tiger15

Outdoor is easier than indoor as it needs no care other than topping or replacing with nutrient rich WC water. Sunlight drives green water to feed daphnia. Indoor cultures need to be fed with yeast regularly. But outdoor production is inconsistent subject to nature and bloom and bust cycles.

mistergreen

I don't even do water changes. The yeast,spirulina, and snail poop seems to be enough. I do add a little coral in the tub to stabilize pH and calcium.

mistergreen

I added a pinch of protein powder in the yeast, spirulina mix. I only had whey protein around or I would have used soy protein. I make sure to not over use it because protein spoils easily. I think protein is a macro nutrient for these guys. They seem to produce a lot more babies.

I read this on caudata.org.

mistergreen

I've added a handful of dried leaves and it seems pretty good for the population.

mistergreen

My daphnia crashed and covered with maybe BGA. I added more snails to eat the BGA. Thankfully green water has taken over since the BGA is reduced.

I couldn't figure out why the daphnia haven't returned. They always have. I measure the pH is it's 8.8pH. Quite high from algae actions? I added a tablespoon of vinegar to bring it down to 7.0. If this doesn't work, I'll need to buy a new culture. Maybe try my hand with moina.

mistergreen

I ordered moina off ebay. I went ahead and added a heater to the tub since moina preferred 75f-80f. I also threw in a handful of alfalfa hay which should be food for all sorts of critters.

I pulled out my microscope to see what's in the green water. It's chlorella sp. and some tubular diatom.

mistergreen

I received the moina and floated the bag in my container to temperature acclimate. It seems they're really sensitive to parameter change. Quite a few died in the bag just from the temperature acclimation. I cut 2 holes in the bag for the water params can acclimate. I released them after an hour. They seemed fine at the time but I didn't see much the next day. My tub is full of green water so it's have to see.

I assumed the majority of them died off. I saw only few a few now swimming by the light so hopefully those few can breed up a storm.

mistergreen

Good news, The green water is clearing up now I can see I have moina AND pulex. I guess the pulex from the previous batches didn't completely die off.

mistergreen

The density on moina is incredible. The babies which out numbers the adults like 30:1. They're also baby brine shrimp size. This looks like a good replacement for BBS.

When collecting the moina, I've changed my method by siphoning them out with along with 1-2 gallons so I'm doing water changes also which helps to keep the population stable. I harvest 1-2 times a week.