# Uses for Phytoplankton in fresh water setup?



## REDSTEVEO (12 Nov 2012)

I probably really should know better than to ask this question...but at the risk of sounding stupid I know, can anyone think of any good reasons to add phytoplankton to a fresh water planted tank.  

The reason I ask is that after my failed attempt to raise the Amano shrimp fry I had, I have got a few opened bottles of Phytoplankton left and it is going to waste at the moment, there is a limited shelf life for this so if it does not get used it will have to be thrown out I suppose.

Don't shoot to hard guys.

Cheers

Steve


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## Nick_593 (12 Nov 2012)

Hi Steve, unfortunately I cant think of any good purpose for adding phytoplankton to your tank, and in fact, you quite likely already have plenty in there. Phytoplankton are any microscopic living organism in the water column harnessing light for photosynthesis. Adding phytoplankton to the set-up would either have no effect, or cause a case of 'green water', which is just a phytoplankton bloom.

You possibly have a specific strain of phytoplankton if you purchased some to feed shrimp, so it might be worth giving it another go if you are looking for uses, or maybe someone on the forum might find a similar use?

Hope this help.


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## dw1305 (14 Nov 2012)

Hi all,
Feed it to your _Daphnia_ culture, and then feed these to the fish. You don't need to throw away the cultures you have, you can keep the cultures going in a small container on the window sill and just feed it occasionally with your EI mix. If you add in some dead grass (hay for rabbits etc is good) and a couple of Ramshorn, Tadpole or Pond Snails the culture will need sub-culturing less often, hard water is best, so I'd add some alkalinity if your water is soft. An air line helps, but it isn't essential. Details here: <http://www.caudata.org/daphnia/#cult1> & <http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...ation-daphnia-cultures-alternate-feeding.html>

I must admit I don't bother at the moment, but I used to just have 2 plastic 10 litre tanks, one with the algal culture and one with the _Daphnia_, and I just used to rotate the _Daphnia_ a bit like a farmer grazing cows on different fields. Choosing when to move the _Daphnia_ is highly scientific, you wait until their tank is nearly clear, and the algal tank is really green, then you swap them over. You need to keep netting the old _Daphnia_ tank (which will be the new algae tank) to mop up any stragglers, add some more fertiliser and the whole cycle starts again.

I kept these going for almost 10 years, but when I got an allotment I found that access to a large number of water butts (on other peoples allotment) meant that I can get "wild" _Daphnia_ even in the winter. Only problem with this is that I need to re-seed the water butts with _Daphnia_ if people use all their water (not a problem this year).

cheers Darrel


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## sanj (15 Nov 2012)

Thanks for posting information on culturing Daphnia Darrel, i have only recently been thinking about doing somthing like this myself.


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## dw1305 (15 Nov 2012)

Hi all,
Sanj you can use gram flour and paprika as food sources, the _Daphnia_ do well on these. I think the only thing that matters is the size of the food item. I haven't tried Turmeric, but that might do as well. Adding some dead grass definitely makes the cultures less prone to crashing.

cheers Darrel


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