Culture Journal, Species: Isochrysis Galbana

General
Species:  Isochrysis galbana
Species description:  Golden brown algae extremely common in aquaculture
Culture source (link if possible):  carolina biological supply www.carolina.com
If algae, CCMP # (Optional):  462
http://ccmp.bigelow.edu/
Culture Establishment Date:  8/26/11
Continuation Date:  Not applicable at this time

Culturing Vessel Details
Salinity:  1.020
Temperature:  Ambient ~76*F 
pH:  Not tested

Vessel description: 8 ounce plastic bottle 
Lighting description:  NO flourescent 3500K and 5400K mix
Lighting cycle:  12 hours on 12 hours off
Aeration description:  Aeration to provide for a light boil

Methodologies
Split methodology: Not applicable at this time

Culture medium description: 
Guillards formulation at F/2 strength sourced from Florida Aqua Farms Micro Algae Grow brand

Cell count: 
Not checked at this time 

Reference links:  

Additional Information
(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Notes: 



You will be required to provide photographic evidence and as much detail as possible about your project in this thread.
If your thread does not contain detailed enough photos  and information the MBI Council will not be able to approve your reports.

Pelagically yours,
~J      

alright 3 of 3... the one algae that gives me nothing but fits!!!  Anything with crysis in the name right?
The culture source:

The culture on the rack:

 
Coincedentally the white bottles are due to my ill preparation, and the algae looks great today.... I wonder if it is helping?  hrmm more updates later as I have time.

Pelagically yours,
~J      

alright... Split 1!! not very exciting.. this is where I take an 8 ounce culture and make two more 8 ounce cultures... we are still in ramp up stage here... it will be a few before I am doing large batches as I do with my Nanno and Rhodo... but it's an important day.  It means I didnt kill the algae during acclimation... so without further adeu... the pics... the original culture and future second container:
 

 
Empty 8 ouncer is filled with 50% fresh 1.020 culture water and given a shot of Guillards to meet "close enuf" to F/2 (.4ml) and then innoculated with 50% of the mother culture... the mother culture is then given a shot of Guillards as well (same .4ml).
 

 
as a side note here... F/2 really does depend on the source of the formulation it is hit or miss... I'll delve into some mathematics later when I'm not so busy (changing out water change source tubs tonight).
 
In any case... mother and daugter cultures are set up on the shelf to wait another 7-8 days...  next time we will attempt moving one culture into either a 16 ounce or 1 liter (33.8 ounce) jug and performing another 4 ounce split with the other
 

Pelagically yours,
~J      

Alright guys general update... Typically Iso is my most hated culture as it's my nemesis...  but this time it's cruisin along!!  one of the 8 ounce bottles you see there was seeded into a 16 ounce glass on 9/8 (yeah a bit early from my typical 8 day cycle but it was definately hitting log).  The second was seeded into a 16 ounce on 9/11.  in any case... the reason for the update...  on 9/17 I seeded a 3 liter jug (Culture D1) with culture C3 (the left bottle) and then restarted C3 using 8 ounces of C4 (the right bottle) also restarting C4.  so basically we are now splitting instead of just seeding.
 
This evening I took a moment to do a Hemocytometer count of C3 out of curiosity and counted up 11.6 million cells per ml which is pretty rockin considering the time from split.  Given the density of these cultures I may split them on a solid 5 day timeline instead of my usual 8 day regimen. 

Pelagically yours,
~J      

Great news, Joe!  One thing I just wanted to add is that I've recently run across a few references to Isochrysis needing silicate in order to do its best.  I always thought that only diatoms needed silicate, and I don't think that Iso is a diatom, but since I've been culturing Thalassiosira, which does need the silicate, I figured what the heck, so I've been adding silicate to my Iso cultures, too.  The difference has not been dramatic, exactly, but it has been noticable.  The Iso is getting darker sooner with the added silicate, FWIW.

 
I'd love to see the other references and maybe co ordinate a multi action field test among a few of us for things like this.  we find ourselfes with a very apt community with diverse reasons and interestsl it would only make sense to create discussion areas (closed at first) to see how the methodologies affect both good and bad.  think of it as an educational round table to identify what works on one side and what doesnt on the otherl and vice versa.  this is simply method consulting.
 
if you play the game right everybody wins... toss your findings out there, they toss theirs... and then you work to create a new methodology weiging the ups and the downs of each with as much collected data as possible.  You can then compare each method and result, create and test hybrid methods and results against empirical data from the methods borrowed and see what happens.  It really amounts to documenting the original sources, examining the methodologies of their findings, and coming up with a second way to recreate those anamalies;
 
This could be fun stuff!
 
or it could become myth perpetuation, separate camp beliefs, politics over who is right, ego.... hrmm 50/50
 
Now that I got ISO playing nice I might settle in a control and add silicate to see...  wont be till mid october though...  putting this one on the whiteboard

Pelagically yours,
~J      

Where do you get silicate?
 

Florida Aqua Farms has an additive to supplement the Gullards with silicate, least thats what I've been using.

Pelagically yours,
~J      

Same place you can get the Micro Algae Grow (Guillard's F/2), Florida Aqua Farms:  http://florida-aqua-farms.com/secure/agora.cgi
 
EDIT:  I meant this link, or just search their site for "Sodium Metasilicate": http://florida-aqua-farms...=MICRO_MACRO_NUTRIENTS

 
While I KNOW that I've seen at least two or three references to Iso needing silicate in the last month, this is all I can find:
 
http://archive.reefcentra...ndex.php/t-806268.html
 
Note that it is Gresham who asserts silica is needed for Iso -- Gresh, did I read you correctly?
 
What I can tell you is that, anecdotally, my Iso cultures darken more quickly, more like 6 days rather than 10, now that I am adding silicate to the media.  I don't see any real harm that can come from using it, and I percieve a benefit, so I'm going to keep using it!
 
 
 

Hmmm, this definitely warrants more attention. Given iso is not like a Diatom with a silica cell wall it makes me wonder what role this plays? Hmmm... The interesting piece now that I think about it is the source of my culture water the last few weeks. I use plastic water jugs to culture and typically have a rotation for new jugs to replace old ones every third or fourth split (when they foul).

These latest culture runs represent me "getting back in groove" as I have ignored my cultures a little too much prior due to being busy with other things. Typically the water from the jugs are added to my existing RODI culture water or tossed in the auto top off jug. This is the first time I can remember where all of my culture water came as a bottled source. Perhaps an additive is providing additional silicates? Most bottled water contain calcium chloride to maintain "freshness".

Back on RODI this weekend with no supplemental bottled water so we shall see

Pelagically yours,
~J