Help With Phyto Culture

I set up a phyto cultue about 2 weeks ago, i know they say its only good for 10 days but i wanted to see if it was going to work or not, well as of right now one of the cultures is the color of lemonade and the other is slightly darker, the one that is darker has all this fuzzy algae deposited all along the line and you can just shake it off when you move the air tube the other one has some too but not as bad.

Is this normal or is my culture not supposed to look like this?


Heres a pic

 

Here is a pic of mine.

Are you just using sunlight?
Is it direct?
Are you using liquid Miracle Grow?

also, you don't have enough air moving through there. If it is building up on the surfaces, you need more agitation.

 

Yes its direct sunlight, there placed right in front of the window where the sun is constantly, ive never heard of miracle grow i was told i could buy some plant fetilizer from home depot to feed them with so at the moment its just sunlight,

There is a setting for more bubbles on the valve, it seemed too much to me so i have it on low should i just crank it way up?

 

I use Miracle Grow liquid household plant food. I put 40 drops in a 2 liter.

Only way you can have too much air is if it overflows. The agitation gets the algae particles out in the open for the sun to hit them. If it clumps, only the surface gets light.

 

Your culture has crashed. What did you use to start the culture?

Jack

 

And you do that right at the start of the culture?

Some of the culture did come out over the top and is on the ca but not alot of it.

I used phyto feast as the started, it was all i had

 

Reef Nutrition has two versions... Phyto-Feast and Phyto-Feast Live.
If you do not use the live version, it may not work.

Jack

 

I did use the live version it says live on the bottle, but anyways can somebody here tell me about there setup and what they do so i might have a better shot next time?

 

True but neither are meant to start a culture. It can be done but most people end up using too much. One 6oz bottle of PFL is equal to 40 gallons or so of culture if IIRC. Best option would be to get a starter culture of a single species from some place like Seahorse Source, the ultimate place for captive bred seahorses. or some where like that.

Those cultures have both crashed.

 

I've seen some solid advice given to you on several forums. Get a single species, use a proper F2 nutrient, use more air and sterilize your culture water and vessel prior to using it.