Culture Journal, Species: Tetraselmis chuii

General
Species:  Tetraselmis
Species description:  green, motile, 10uM to 14uM
Culture source (link if possible):  Florida Aqua Farms; http://florida-aqua-farms.com/shop/microalgae-disks/
If algae, CCMP # (Optional): 
http://ccmp.bigelow.edu/
Culture Establishment Date:  4-16-2013 (culture was actually started in August of 2012)
Continuation Date:  7-24-2013

Culturing Vessel Details
Salinity:  1.020
Temperature:    Ambient room temperature (68-72 in the winter, warmer during sunny days and spring/summer)
pH:  not measured

Vessel description:  2L soda bottle
Lighting description:  Ambient light from southern facing window, 2-bulb fluorescent strip light
Lighting cycle:  Strip light is turned on from 6pm to 9pm when the days are shorter; not turned on during the summer
Aeration description:  rigid airline tubing, rolling bubbles

Methodologies
Split methodology: 2/3 of the culture is taken and replaced with sterilized, fertilized broodstock tank water every 4 to 10 days, depending on density.  Then changed to using freshly mixed ASW instead of broodstock water


Culture medium description: 
1/2mL FAF Microalgae grow per L

Cell count:
 (if known)

Reference links:  

Additional Information
(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Notes: 
Water is sterilized using bleach and dechlorinated using sodium thiosulfate


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.

Culture bottles:
 
Under the scope:

One of my two current Tet bottles (I will bring it back up to three, I just need to get another air pump this weekend) randomly crashed out yesterday.  It wasn't that the culture got too dense, so perhaps I forgot to add fertilizer or something to the replacement water.  It is not devastating since I was able to split the other bottle in half and replace the crashed culture.

Hi there,
 
im new on the site but just wondering if 1/2 mL of FAF microalge grow is enough for 1L of culture? cause i thought it should be around 10 drops per liter.. which makes roughly 3-5mL?
 
also, i was wondering if you had any problem with the FAF discs for Tet ? since my discs just arrived today, any heads up advice? cos im aware that the algae on the disc is "made" non-motile.. do they come back to the motile state after a while?
 
Thanks

Twenty drops equals appx. 1 mL, so your 10 drops is appx. equal to 1/2 mL.  I don't know where you get that 10 drops "makes roughly 3-5mL".  Yes, 1/2 mL per liter of FAF Micro Algae Grow is a bit more than F/2 strength, but still less than full F strength.
 
I have successfully cultured Tetraselmis started from FAF disks.  Yes, they go all nicely motile in liquid culture.

ummm... strange .. cos i remember trying to measure how much i put in ..must have got mixed up.. haha.. (thanks for correcting Jim) =)
 
but anyways.. i pretty much always do it with drops per L instead...
 
i had a culture running for a few good weeks getting really good dark green colour and stuff... but it suddenly crashed on my one bottle after another. I kept mine at about 26 degrees C and moderate air. seems it always settles to the bottom or to the side of the bottle...
 
going to start my FAF disc tonight and give it another try... maybe try sterilize more and keeping the temperature more constant. 
 
is Tet harder to culture comparing to ISO?

I have noticed that Tetraselmis has a tendency to clump.  I just keep swirling it when that happens.  It usually gets over it, or enough of it remains in suspension that the clumping is not so much of a problem.
 
I prefer to culture Isochrysis, and have good success with it.  Anecdotally, most hobbyists have better success with Tetraselmis than Isochrysis.  Please don't let that statement dissuade you from trying Isochrysis, since it is one of the more universally useful microalgae species, especially for culturing some of the more difficult copepod species, and also because of its high DHA content.

Thanks Jim,
 
hehe.. i wont be put off by that statement ^^ as im currently investigating a better method of culturing ISO at home. its not easy and it does tend to have a "sudden" death state for some reason, i will try type up a post on the ISO soon too when i figured out how this site works haha... (again..i been reading lots from you guys but only registered just now )
 
umm... i totally agree on the clumps part and i have read somewhere that Tet have a habit of "sleeping" and starts the clump or settling problem when it gets dark. to examine that i tried having one culture on 24 hours light and one with 16-8 light-dark period...
 
the results was that the culture with 24 hours light did fine until it crashed completely after 3 weeks (could be due to the summer time temperature) =(
The culture with only 16 hours light really did have a little more clump tho.....  well of course, it was a small test... not exactly scientific 

90+ days for this culture.  I have had a bottle crash now and then, but so far I have always had at least one bottle that I was able to split.  I have noticed if a culture crashed in a bottle, I have to take that bottle and sterilize it, and replace it either with a new bottle or the sterilized bottle otherwise the new culture started in it will just crash again.  Probably a bacteria issue.  I have also started to use freshly mixed ASW instead of re-using the broodstock water (it's easier), but it is still sterilized the same way as before (bleach and then sodium thiosulfate)