Naked Sea Butterfly - Newfoundland

I read Jon Olav's blog. Took a surprisingly long time! Anyways, I never found much out about phytoplankton. Especially since the project didn't work out for him. It is my thesis that he did not add any trace elements to their water. Though this seems obsurd, plankton actually need plenty of inorganic nutrients in order to perform photosynthesis. In order to keep phytoplankton alive, you need flourescent lighting (the hard part being that the plankton are highly sensitive to UV radiation) , and you need to dose nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, CO2 (CO2 is extremely important!), among other things (I suggest dosing Trace along with CO2).

Another probable factor leading to the unsuccessful attempt made by Jon, is that he simply had too much zooplankton, which would have eaten all of the phytoplankton. Then they too would die. This could be why it appeared to work for the four week period- the zooplankton would still be in the water so it would look as though the phytoplankton were still there. When the zooplankton died, it would look as though the phytoplankton just died of mysterious and unknown causes.

Food chain 101. Nice summary.

Haha thanks. ;]

I think I could do it in fewer words though You may want to get a 10 gallon separate from the display to culture phyto in. You could of course add say 25% of it weekly to the display and have a constant supply. Maybe a 20H or 20L if you need more but you get the idea. Then you have phyto growing in both tanks just incase.

I was thinking of using my empty 10g just for that, as well as using my 2.5g for a smaller version in case some sort of detriment befalls my main phytoplankton culture.

I think I'll go with a 50W flourescent bulb for the 10g and a 30W flourescent bulb for the 2.5g.

I know you can get a 4 pack of 26W 6500K CFL's at lowes for like $10.

That could work... What's CFL's?

Compact Flourescents. The little screw looking things.

Hm. Apparently we don't have a Lowes here.

Well home depot or any hardware/lighting store should be about the same.

Ah, Home Depot we do have! I'll check it out once I know the exact dimensions of the tank.

Well good luck man. I might have you send me a 2 liter bottle of phyto water and culture my own for clown babys.

From Canada..? Well, you can pay shipping.

Well at least if I open a store its tax deductable.

I guess. At least we're on the same shore!

Yea! lol.

Haha.

So, now that I am getting an 80-120g tank for my birthday, I think I'll have sufficient room to create a system that will leave some open room for my pelagic NSB, but also allow me to have a macro-algae tank. I simply ran out of time last year, but as Spring is just around the corner, the time is optimal! This also gives me lot's of time to research the species I find before my tank is ready (mid July- beginning of August). Or rather, I can take pictures of things I find, and see what I can sustain in the beginning (very few predators in the first year, excluding the NSB). What do you guys think?

I think you need to get hunting.

Funny.

I think so too. If the Earth would just thaw out-!

I just found out that there was a lumpsucker around here!



Cyclopterus Lumpus

Okay that just sounds like something for adults >.>

Why do you say that?

Nevermind...Moving on.

Sure...