Bioluminescent aquarium

I have been reading more on noctiluca scintillans.
A non-photosynthetic bioluminescent dinoflagellate. Its food includes plankton, diatoms (hair algae) other dinoflagellates, as well as fish eggs and bacteria (possibly bioluminescent vibrio fischeri).
Biolumenesce occurs when the cells detect movement nearby. Powerheads, swimming fish, surface movement, bubbles ect...

 

Noctiluca scintillans also operates on a day/night cycle and only glows at night with the brightest light in the early morning.
It is considered non toxic to other sea life. (reef safe?)
It can be taken up by hosts in symbiosis making the host glow.(inverts-corals)
It is food for other organisms and of the largest varieties of dinos. (protist).
It eats algae and plankton.(including bioluminescent phytoplankton).
It eats other dinoflagellets.
It looks AWSOME At night.
AND I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE BLUE TRAILS BEHIND MY FISH.
Why should veiwing hours be limited to lights on only?...

 

Pyrocystis fusiformis is almost identical to noctiluca except fusiformis is photosynthetic.
It is otherwise the same. It can be purchased on the empco site.

 

looking forward to the pictures if you pull this off, my parents once spoke of biolumenesce they saw in the waters of Thailand (some sort of algae like the one you mentioned above), by their description it sounded like something magical.... and to some extent it is....

 

The EMPCO site says the culture can be kept indefinitely if periodically diluted with additional growth medium. I assume this growth medium is water with food in it. Does this mean you could feed your noctiluca periodically inside your tank?

The site says the pyrocystis fusiformis algae can reach 1mm in length. I bet you could really see that species light up at that size. It's also in stock right now.

If you order some of this you better take pictures

 

You most certainly would NOT dose the aquarium with the growth solution. It IS HIGH in phosphates and silicates. It would be better to keep a mother culture separately. If the aquarium population is not self sustainable. Since it needs phosphate and silicates I assume there would be some mortality. But I have oyster shell Aragocrete which is higher in phosphate than aragonite agrocrete. So for me I will use this plankton to regulate phosphates to some degree.

 

The growth food stuff would have to be similar to F2 for feeding phytoplankton. Read the ingredients on that and the instructions and decide for your self. If your tank is fo-fowlr then probably okay, but phosphates hinder calcium depositing organisms ability to use calcium, so even corraline algae would be at risk or at least stunted.

Bonus point!
Thank you soo much for asking that question because I did not think to warn people about the phyto food they sell to keep it alive in sterile beakers for long times.
Also it would feed all other planktonic organisms, Dinoflagellates, and algaes!

 

I like bonus points Are you going to be experimenting soon?

EDIT: In the wild how do these algaes outcompete other algaes? Especially in enough abundance to create visable light.

 

Well, I am preparing my sump for plumbing, changing slowly from well water to RO water, and still learning everything I can about what I do plan to add. I don't want to hurt my livestock. I HAVE MY HEART SET ON A BIOLUMINESCENT AQUARIUM. but I still have some work to do.

After I drill my 70 gallon for the overflow and after the sub zero temperature weather is over I will start ordering. Then the pictures and video will begin to flow.
Until then, its time for research.

 

Well, these plankton are mostly free floating cingle cells. They are everywhere from Alaska to Australia. In blooms the numbers are staggering like counting grains of sand in a solar system. Sometimes this is called red tide. Access to food is easy because its dissolved in the seawater and the ones who have cloroplasts benifit from photosynthesis too at the same time. They eat germs bacteria algea plankton and anything they can fit in thier mouth which seems to be their entire side. LOL
Like mosquitos of the sea, numbers and unlimited food... Red tide. No competition.