Anyone successfully growing phytoplankton?

[york1]

I have heard from some to sterilize all vessels and anything that will come into contact with the phyto culture. Others have told me to just keep things clean.
So what is your method? If you go the sterilize route what do you use for cleaning? Any tips would be appreciated

 

[jcook54]

I've gotten quite a bit from @kullas

Let's see if he'll chime in for us.

 

[kullas]

I use alcohol to sterilize the hi c bottle and use rodi water to rinse the alcohol out.

 

[kullas]

Keep 2 or more more cultures going at one time incase one crashes. In my case both crashed one after the other. Glad I had some in the refrigerator to start over.

 

[york1]

Ok i was thinking alcohol or a mild bleach solution. So far I have 5 1 gallon bottles and flexible led strip lights. Hopefully I can figure out how to cut holes for the air lines in the lids without cracking em. I plan to run 2 nano and 2 tetra with a spare bottle just in case.

 

[york1]

I use alcohol to sterilize the hi c bottle and use rodi water to rinse the alcohol out.

Using just basic isopropyl?

 

[kullas]

I used 90% that's just what I had

 

[Cook]

I've only recently started to keep my clownfish fry supplied, but I used 1/2 cup of vinegar to 5 gallons tap water and then rinsed well and let dry. I drilled holes (3/16" or slightly under) in the caps for the rigid airline.

 

[NanCrab]

I wish!

 

[york1]

Well I harvested my first batch of phytoplankton tetraselmis and got 64 ounces plus enough to start another batch. It was very dark green. I should be able to harvest my first batch of nannochloropsis early next week.

 

[Cook]

Where did you get your tetraselmis? I am looking at ordering some and it's pretty expensive.

 

[york1]

Mercer of montana I got 2 16 ounce bottles of tetra and an 4 ounce bottle of the f2 fertilizer. It was about 30 shipped. I figure if my 2nd batch makes it without problems i will have more than made my money back

 

[simonhill55]

Had mine going for years now. At on point I completely shut it down for 6 months. No light, no aeration, and it still came back. Never was too careful with it but just recently, I had some brine shrimp grow up in it.

 

[simonhill55]

Mercer of montana I got 2 16 ounce bottles of tetra and an 4 ounce bottle of the f2 fertilizer. It was about 30 shipped. I figure if my 2nd batch makes it without problems i will have more than made my money back

Started with f2 and then switched to miracle grow. It is cheaper and the culture grew much darker green.

 

[york1]

Started with f2 and then switched to miracle grow. It is cheaper and the culture grew much darker green.

I read some on using miracle grow. Some seem to think it may contain stuff that we wouldn't want in a reef tank. I have enough F2 to last a while so make that decision when I run out