View Full Version : Rotifers
Does anyone culture there own rotifers? was thinking of giving it a go to feed my corals.
Do rotifers need to have a light source like phyto?
It would be great to see some pics of some DIY setups
Reefworks (Clayton) sells them.
They dont need light but they do need regular feeding with phyto.
hth
Paul
Yeah I was thinking of getting a starter pack from him, I was just planning to use 2 old lemonade bottles, stick a airline and each and feed with rotifer diet everyday
would this be ok?
New salt water, an old container, bit of Phyto everyday and an airline.
I had a go at culturing rotifers, I found they need a lot of phyto and it is all too easy to contaminate your phyto culture with rotifers and cause it to crash which is what happened to mine, I did notice an improvement in the corals while I was using it and I will try again when I've built my phyto stock back up.
John.
New salt water, an old container, bit of Phyto everyday and an airline.
Actually got the starter pack of Clayton yesterday and I've done this with it:
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2006Q4/DSC00103 (Small).JPG
from bits I had around - the clingfilm at the top has a very small hole in it to let the air from the pump out.
I've already been using STM SuperGreen in the tank and so I'm just going to put a little in the jar and the rest in the tank everyday.
Nothing fancy but it's just to get the critters up to a dense population before just throwing them into the tank and let them fend for themselves, You never know - I may have done the refugium by then :rolleyes:
umm, another picture of my garage - a few tanks in there at the moment!
i was also thinking of culturing my own too, i saw a kit on aqua culture i think that included a small sieve!!
How does it work do you have to drain off the rotifers in to the sieve every time you want some?
Or can you just shake the culture and pour the water straight in to the tank?
i was also thinking of culturing my own too, i saw a kit on aqua culture i think that included a small sieve!!
How does it work do you have to drain off the rotifers in to the sieve every time you want some?
Or can you just shake the culture and pour the water straight in to the tank?
The sieve is used mainly when rearing fry etc. in a breeding tank so that the water doesn't get polluted, this isn't such a worry in a reef as other inhabitants will make use of the phyto.
John.
Thats all you need to get them started. You will find that as they increase in numbers they will consume a vast ammount of phytoplankton. I have found the Reed Rotifer Diet by far the most economical and easy food to use.
hth
thanks,
Because they rotifers are a live feed, am I right in thinking they wont as much bioload to the tank as feeding a dead product?
hi guys
if i rember a copepod consumes 11,000 cells of phyto a day or is it 110,000 crash is not the word they starve to death . you need lots of light and lots of bottles to produce enough phyto to keep them going,which must not be contaminated with pods
puffer
Hi Maestro
Just wondered if you'd started culturing your own rotifers and how you were getting on with it????
cheers
mark
I've been doing this for 2 months, so far so good! I do get a build up of uneaten phyto in the bottom of my water bottle though :(
I havent started yet, been meaning to but never seen to get round to it, maybe after xmas
Just a little update, I've been breeding rotifers for a few weeks now and I've switched from putting the STM SuperGreen into the tank and zooplankton breeding container to just putting it into the breeding tub.
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2006Q4/DSC00112 (Small).JPG
I'm taking some of the soup (a good 2-300ml a day) from this and putting it into the tank about half an hour before lights out and then topping up this container with fresh salt mix and then the SuperGreen. It's going through quite a lot of phyto but the mix going into the tank is only light green - I feed the breeding tank in the morning and evening now as it's going clear that fast.
I've found over the last week since I've started doing this that the macrolife in the tank has become much more visible. Lots of little critters crawling over the rocks and little things swimming around in the tank now that I've never seen before. Don't know if they were hiding before and now they have reason to come out or if the increase in food has kick started a breeding frenzy in there.
It's all going to end soon though, I'm just going to throw the lot into the fuge/cryptic zone when it's up and running and let it get on with it!
What is reed rotifer diet? I've haven't heard of this before, I currently just add some supergreen.
