Too hot for Phyto?

[William]

I have been having the most frustrating time trying to grow phytoplankton this year. ISO, does nothing, it just immediately dies. Nanno will grow quite rapidly for 24-48 hours. Then within an hour, it clumps up and settles to the bottom of the bottle. If I split the cultures every day I can keep it going but I can not get a nice dense culture worthy of feeding to anything.

I thought I had replaced every possible point of failure.

I replaced the fertilizer,
I replaced the light bulbs.
I tried brighter lights.
I tried dimmer lights.
I tried higher salinity
I tried lower salinity
I replaced the salt mix
I started using RO water
I replaced the RO membranes
I replaced the bottles.
I replaced the air pump.
I ordered new cultures.

Nothing has helped one tiny bit. Then a few minutes ago, it just occurred to me.: "It is damn hot in my fish room. I am always sweaty when I finish playing with my fish, I wonder what the air temperature is." Turns out it is 29C. That is kind of warm. Could that be my problem? Could that cause cultures to grow for 24 hours and then crash?

[aantreklik_jared]

very possible. Optimal temp for iso is between 21-23- although I don't think it is purely a heat thing that is killing the nan- I would suspect that there is a bacterial contaminant that can outcomplete the nan at the higher temps which is causing it to floc. Although, this too could probably improve with lower temps

[William]

I have managed to get the air temperature down to 27C. Hopefully that will help.

23C will be tough until it cools down outside. My wife would not appreciate me moving the algae into the living room. And I don't even keep the living room that cool during the warm months.....

[rayjay]

Geez, when it gets up to 23° I have to turn the A/C on. I can't stand the heat.
At least it helps to keep my seahorse tanks cool so I don't have to put chillers on each tank.

[spawner]

Will, measure the water temperature. With lights running the IR from the lamps will increase your temp around 2-3 degrees C in the cultures. Anything above 28C is really hard on T-iso.

[spk]

will,
my nanno grows at a very low temp, UK and all, but just a thought, play with the photo period for a while. if you are getting fast growht them clumping, try to slow the growth down so that it grows over a longer period. that would also adjust the temp too probably.

[sunny d polyp]

Hey Will, my nano and iso grow at 82/84, I wonder do you sterilize your culture water? I use .4 ml to 1/gal (4 liters) 48 hours before I do my splits, lights on 24/7 and I use old tank water through a 10 micron sieve that has been diluted with r/o water to 1.021. I have those small portable fans or mine would get a much higher temp and also it' seems to work out better for me anyway to filter my air going to the cultures (.05 microns).

[spk]

Just an FYI,
I have never seterilized my water for the phyto.

[natureAddict]

hi, my nan is almost baking in the hot afternoon sun at about 31C. this time of the year is exceptioally hot but nan is tough.