Day 5

Again the Nano culture is darker. I think I got more than 50% growth today. Looks like everything is on track for the first split on Dec. 18. Once I get the first batch split, I probably will be slowing down on the post here, maybe to once a week. But until then, I'm doing a post every 1-2 days, with daily updates. Here is a pic of the Nano today. As you can see it is really starting to get dark. I also took a pic of the Iso culture. As you can see not much has changed. It is a little darker, but I don't think you can tell in the pic. I am also going by the manual, and starting the culture in about 500ml of water. That's why there isn't as much water as the Nano culture.

Day 4

Cool deal. My Nano culture is still getting darker each day. I would estimate about 50% darker each day. I am about 1/2 way until the first split. Once I get the cultures split I can start up my Rotifer culture. Thats a whole different ball game. But it is supposed to be an easier game. I just have to make sure to keep everything seperate. One Rotifer will turn in to two, then 4, so on and so on. So it doesn't take long until you have another Rotifer culture instead of a Nano culture. My Iso culture is slowly getting darker. I am assuming this is normal. Time will tell! I got a picture today to show how it is brown vs. green of the Nano. You can see the chunks of Iso in the water. According to the mannual this is normal. It is slowly breaking down, and growing. Hopefully it will be ready to split in about one more week.

Day 3

Alright, walked in to the "lab" today, first thing I noticed is how much darker my Iso culture has gotten. It is not close to being ready to split, but I could really tell the culture is growing. The Nano is probably 50% darker as well. So this means all is well I hope. I wish the Iso would show up better in the pictures. Once it really take off you should be able to see it quite well!

Day 2

Well it has now been near 48hrs. Both the Nano, and Iso cultures have darkend up like they are supposed to. The Nano more so than the Iso. No need to panic just yet, from what I have read Iso is a little more difficult to get going sometimes. Here is a picture from day 2 of the cultures.

Day 1

So I finally got around to starting my Phytoplankton culture. I ordered everything I needed from Florida Aqua Farms . They have pretty much everything you will need. I picked up some 2 quart plastic containers from Walmart. These will be used for my culture vessals. I'm not really going to get into how to culture Phyto on this blog. So, if you are interested in starting your own culture, I recommend going to Talking Reef . They have several shows (podcast, and vids) on Phytoplankton. They can really explain how to start, and grow your own culture. So with that, I started 2 species of Phyto. The First is Nanochloropsus, the other is Isocrysis. Nano is a green algae, and Iso is a brown. These two together are a great blend for your reef tank. So, heres a pic of my cultures roughly 24hrs after I started them.

As you can see the Nano has started to really grow. The Iso has started but it seems to be taking off a lot slower.