I want to grow phytoplankton in my old tank

Very very odd. Like I said, our largest yields are in the middle of the summer. I find this to be true in the natural habitat as well, something I have been visiting all my life They do not live in the ocean, they live in the upper splash zone, which is different then your normal tide pools. The upper splash zone gets pretty darn hot in the summer, 90's in the day and cooling off to the mid 60's to low 50's in the night. They rarely get hit by the ocean, maybe two to three times a week (accept in the winter).

We just put up our heaters for winter to keep our numbers up.

 

Yeah I went there to double check. The bottles labeled sep 12. I usually go there every sat or sun, as soon as I'll see a fresh one I'll grab it.

 

I took some pictures of the phyto, it's on day 9 right now and has definitely gotten darker. I'm thinking of splitting it tomorrow and growing some copepods and brine shrimp in the originals.
Those tisbe pods are supposedly from FL; I am near Tampa Bay and wonder where I'd find them (where do copepods live?)

 

I would split it at this point. Congrats on your success thus far!

 

overpost.

 

looking good.
So, I started 4x0,5l bottles out of 1 disk, after 3 days I used it to start 4x1gal culture, after five days (Thanksgiving) I was hella drunk and poured 1 gallon of live culture to my 29G and 1 gallon into my 10G ;D, never seen pods going nuts before, but had to do some WC and wet skimming for 3 days. Next day I split it again into 4x1gallon. So far my tetraselm doing good too

 

On Thanksgiving!! I've never heard of such a thing ;D

 

update: so after Thanxgiving(Russian style), I've been testing my water and NO3 was slowly going down from 20 to 10 and PO4 from around 1 to 0,5. Reading all these posts about how dangerous phyto may be, I decided...get ready...do another water change with another 1g of fresh culture... hahah. So far tank isnt' looking great, cuz of green color, but I just crush test my system (LPS only) to prove to myself that all that scaray posts about phyto overdose is about dieing culture, but not fresh live one. N03 reads 10, PO4 reads 0.5. I may be blamed for reckless reefing, but sometimes you just need to try something yourself. I'm pretty sure, that if it I'll add 2Gallons of half dead commercial phyto - my tank would be dead. Just sharing my own experience. So go green folks!!! go phyto!

P.S. Yes, I've been drinking tonight (12 pack Fat tire)
P.P.S. For the last month I had some serious Cyano problem, now I don't see it anywhere - its all gone

 

You know,we - Russian Americans celebrate thanksgiving little bit different ;D

 

Have tet & iso phyto coming, any suggestions to grow?

Are there any special tips for growing these types? My nanno/chorella phyto did fine, and am now moving up to what posters here said pods eat, but I'm worried since they also say these are harder to grow successfully.
Last time I used a 23w cfl for 12hrs on/off chlorinated some of my old tank water and then dechlorinated it. Anybody have any experience growing these strains, and if so how long until they are ready? I've got two 1 liter bottles coming and am thinking of feeding maybe 1/4 cup combined to the tank inhabitants, then filling a 2ltr coke bottle for each of them and going from there. Thanks!