Filter Mesh to filter phytoplankton

[skozzy]

Hello guys and girls, I have been keeping my own culture of rotifiers going for a little while and have been using store bought nano, this stuff isn't cheap so I set up a 4 foot tank and dosed it up on trace elimants and a liquid fetilizer, the tank is outside and is in a shaded area where it only get a few hours max of direct sunlight.

2 weeks after starting it up the water is now so green it has a max visability of 3 inchs.

About 6 months ago I bought a mesh with a rating of 20 microns, I tried using this mesh to filter the phytoplankton out but the stuff just passes through it. I don't know what type of phyto I have growing and therefor don't know it's size.

I can only asume the size of this plankton is less then 20 microns. I would like to find out what I have growing.

Can someone give me an idea of what I can use to filter this stuff so I can start using it with my rotifiers or even add it to the main tank. Because I have added so much trace eliments and fertilizer i don't want to drip feed my main tank as I would assume I will get a big algae outbreak in there, so i realy want to filter the plankton.

I am in Brisbane Australia and would prefer to buy a product localy, but don't hold back with an online store outside of AUS if you know of one that can supply what I need.

I hope someone has some advice I can use.

Thanks.

[Condiman]

I would amost have to say that you are going to have to go down to a .38 µm filter and as to truly identify what you have you will have to look at it under a microscope. Take a look at this link it may have what you are looking for. http://www.alanaecology.com/acatalog/Phytoplankton_Nets.html

[skozzy]

Thanks for that site, I looked over it, and can't find a .38um net only .53um nets. But if I had a boat i'd get one of those drag nets for sure.

[Condiman]

How has your culture been doing?

[skozzy]

It "WAS" doing realy good, but I took advice about the fertilizer I was using in there with the uriea and I dumped the lot. I did a ammonia test and it was off the scale, I even put some live rocks in there to try and lower it and nothing came of it. So I dumped it and I am now looking for a safer fertilizer to use.

I did try the phyto I was growing on one bottle of rotifiers and they either didn't eat it or it killed them. So it was useless stuff I had anyhow.

[Condiman]

I have been working on my phyto cultures and I can not seem to keep them going.

[bigfoot]

toss the cultures and use this stuff is what i bought from guy at work with rotifers
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46308&item=4370634068&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

[Condiman]

no offence bigfoot but I am not a fan of buying stuff in a bottle that is dead. It adds unnatural things to an aquarium. Also why would corals eat dead food. I know it says preserved but I still dont think it is as good as live fresh foods.

[Condiman]

I figured out what I was doing wrong with my cultures and now they seem to be doing great now.

[bigfoot]

thats just it its not all dead! i put some in a tank 5 gal and put it used tank saltwater and 5 drops of this this crap grows and it grows quick! greened up in a week

[Condiman]

Yes but some of it is and there are also things in there that are not natural to the ocean.. This is just my opinion tho. It may work for some but we all have things that we do that others dont.

[bigfoot]

oh i hear ya did find an article that i wish i would have kept but its about kents production method for phyto its grown in cold water