Grow Phytoplankton at HOME! New Culturi Pro Phyto Reactor!

What's going on reefers? Blaine here. In today's video, we're going to be talking about the Culturi M by Aquaculture Kings. Now, one of the biggest questions or biggest hurdles when it comes to culturing phytolanton is the vessel itself. Making sure you have the right pump, all the add-ins in between. Now, Aquaculture Kings has given us the proper vessel we needed to get our own phytoculture started at home. Let's dive in. Before [music] we get into the reactors themselves, why would we even want to grow phytolanton in the first place? Live phytolankton can be useful to utilize in your reef aquarium to feed things like copaapods, rotifers, clams, and other filterfeeding organisms like your corals. It also gives you ability to maintain a continuous live food source instead of constantly purchasing bottles of phytolankton. The challenge has always been making the culturing process easy, [music] clean, and repeatable. And that's really what these systems are trying to accomplish. Aquaculture Kings currently gives us two different sizes to [music] choose from. We have the Culture S Pro, which is the smaller one liter system, and then we have the larger Culture M Pro, which doubles that capacity to 2 L. The concept behind both is basically the same. Instead of piecing together your own culture station, you've got a purpose-built glass vessel combined with lighting, aation, and hardware needed to maintain that culture. First, let's talk about the Culturi S Pro. [music] This model is going to make the most sense for somebody who wants a relatively small, manageable supply of fresh phytolankton. The culture vessel holds approximately one liter. So, this is a great entry point if you're feeding a smaller reef or if you simply don't need huge quantities of phytolankton every week. But what's cool about this system is how much is integrated [music] into such a small footprint. You've got your glass culture vessel. You've got lids and seals. You've got the rigid glass tubing running down into the culture. You've got your airline tubing. And then up to you, you've got the light and the aation system. So instead of having an external light wrapped around a random container with an air pump sitting somewhere else, it's all packaged together into one [music] clean unit. Now moving on to the Culturi M Pro. This is going to be our 2 L culture vessel. This vessel gives us twice the phyto capacity for larger systems for people that might be aggressively feeding more phytolanton or anyone who wants to harvest even larger quantities. [music] But there's another reason you might want to move up to the culture M Pro [music] and that's for copaods. One of the coolest accessories available for the Culture M is the Pod Core. The pod core installs inside the culture M and dramatically increases the amount of usable surface area inside the reactor. Aquaculture Kings rates the additional surface area at roughly 119,000 [music] square mm. And that's important because copaapods don't necessarily want to spend their entire [music] lives free swimming around in open water. Giving them additional structure creates more area where they can graze, hide, and reproduce. So now instead of using the cultury M strictly for phytolankton, you have the option of converting it over into [music] a dedicated pod culturing system. Now let's talk about the lighting that's available for these units. The Culture M Pro utilizes an adjustable RGB plus CCT smart lighting system, giving you control over both brightness and spectrum. For normal phytolanton culturing, you're primarily going to be utilizing white light, but having the adjustability opens up some additional options depending on what you're trying to culture. Aquaculture Kings recommends bright white light for phytolanton, while Copapod Cultures can be utilized under lower white light intensities. [music] The lighting can also be scheduled so once you've established your culture routine, you're not manually switching the reactor on and off every day for its light. [music] Of course, light is not the only part of keeping phytolanin going. We also need aation. The integrated air system keeps the culture moving and provides the circulation and gas exchange needed while the phytolanton grows. The combination of controlled lighting and continuous aeration gives the phto the environment it needs without requiring [music] a bunch of separate equipment scattered around your fish room. Now with us culturing strong strains of phytolankton [music] already here on site, we've put together our own complete phytolanton aquaculture kits. The first one being the TSA phytolankton aquaculture [music] kit which you get the hardware, you get the live phytolankton, you get the F2, [music] and you can actually start your first culture right away with the phytolankton we're utilizing here in our facilities. To take it the next step further, you can utilize the medium phytolanton and pod aquaculture kit. This is basically a package for someone who wants the [music] most versatility out of the system. So, if your end goal is creating your own renewable life food system, this is probably the setup I'd be [music] looking at. You can culture fresh phytolanton. You can then use that phytolanton to support your copapod cultures. And then these copaods can be another live food source for your aquarium. [music] Now, if you've been thinking about culturing your own TSA phytolanton or copaods, the Aquaculture Kings [music] Culture S and M Pro are some amazing options to get into the culturing right [music] away. If you guys are interested in picking up any of these units, any of our phytolankton or copaods, be sure to head over to the website now and shop the entire line. If you guys have tuned in all the way till the end, I want to say thank you very much. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell notification so you don't miss out on any future uploads.