# want to start to culture phytoplancton



## patricka (Mar 24, 2011)

ok I'm not sure about this... phytoplancton is this only for salt water?

I want to culture them to feed daphnia... I'm just trying stuff don't ask  I like to try and see if I can make this happen.

so I'm just not sure where to get some phytoplancton to get started... this is going to be in freshwater, no salt.

... suggestions?

thanks.


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## qwerty (Dec 15, 2009)

I've been doing the same lately.

Phytoplankton is just a fancy way of saying "green water". So it's really not that hard to get going...

The best solution I've found is F/2 algae feed formula. Proline is one brand. I have yet to find a supplier of it anywhere in the GTA though. But then you have to pay for this stuff.

It isn't really necessary though... Most people just fill a bucket of water with lawn clippings or trimmings of their aquarium plants and leave it out in the sun.

Even a jar of water from your aquarium left on the windowsill will get some phytoplankton after a few days to a few weeks depending on just how much light it's receiving.

The only challenge I've come across is how to get enough light during the winter when the days are shorter and it's too cold to leave the water outside.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

You can just use miracle gro and leave water by a windowsill - after a few days you should have the makings of green water 

In the winder you could always get a cheapie T8/T12 shoplight to light the cultures.


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## qwerty (Dec 15, 2009)

I've heard a lot of people saying miracle grow...

Which Miracle Grow product are you referring to exactly? One of their plant feeds (there's a few I think)? Or their organic soil?

I'm wondering if this would produce a denser culture than what I've been doing so far...


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## patricka (Mar 24, 2011)

ok here is what I've done and I'm not sure of the results after 2..3. days...

yes miracle grow is my fertilizer, look I want to go cheap otherwise I would just buy green water instead.
qwerty: I just took the regular all purpose miracle grow... some will say for best results go buy this and buy that but I want to keep this cheap otherwise no fun...

so I got myself a 4 liter bottle of water from grocery.

I have a bubbling thing in it, used 1 full cap of miracle glow and here is what I did now...

I bought a algea formulae (live) from a reef fish store and poored 1 cap in my 4 liter... and it's getting 12...16h lights per day.

after 3 days I'm not sure if it's working or not that's my real problem... I have no idea if the algae is dead in the water or what... it's light green but what happens even with my bubbler the algae ends up at the bottom so once a day I need to stir it.

I will transfer the whole thing in 2 liter coke bottles it's thiner than my 4 liter so algae won't go at the bottom.

so this is where I am... I'm wondering if I'm trying to grow a salt water algae in freshwater and it's not working... or something...
thoughts?

thanks.


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## Arkerone (Mar 15, 2011)

I have a couple small daphnia cultures on my windowsill, I bought 4 fish bowls at the dollar store, filled them with aquarium water and got green water in a few days and added daphnia.

I have to net out most of the daphnia every day or two so the algae can keep up or else they will clear it in no time. I actually took a spare 29 gal tank and have a light on it 24 hrs, an HOB filter with no media just to keep it circulating, hope it starts going green soon and that would be my new daphnia home.


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## Oliver (Apr 2, 2011)

Here's my 2 cents worth.
I had no green anything for the daphnia Igor shared with me.
I put them in a 10 gallon spare tank.
I used the exact same water from a water change / maintenance from my larger tank.
I put an airator/bubble stone and I hooked up an old flourescent T8.
left it on 24/7 for at least 5 days and these things just exploded.
the population has quadroopled easily. Horny little buggerzzzzz ;] 
Oh sorry, etiquette :\ 
I even changed the carbon rocks/media in my larger tanks filter and dumped that in with them and it's been self sustaining for at least 1.5 months now. I'm looking at that tank as I am writting this and the water has a greenish ting to it. I stir it around every know and then and that's it.


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## patricka (Mar 24, 2011)

here is what I did and it's working now...

bottle of 2 liter coke.
1 small hole on top
half aquarium water from a water change and half clean water
1 cap full of miracle grow lique fertilizer but I think you can go 2 cap... just the general stuff nothing specifi.
take few grass and then chop them into small peaces and dumb it in the bottle.

done leave it in a place that gets a lot of lights.

in 2 days my water was light green... now after 4 days it's getting greener I'm sure in a week it will be dark green and will be time to split my harvest.

thanks.


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