Reefs.org Forums

[Francisco Andrade]

Hello,

I have been trying to figure out what do you guys use. I have no acess to a product like Florida aquafarm´s Micro Algae Grow, also buying all the ingredients to make up a F2 Guillard´s medium is way too expensive. I have been thinking I might use a liquid plant suplement , for N and P, and a few drops of a aquarium fertilizer like TLF´s FloraSan, Mydor´s Green & Grow or Tetra´s FloraPride. Would that work ?

Chico

[Louis Z]

You will also have to add B vitamins to the mix. Do you have the complete list of ingredients for the F formula?

[Francisco Andrade]

Hi Louis,
Thanks for the help, I´ll try to boost the B vitamins. I do have the recipe, look :

1000 ml Sea Water ( as clean as possible), add:
- NaNO3 75mg
- Na2HPO4 . 7H2O 5mg
- Thiamin 100 ug
- Biotin 0,5 ug
- B12 vitamin 0,5 ug
- Trace metals solution 1ml

Trace metals solution

1000ml distilled water, add:
- Na2 EDTA 8,72 g
- FeCl3 . 6H2O 6,3g
- MnCl2 . 4H2O 360mg
- CuSO4 . 5H2O 20mg
- ZnSO4 . 7H2O 44mg
- CoCl2 . 6H2O 20mg
- NaMoO4 . 2H2O 12 mg

With this medium the algae cultures did great. But to buy all the salts is expensive, especially when I have to buy 100g and need just 20mg to make 1000 l of culture medium.

See ya

[Luis M]

> Hi Chico,
> Making your own Guillards is cheap and easy,you only need to have two
> solutions prepared:NO3 and PO4.Make dilutions so you need to add 1 ml of
> ea.per liter of final medium.Then you add commercial trace elements and
> vitamins from your LFS.
> Hope that helps,
> Luis M

[rsman]

a better question would be why dont you have access to FAF's pre made food.

after knowing that there are alternatives both in mixes, and sources.

[Francisco Andrade]

Hi,
I live in Brazil, and the freight charges and import taxes made it impossible for me to import such things. But I have worked out and solved this problem around here, by now the algae and rotifers cultures are ok and hundreds of clowns have been raised.
Chico

[Roadtoad]

I have had good luck growing nanochloropsis in fresh water with gold fish as the supplier of fertilizer. Just feed the goldfish regularly and the culture grows fast! When I need to feed the rotifers I just add enough salt to bring it up to the right concentration.

[dogpoor]

Would Kent Marine Coral vite work? I had been told to use miracle grow but found it to contain copper so I did not try it.

[Roadtoad]

Coral Vite probably wont work. BTW, algae and plants need copper to grow miracle grow probably has more than you want though.

If you can order some stuff from florida aqua farms use micro algae grow or you can get Guillard's F/2 media from other vendors.

Algae will grow on lots of things. There is a place that recommends just letting fish food decompose in the water and using that. Manure would work too!

[dogpoor]

thanks for the help,
My LFS owner said he knows people who urinate in the culture. I think I'll stick with the miracle grow.

[jack02]

My friend By gradually adding your algae culture solution to a live algae culture you can create your own continuous supply of micro algae using clear 2 litre pop bottles as containers. The pop bottles are obviously a food grade plastic, they allow good light penetration, are basically free and when coated so thickly with algae that it stops light penetrating they can be disposed of in the bin.