to supply two refugiums that are going up soon.

I will post a photo of the macro algae tank soon.

Always interested in any cultures that members would offer at reasonable prices! Feel free to PM me with details. I'm in North Plano.
 
Shawn,

Right now our plans are pretty general. I was going to purchase that 16 ten gallon setup on a rack in McKinney today but my poor beleaguered wife cried foul at feeding 16 baby moray eels 3 times a day. :)

I would be totally satisfied if the phyto fed the rotifers. The rotifers feed the pods. The pods feed the fish. The fish poop and such feeds the macro algae. The macro algae feeds my wallet to pay for Miracle Grow, Kent's Coral-Vite, and an occasional DFWMAS member supplied culture of interesting marine life, or a coral frag.
 
Here is the macro algae tank. Right now just Ulva lactuca (sea lettuce) and Red Gracilaria. Looking for green Garcilaria, Agar, and Dragon's Breath.
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Thanks for the advice! I got your strain and DTs blooming up a storm under my sink. Can't wait to harvest this stuff.
 
Mostly. I never quite got to a fully sustained set of large pods in the top tank. I had a few thousand in my Neo 90 until I added the fish and they pretty much decimated the population in short order.

I kept the rotifers going for months, but after some 100+ daily water changes I got lazy and both tanks crashed hard in just under 3 days.
I've made tons of phyto right up until my AC went out for over a week. 93+ degrees caused pretty much all of the phyto to crash as well and it was a low priority compared with saving my fish.

I've converted the 5 gallon maco algae to phyto production with 3 lights, 4 air stones, and a filterless pump to keep the circulation up and it has finally caught on and producing pretty well. The top tank is now my macro tank. I will snap a photo of it and post back.

We have 3 full bathrooms and one of the tubs is never used. I got permission from the wife to put one of my 30 gallon tanks in the tub with lights that I got from McReefer.
I'm going to seed it with my 5 gallon phyto stock and grow that up. I should have room for 2 buckets for rotifers as well. I will restart those if/when I get my sea horses and clowns breeding. Any spills in the tub can simply be washed off without worrying about the carpet, salt on the stands, etc.

I'm thinking that some type of automated peristaltic pump type setup might be smart. Something like:
Low Salinity Auto Top off Tank
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> Phyto Tank
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> Rotifer Buckets
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> Rotifer collection sieve partially immersed in clean sea water.

Done right, I would only have to mix up new salt water on a biweekly basis, and collect the rotifers on a daily basis. The trick would be figuring out the flow rates for the 2 pumps for optimal production.

I expect to have the phyto portion done sometime this week and will post back with photos.
 
Macro holding tank. Chaeto, Dragons Breath, red gracilaria, turtle grass, red fuchsia, and Halimeda that isn't too happy right now. There are pods in there. I can see quite a few actually.
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5 gallons of Nannochloropsis brewing up to seed a 30 gallon production tank.
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Hey Howard, I downsized my phyto setup and I have a great single bulb t5 I'm not using. It has a grow lamp in it that I was playing around with. Got faster growth. You want it?
 
I'm going to fire up that rack I got from you a while back. Hopefully this week. (Work just got a LOT more busy though.) If that isn't enough light, I don't know what is! :)
Thanks for the offer though.

Assuming everything works, I ought to have 30 gallons of phyto on hand at any one time. Heh.
 
Hahahaha.... No. LOL. I add water from my tank to each bottle so it unds up being like.... 6oz

I just started that white one you gave me last week. Looking good so far.
 
Restarted all 5 of my backup strains of phyto today. Took more work than I remember.
I'm am going to use this as starter stock for the outdoor project. We did not make it to Lowes today to buy cinderblocks.
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I'm going to start up either the 29 or buy a 40 breeder at Petco tomorrow and get that set up.
 
I closed shop about 2 months ago I guess. I still tons in the fridge LOL. You want either of the 2 smaller tanks I had up for sale. There the tall skinny kind which might be better if you planned on putting your light on the side of the tank.
 
I think I have enough tanks right now McReefer. :p

I did some redneck stacking. Cost me less than $40.00 in materials. I did not have to cut/saw/screw/nail anything. I can break it all down in a few minutes if things don't work out.
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All I really need is an auto top off bucket now, and some pumps to help move the water around with water tight switches. I can run a hose to the back drive way and let any waste water run right to the storm drain instead of getting salt into the back yard. Done right, this could all be pretty much hands off. Fill the top off bucket every few days, go out and run some pumps for a few minutes each night or even put them on timers if I wanted to get fancy!

This is my $6.00 NEMA box to keep the electrical dry during rain.
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First phyto tank. I have dual air stones to keep it well aerated and to keep any phyto from collecting in the corners. I will set the pump on a timer to force some extra circulation in the tank once an hour.
Big 300 watt heater in there. I think I can keep the tank at 72 or better until the lows get to 40 or below. If it crashes in the winter, I will just restart once the cold snaps are done.
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Submersible LEDs. I think I will need at least one more to supplement the natural sunlight. I paid for a glass Versa top instead of the cheap PVC sheeting I'm going to use for the rotifers and pods since they don't need light. I'm hoping that since the light is right in contact with the water that I will get all of the LUX out of it I can. They do make outdoor rated MH lights but it looks like a real pain to set up.
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On the project list, but doesn't seem to be working its way up in the list

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-07/nftt/index.php
 
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First tank being filled with RO/DI this afternoon!
 
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