From SGreef: Culturing Phyto

[Keithtanbb]

Been trying to work out how to harvest Phytoplankton without the residual from :miracle grow mix (suspect that killed alot of my corals before-Sorry if this is not the appropriate place to post/just deviating whilst we improve the ATS i guess, afterall takes time to let turf algae grow...the culture from my 2005 purchase from Florida farm! all this while sitting in my fridge....2nd bottle is just starting

[Keithtanbb]

I am utilizing the natural sun rays (we get alot of that here in Sunny Singapore)- earlier my ATS design I had the concept of putting the plankton bottles inside, anyone can suggest a better way for harvesting? I know the commercial plankton or alga harvest method is via "centrifugal " actions...but research/information material on that is hard to come by.For me : the evaporation and air bubbles bursting actions helps to deposit plankton paste on side of my bottles (sort of protein skimmer like" I scrape that paste deposit off with my fingers.....I feed what I have via a syringe to my SPS, Clams,sea fans. I dont dare to pour this plankton culture directly from the bottles ( I alway have another bottle of "miracle grow,and salt mix water on hand as I need to top up daily.

[Keithtanbb]

as you can see this is deposits after 4 hours, when I collect the algae daily I get around 0.5ml paste daily-so when I mixed with tank water- I target feed the solution to my filter feeders

[Keithtanbb]

phew! I thought I lost these posts.er.... sorry for the incovenience of having whoever move this topic to new category- I just want to share my experience and seek new concept/theory workable options for improving our hobby!

I find the bigger bubbles is better at depositing algae than finer ones....the air tubing are from gardening watering/sprinkler systems -these are more rigid and durable than the aquarium air tubings,(( some aquarium shops here cut them up and try to sell these at exorbitant prices ))
my phytoplankton collected at neck of the bottles-so I tend to collect them at night as intense sunlight tend to dry them up during the day-I used to do "garden pot plankton culture" but find i need quality algae not quantity