Do you need to run an airline 24/7? I currently run an airline overnight .. I'm not sure my wife would let me run one continually in the kitchen.
What is reed rotifer diet? I've haven't heard of this before, I currently just add some supergreen.
Do you need to run an airline 24/7? I currently run an airline overnight .. I'm not sure my wife would let me run one continually in the kitchen.
Supergreen is what I mainly feed, use PhytoFeast Live (http://www.reefnutrition.com/phytofeast/indexpfl.htm) when I run out - the PhytoFeast is much denser and you don't need anywhere near as much.
The airline should be on 24/7 but not at a huge amount, bubbling away without actually being noticable is probably the right amount. Just depends upon how noisy your air pump is.
[edit: I get the PhytoFeast from CoralCulture]
Mandarin Dragonet
10-02-07, 21:36
Do you culture your plankton aswell?
I don't (yet) but I have the AquaMedic plankton reactor sitting in the garage waiting for me to get my act together and use it.
It's not that hard (apparently) but does require good levels of cleaning to ensure no cross contamination happens causing the culture to crash. One rhotifer in your phyto culture and you can kiss the lot goodbye.
Folks,
I culture both Phyto and rotifers, and the life is truly amazing.
You need the light for the phyto,but I do not have any light except for spillage from my sump for the rots.
I use 5l water containers, tesco 2 for £2.00 to culture and add about 250ml of phyto to each container daily. This then brings the container up to 5l over a period of time.
It is recommended that you harvets 50% of the culture to increase your population density.
You need to have air bubbling away but not too much to strip the eggs from the rots.
I do not culture these in a super sanitised area.
Hope this helps.
Steve
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2006Q4/DSC00112 (Small).JPG
One thing you may notice in this photo is that I have an airstone on the airline in the tank.
A week ago I removed this and put some rigid airline through a small hole in the lid so it ends about an inch from the base.I have enough air going through to have about two large bubbles a second coming from the airline.
In that week the copepod density has dramatically increased. I put this down to the fine air bubbles stripping the eggs as spk mentioned in the previous post.
So just a cautionary tale, open ended air line, no airstone, few enough bubbles to cause a light current in the water which you can see easily enough.
Alan.
Alan,
Great to see that your densities have improved.
I have had a couple of my phyto cultures get contaminated over the last couple of day with rotifers. I now believe that the amount of air that is supplied does not strip the rotifer eggs as I previously read. I buble my phyto quite aggressively and the ones that were contaminated were no exception and they grew amazingly well.
Steve
Clayton has a good article on this in ultramarine (issue 2) dated feb 07.
Kev
mrobo770131
28-06-08, 19:46
how is everyones culture going i have been doing phyto for at least 3 months now and after reading this i thought i might have a go at the rotifiers
i bought 3x 3 litre containers £4
2x for more phyto as already have a 5litre one going under 11w light
1x for rotifiers
bought a 20w light bulb from asda £1.39
light fitting £0.79 from wilkinsons
already had an air pump just going to split it for phyto then have possibly another pump for rotifiers
will post some pics when set up in my new phyto and rotifier lab
(well under the stairs lol)
mick
mick,
Hi there, good luck and i am interested in seeing the pics of your lab?
Steve
mrobo770131
29-06-08, 00:55
heres a pic i just finished 1hr
waiting on getting my rotifiers big 4.5 litres on the left is my main culture the other was started 1hr ago
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/9509509030233_0_ALB.jpg
heres a pic i just finished 1hr
waiting on getting my rotifiers big 4.5 litres on the left is my main culture the other was started 1hr ago
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/9509509030233_0_ALB.jpg
Neat setup.. :)
Nice and Neat. I will have to dig up some pics of mine and post them again. No ways nearly as neat.
mrobo770131
29-06-08, 10:53
hopefully the ones on the right turn out aswell as the one on the left might get another light from wilkinsons if it does so i can take the hanging one off looks terrible with the tape on lol
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