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Phytoplankton air filters
Monday, March 10, 2014 10:51 AM
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Anyone ever try using a sediment filter in a water pre-filter housing (like on RO units) for air filtering? It seems like a relatively cheap, high flow option. I think I've seen sediment filters down to 0.1 microns. Give it a soak in alcohol, let it dry out, and we have a sterilized air filter. Yes/no? I see BRS has an OmniPure inline sediment or carbon filter too with 1/4" push connect fittings. I asked them how many microns those filters are.
Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Monday, March 10, 2014 10:57 AM
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That sounds like a really promising idea!
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Monday, March 10, 2014 11:01 AM
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Jim Welsh Approval - must be a good idea then!
Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Monday, March 10, 2014 4:27 PM
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Cool idea. One of the supply shops I use (Premium Aquatics) has 10" 0.35 micron filters for about $17, and the canister with push fittings is about $20. I wonder if that size would be small enough to be effective?
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Monday, March 10, 2014 11:44 PM
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What are you trying to affect? I've run without filters for years and never had a problem. How would you measure success with an air filter?
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Tuesday, March 11, 2014 8:02 AM
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Haha Kathy! I've never used an air filter, but I've seen it strongly recommended from many sources when culturing Isochrysis.
Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:45 AM
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I also think that is a good idea, but the cartridge filters I'm familiar are plumbed with 3/4" lines. They might run into flow restrictions with larger air pumps but should be able to handle most needs. The smallest cartridge filters I've found are activated carbon ones. Are these the ones you're talking about or did you find something that filters smaller particles?
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Tuesday, March 11, 2014 4:35 PM
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Yeah, I'm not sure if the small micron sediment filters would cause too much back pressure on the pump or not. I'm using Coralife Luft pumps SL-65. This 0.35 micron filter seems easy to find... http://www.h2odistributors.com/fm-035-975.asp
Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Tuesday, March 11, 2014 6:53 PM
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If you're using a regular aquarium air pump I don't guess there will be much of a back pressure problem for a long time. If you're using inside air, your house isn't full of dust and keep your house air filters changed regularly, I actually see this filter lasting a long time for you. Like 6 months or a year kind of long time. Just my guess. Can you keep finicky phyto cultures for a long time? If not, you may consider using UV after this .35 micron cartridge filter and before a carbon filter. Given that air is very clean, I would guess that you could go with a very low wattage UV unit.
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Wednesday, March 12, 2014 9:05 AM
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Dave, I did think a bit about adding a carbon filter, not so much a UV, but I'm not sure if either are necessary. I can easily get 1 micron carbon water filters rather than a 0.35 micron sediment filter. Is 1 micron enough? I know people use packed cotton balls - I can't imagine that is very small, but I don't know really.
Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Wednesday, March 12, 2014 10:26 AM
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I've grown gallons and gallons of Isochrysis without any air filter, and gallons and gallons of Isochrysis in the presence of rotifers, purposefully contaminated in the culture, and : no problem.
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Wednesday, March 12, 2014 11:27 AM
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Wednesday, March 12, 2014 1:53 PM
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Kathy, you appear to be a bit more of a "pro" in that your experience level is higher than most of the rest of us. Iso is a much better algae to grow than nanno and congratulations to you for being able to grow it well even in the presence of rotifers. But your experience notwithstanding, I'd still think that it is a safe and cheap bet to thoroughly filter the air input to a phyto culture. Perhaps because I don't have your experience, I think that a small micron cartridge filter, combined with UV and carbon filter will go a long way toward growing phyto even more finicky and nutritious than Iso, like Pavlova and Rhodomonas. Finicky algaes tend to have thinner cell walls and are more easily digestible, plus a general rule is that the slower growing the algae, the more vitamins it synthesizes and the more nutritious it is. What I like about the cartridge filters is price, they are mass produced to serve a market of millions of house water filters instead of thousands of aquarists. So for an investment of $20 for a housing and cartridge filter and another $20 for an ozone generator I would go that route. Even though better aquarists may not need to.
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Wednesday, March 12, 2014 3:46 PM
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Originally Posted by EasterEggs
Dave, I did think a bit about adding a carbon filter, not so much a UV, but I'm not sure if either are necessary. I can easily get 1 micron carbon water filters rather than a 0.35 micron sediment filter. Is 1 micron enough? I know people use packed cotton balls - I can't imagine that is very small, but I don't know really. Given the cheap cost of these filters, I'd probably use both, although only one should be necessary. Either of them should be much better than cotton balls. The cotton balls work because the air in the phyto container is on the way out, but they would not be near as good at filtering incoming air.
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Thursday, March 13, 2014 12:16 AM
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I'm sure I'm not a better aquarist. I just like to keep things simple. But by all means, continue as you wish. I've heard of others filtering the air, and it can't hurt.
