General
Species:  Mysidopsis bahia
Species description:  Common mysid found in reef aquaria and aquaculture
Culture source (link if possible): 
If algae, CCMP # (ref http://ccmp.bigelow.edu/ ): 

Culturing Vessel Details
Salinity:  1.026
Temperature:  78*
Vessel description:  Will be 10 gallon system (starting journal for design considerations) 
Lighting description: 
Lighting cycle: 
Aeration description: 

Methodologies
Split methodology:

Culture medium description: 
(this could range, example with algae could be “10ml per l of guillards F formulation” or with A. tonsa it would be more like “300ml per day of algal mixture containing gymnodynium, tetraselmis, isochrysis, and rhodomonas” )

Cell count:
 (if known)

Reference links:  

Additional Information
Notes:  Journal starting early to detail my design considerations surrounding the culture vessel.



You will be required to provide photographic evidence and as much detail as possible about your project in this thread.
If your thread does not contain detailed enough photos  and information the MBI Council will not be able to approve your reports.

Because it's all about the plankton!
~J      

Alright getting this one underway....  Specimens will be collected and separated from my running system which I will detail after I build the culture tank in detail here.

My culture tank design is a modification of the airlift recurculating separating system outlined in The Plankton Culture Manual (F. Hoff, T. Snell) with some new considerations.  After looking at Andy's method of screened PVC I spent some time re-thinking the whole design.  Rather than utilize two separate tanks, an airlift and a return siphon as is in Hoffs design I decided to go with a single tank with a baffle to separate sides.  A screened airlift will be used to move water (and fry) from the adult section through a bulkhead in the baffle to the fry section.  overflow will return to the adult section via another bulkhead which posesses a PVC pipe screened lenghtwise on the fry end of the baffle.  As is in Hoffs design, adults will need to be manually separated from the fry section as they grow. I am considering other methods to automate this process...

so here we have my quickie diagram and parts list for my initial test

Because it's all about the plankton!
~J      

I have no clue about what you're doing, but it looks cool

Wow this is going to be really cool .  I'm going to have to setup a system like this to get mysis for my broodstock since they love eating them.  I have a pretty large culture going in my fuge but it's under the tank, if I'm going to do it right I would need to do an above the tank fuge.  Good luck with your design Joe .

still in infancy, and of course my time is strapped but I wanted to try and do a few journals on the food culturing start to finish to hopefully inspire a few others to poke the same anthill with a stick...

it's fun!    

Because it's all about the plankton!
~J      

and here we go...
 
start with a ten gallon tank...
 

 
it's a bit rough so we'll clean the glass with some denatured alcohol
 

 
helps the silicone stick!!  then we measure for a baffle (this one goes almost to the top)  using simple plexiglass
 

 
then we cut (natch)
 
 
 
drill it (by way of drill press) then silicone it in... always handy to cut some wood jigs and use clamps to keep the thing solid.
 

 
cut two lengths of 1/2 inch pipe to suit... (in this case I did 7 inches) and drill a bunch o holes (these will be for airlift and overflow assembly)
 

 
add a couple of endcaps, two bulkheads, two threaded couplings, an elbow, and a short peice (for elbow to thread) and well...
 
 
 
 
dont forget to drill the hole in the elbow for the rigid on your airlift.... 
 

 
 
 
 
 (obvious howto here huh)  do a quick mockup to make sure it looks okay
 

 
note the offset (airlift side s higher than the overflow side)
 

 
Not to mention timmy the swearing turtle watching over my cup of coffee...  now we grab our mesh... plastic screening for the airlift (approx 800um) and a filter bag for the overflow (average around 200um)
 


 
wrap the screen tight and zip tie to hold it over the airlift... 
 

 
For the overflow, because the smaller mesh is hard to work with consider dabbing superglue along one edge, let it set and then wrap around hold tight and zip tie
 

 
put the stupid thing back together... wait for the silicone to dry (have a beer you've worked hard!!) and then... pray the stupid thing works...
 

 
more on this later.. need a few days to let it cure!!!

Because it's all about the plankton!
~J      

Yeah, it is beautiful .  Today I was drilling holes and stuff for my broodstock tanks.  The only problem was that everything that me and my dad needed we didn't have which got really annoying.  We got the tanks drilled and then we realized that we didn't have any PVC, then we got the PVC and we didn't have any PVC glue.  Needless to say we decided to push this project off for one more day.

hrmm.. Kevin... remind me if I ever get out there to have a serious sit down with you and your dad... two words


MAN... SHED....

see... a while ago the wife started to comment on the clutter in the garage... the PVC, the glue... the wires, cables, tape, chemicals, carts, boxes, stuff, junk.... tools, ladders, wood, more tools...

so I remedied the situation... I got a man shed... i.e. a shed of manly proportions... 10 x 12 with a loft and of course a window... needless to say the man shed required a new toolbox... so of course... toolbox ensued... much of the larger tools went to the man shed, and storage areas for lumber, pvc, peice parts et all were erected for the rest... leaving me with an empty garage...

now... let it be said...  she still complains about the new clutter... but hey I got more lumber, more pvc, more tools, more peice parts... and a MAN SHED!!

Because it's all about the plankton!
~J      

The only problem is that the neighborhood will not let us get a shed, and I doubt that my sisters would give up their treefort.  Looks like until I move out I will be stuck in the clutter .

Alright guys general update, the silicone has dry cured for a little over 24 hours and I am now wet curing the system with water and vinegar (helps to ensure the silicone doesnt leech later on). 

The airlift works as planned!!  One caveat to mention that I found is that some of the air bubbles tend to come out of the sides of the airlift tube as they travel upwards.  I used 1/2 inch pvc for this design, should you consider reproducing you may want to switch to 3/4 or 1 inch for at least the airlift tube. 

Because it's all about the plankton!
~J      

Alright guys, a little slow to update this one but it's been hectic (as is normal for me I guess).

Tuesday morning I was able to capture via siphon hose some adults from my system, I sieved the capture with a 250um plankton collector I picked up at florida aqua farms www.florida-aqua-farms.com .

Capture count came out at 18 adults (wasnt a huge capture, not a huge attempt for that matter).

The tank was fed a small amount of prime reef flake, and a few formula one marine pellets.  Yesterday I dumped 60ml of rotifer culture in for good measure.

The specimens seem to be doing fairly well, though I am noticing they crowd the corners, I may have to add some form of substrate / surface filler like I do with my harpacticoids to get them to use all available space.  The biggest problem I am encountering is the fact that I used 1/2 inch pvc for the airlift.  I will be changing this out for 3/4 inch as soon as I have time as it's just too small.

I'll upload pics when I get some time to clean them up, not a whole lot to look at really, a tank... some tubing... water...  and shrimp that are too small for my camera to capture very well... ugh I need a new cam.

Because it's all about the plankton!
~J