Culture Journal, Species: Rhodomonas lens

General
Species:  Rhodomonas lens
Species description:  Marine cryptomonad alga common to the baltic regions, popular species for copepod rearing. Cells are oval and relatively flat with two flagella protruding and red plastids.
Culture source (link if possible):  Seahorse source http://www.seahorsesource.com/cgi-bin/shop/detail.cgi?id=201133
If algae, CCMP # (Optional): 
http://ccmp.bigelow.edu/
Culture Establishment Date:  9-5-2013
Continuation Date: 

Culturing Vessel Details
Salinity:  ~1.022
Temperature:    Room temp (70-80F)
pH:  Not measured

Vessel description:  1 L bottle to start for scaling up, eventually hope to have it in 3L containers
Lighting description:  Ambient light from a southern facing window, supplemented by a 2-bulb fluorescent strip light
Lighting cycle:  6 AM to 9 PM
Aeration description:  Rigid airline, pretty vigorous right now.  

Methodologies
Split methodology:

Culture medium description:  1/2mL per liter of Florida Aqua Farm's Microalgae Grow in sterilized water (1mL of bleach per L to sterilize for at least an hour, following by 1.5mL 1M sodium thiosulfate per L to neutralize) 


Cell count:
 (if known)

Reference links:  

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



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In the original packaging:

 
And in the container:

 
The angle and lighting was a bit weird, so it doesn't look as pink in the picture as it does in real life.  I added sterilized, fertilized water up to about 400mL last night, and about another 100mL this morning.  I will continue to add until it's at about a liter, and then I will split it.  If I get it that far.  Last time I ordered a starter of this, it was crashed-on-arrival.  Hopefully this time goes better.

Funny, I just got my latest R. lens starter yesterday, and it was COA.  Man, does that stuff ever stink to high heaven when it crashes!

The first couple days culturing this, it seemed to do okay, but there were also a lot of cells settling out.  I nearly doubled the culture into a 2L bottle on Saturday (I am pretty sure it was Saturday at least) and turned the air up so the culture is pretty much boiling.  It seems to be doing much better and the cells stopped settling out!  This morning it was really starting to darken and if it's still going when I get home I will split it to create a backup culture (or I may wait until tomorrow...will have to wait to see it before deciding)

Split today!


Plan is to get it into three bottles and pass some off to a fellow hobbyist also so there is more than one person culturing it in my area

I just have to say...this phyto is so PRETTY when it darkens.  The color is fantastic!  
 
Today I will need to split both bottles.  One bottle will be split into two cultures, and the other bottle will be split to harvest some of the phyto.  Not sure if I want to scale the cultures to the 3L bottles or just keep with the 2L for the time being.  My current thoughts are that if the 2L work well with the way I am aerating, then I don't want to mess with it!

Not only is it pretty, but it smells really nice -- like berries -- when it is doing well.  I didn't give up on my crashed R. lens culture.  I gave it very gentle air and very gentle light, and just left it alone.  It has taken a week, but it is starting to turn a nice pink color now, and I'm now giving it more air and light.  (Sorry for the thread hijack)

Not a hijack at all!  It's incredibly useful to know that it can be brought back from the dead sometimes.  The first one I had COA did not come back, although perhaps I wasn't gentle enough with it?  
 
I have been BOILING the culture and it seems to be responding well...have you had a similar experience with R.lens?  When I first starting culturing it, I had the air lower and the cells kept settling.  I wonder now that it's a bit more "settled in" after being shipped if I could turn the air down, or if the super vigorous movement is necessary...

When I've cultured it in the past, I just used what I would consider "normal" air -- more like a steady simmer rather than a boil.

Awesome job! I tried culturing this and it turned green the next day :-(. I forgot to sterilize my 0.2 micron air filter and I think that contaminated it...lol

Well, I crashed the cultures due to trying to wait an extra day for the split so I could pass some off to someone else.  I did pass some half-crashed to another hobbyist and it slowly bounced back for him, but mine ended up turning yellow...
 
So, on Saturday, I got a starter back from Eric and now we are rolling again.  So re-start date for this was 10-19-13 and no more monkeying around with trying to prolong a split! 

This weekend I got the Rhodo bumped up to three 3-L bottles.  The bottle in the center is before a split

 
After (the third bottle is behind the front two):

Still limping along with this species.  I have not mastered timing my splits yet.  This species is odd for me because it never really seems to get really dark where it looks almost "thick" like other species do. It will get a pretty red/dark pinkish but still looks...watery (this is really hard to explain, sorry) so I often miss the best time to split and then it starts to rather slowly crash out.  I have noticed, however, that to save the culture it is better to just add more fertilizer to the partially crashed bottle instead of trying to take a portion of it and put it in new fertilized water.  I think that just causes it to become too dilute if it's partly crashed and it doesn't seem to bounce back very well.  

I just got a new, very small, starter of this.  I think it will be at least a week before I will know if it will take hold...

Coloring up slowly but surely!