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Thursday, March 13, 2014 8:22 AM
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Originally Posted by KathyL
I've heard of others filtering the air, and it can't hurt. That's about all I know! I'm not entirely sure what it is "we" are trying to filter out. If I knew that, I could probably make a more educated decision on filter fineness (how is that said properly?).
Originally Posted by dave w
Yeah, same idea. I'm not sure I would want that on a skimmer though - it seems like it would constrict air flow too much seeing as a skimmer's air intake is based on a relatively weak suction. Maybe the addition of an air pump wold make that a better design.
Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Thursday, March 13, 2014 8:51 AM
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We try to filter out contaminants that would make our phyto cultures crash. Weed algae like blue green algae, rotifers, and protozoa are the most common. Some phyto like chlorella or nannochloropsis are themselves "weeds" and grow so fast that they are less likely to get contaminated, but they can contaminate other slower growing algaes that are more nutritious. Think of it like crabgrass and alfalfa. Weeds grow quickly because they don't have much nutrition. Weed algaes don't synthesize vitamins. High quality algaes do, thus they grow slower. The best explanation of this comes from The Plankton Culture Manual by Frank Hoff and William Snell. Those pioneers go into good detail. I consider it the bible of live foods. It has been around for 20 years through a dozen upgrades and you should be able to get used copies on Amazon. If anyone should earn a Pulitzer prize for larviculture, they deserved it for that one! Frank Hoff also wrote a long and technical book on culturing clownfish. Although harder for a casual hobbyist to read it is also full of knowledge.
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Thursday, March 13, 2014 9:12 AM
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Sorry it it sound like a lecture, but just a couple other points. Bacteria are much smaller than a micron and viruses even much smaller still, and very hard to filter out. Think of trying to catch mosquitos with a chain link fence and you get the idea. Many organisms have life stages like eggs or resting cysts that are not only very small, but also very resistant to filtration. They may survive chlorination or UV treatment. As a general rule bacteria don't hurt phyto cultures because they provide some things that plants don't. Bacteria are good at synthesizing B vitamins but have low fat content. Phyto is good at making lipids and fats but poor at making vitamins, so a mix is usually a good thing. Ciliates and protozoa are from a few microns to at least 50 microns and MUST be prevented from your phyto cultures. Weed algaes like nanno can be just a few microns in size and should not be allowed into the cultures of Iso or higher quality algaes like Pavlova or Rhodomonas. Batch methods have the algae growing first, the contaminants need time to catch up so are less prone to crashing. If you're growing nanno, don't worry about all the stuff above. If you want a high quality, slow grower with good nutrition then worry about contamination. UV and ozone can help kill the harder stuff that 1 micron filters cannot, but 1 micron is a very good filter to have on your air supply. If you really want to be serious about larviculture, try growing continuous cultures of highly nutritious phyto in a reactor, where you have 25% clean water, fertilizer and air entering a closed culture container daily, and 25% greenwater produced from the culture each day. Florida Aqua Farms has some good rack setups where you can do this with plastic bags and not worry about sterilizing containers in between cultures. Sorry if this sounds like a lecture. I don't mean to do that.
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Thursday, March 13, 2014 4:02 PM
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Originally Posted by dave w
If you really want to be serious about larviculture, try growing continuous cultures of highly nutritious phyto in a reactor, where you have 25% clean water, fertilizer and air entering a closed culture container daily, and 25% greenwater produced from the culture each day. I don't know what you mean by this Dave. I don't understand what is 25%. Do you mean that you harvest 25% per day replacing that volume with fresh culture medium? I have both of the Hoff books you speak of. It's about due time I read them again. I find every time I read them I have a "light bulb" moment or two of, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that!" or "Ahhh, I get it now!". Thanks for reminding me of the books. Don't worry about it sounding like a lecture. Provided the "lecturer" knows what he's talking about, a lecture can be a priceless thing!
Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]
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Re:Phytoplankton air filters
Thursday, March 13, 2014 4:45 PM
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My apologies for being overly complex. If you trade in 2 liter cola bottles for larger plastic bags and seal the bags well you can grow semi-continuous cultures instead of batch cultures. With good light and nutrients a phyto culture will grow by about 25%-30% a day, so you will supply that much clean and fertilized water to the culture while harvesting 25%-30% greenwater. Without contamination, you could theoretically do this forever and keep the phyto culture in an exponential growth phase. But at least you will produce enough algae for large populations of calanoid copepods. And calanoids are about the only types of copepods that will reliably stay suspended in the water for a long time under light. Actually cyclipoids can do that too. I even hear that after many generations in culture, some harpacticoids can be "leaned" or selectively bred for pelagic behavior during daylight hours. If anyone gets to that point before me, let me pay you good money for a culture sample! Keep studying Hoff book. As a scientist, his writing wasn't edited by an English major, but he put all the information in there.
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