Build Log - Phytoplankton Reactor

[Chelsey]

With all of these species of fish that I'm working with I'm going to have to start culturing different types of food and I need better rotifers. My solution? Build a phytoplankton reactor! Phyto is going to be necessary for my rotifers, ciliates, and copepods. I have been getting by with roti-diet for the rotifers (L and S strain) but my densities could be higher if I used real phyto.

Here's the diagram of the build:


Here's an incomplete parts list:

• clear plastic light tubes (the kind that protect fluorescent bulbs, can be found @ Lowe's or HD for like $3)
  
• fluorescent bulb (T12)
  
• ballast for fluorescent bulb
  
• bacteria filter
  
• mylar
  
• all of the connecting "junk" (endcaps, barb fittings, etc)
  
• input and output tub
  
• peristaltic pump
  
• 2" PVC
  
• phytoplankton fertilizer
  
• innoculation disc (nanno in my case)
  
• someone willing to put all of this stuff together

Here's what I've got so far:

[Chelsey]

I posted this build on MOFIB and have gotten a few questions. In case anyone has pondered something similar I have copied/pasted my responses to questions in this post:

Air is introduced into the dark tube (2" PVC or in drawing black tube) via a connector that goes from the tubing (irrigation tubing in my case) to an air filter (don't think it's on the parts list) to an air pump. The air filter prevents bugs like bacteria and other things from contaminating the culture. Also, this phytoplankton reactor only works with motile species of algae, so the iso would eventually settle to the bottom and wouldn't be any good. So, no iso for this reactor.

I personally will not be using CO2. It's just another expense for me at this point and I probably don't really need super dark cultures quite yet. However, if/when I do decide to use CO2 it would be plugged in to the input side of the first tube in a similar fashion to how the air is introduced into the dark tube. You can't really see it in the pictures, but the "endcaps" of each tube comes off...they're just wrapped in teflon tape with the hose clamps around them. Even without teflon and hose clamps its a tight fit but not waterproof (which is what the teflon and pipe clamps fix). Since the endcaps come off I'll just save some of my algae to restart the culture and clean everything thoroughly as needed.

Operation is as follows:
When I start up the unit for the first time I'll fill it with bleach water to "sterilize" everything. Shortly thereafter Amquel and saltwater will be put into the feed bucket and will be distributed throughout the system. Once the reactor contains water of the proper salinity it will be innoculated with nannocloropsis by adding the nanno to the feed bucket. Once the feed bucket is empty and a relatively decent nanno culture is flowing through the reactor F8 will be added and BINGO, you have a functional unit

If this unit was linear instead of all bunched around the light as it is, here's how it would be laid out (to help visualize flow): IN (feed bucket) -> 3 lighted tubes -> dark tube -> 3 lighted tubes -> OUT (drip bucket). A peristaltic pump will be running parallel to the in and out tubes, so there are basically two entrances into the first light tube. One entrance is from the feed bucket, the other is from the peristaltic pump, which takes some of the algae from the exit of the last light tube and recycles it back to the first one.