Apologies for cross posting but I am not sure I saw this come through and any help would be welcome. Thanks!
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Romi Burks <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 1:12 AM Subject: Any hints for growing periphyton inside in flow-through tank? To: [email protected] Cc: Megan Rice <[email protected]> Hello, I would love any advice regarding how one might get some really nice periphyton mats to grow inside the laboratory in a flow-through, laminar-flow, heated tank. It does not sound like it should be too hard...but alas, nothing works as expected when one needs it to do so. One catch is that we would like to do so without adding too many nutrients so that we can later establish more mats with a low and high N level. The overall objective of a future experiment involves feeding this periphtyon to hatchling apple (~1 mm) snails (*Pomacea insularum*) in a preference test against a vascular emergent macrophyte (wild taro). Up until now, we have been using basic nutrient diffusing substrates (i.e. upside-down flower pots) to keep the algae going in our tank. However, we have recently experienced some difficulty getting this green algae to colonize the surfaces we want ---other nutrient diffusing substrate for example --- versus having reasonably successful growth on the walls of the tank. We originally inoculated our tank with tiles that we colonized in a local stream. The algae did reasonably well on our first set of substrates but not consistent enough to create a real "mat" or "biofilm." I am reasonably sure that the predominant algae is *Klebsormidium *(formerly *Hormidium*). Nice, filamentous green algae that doesn't seem to come to an end. Broad, C-shaped chloroplasts that resemble green planaria inside the cell but do not circle cell or occupy more than 1/2. The tank is on a slow flow-through regiment with lights and we keep the temperature between 70 and 75 degrees...similar to the partially ground-water stream from which we originally retrieved our tiles. Any suggestions are welcome. Do plastic strips work better? If so, can you alter nutrient levels using them? If you wish to ask any specific questions, feel free to contact me off-post ([email protected]). Appreciate your time and expertise. Thanks!! Romi Burks -- Romi L. Burks, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Biology Co-chair, Animal Behavior Program BEN Scholar 2008-2010 (http://www.biosciednet.org/portal/index.php) Mailing Address: Southwestern University 1001 East University Avenue Georgetown, TX 78626 Contact info: Office Phone: 512-863-1280 Lab Phone: 512-863-1640 FAX: 512-863-1696 email: [email protected] Website: http://people.southwestern.edu/~burksr/<http://people.southwestern.edu/%7Eburksr/> -- Romi L. Burks, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Biology Co-chair, Animal Behavior Program BEN Scholar 2008-2010 (http://www.biosciednet.org/portal/index.php) Mailing Address: Southwestern University 1001 East University Avenue Georgetown, TX 78626 Contact info: Office Phone: 512-863-1280 Lab Phone: 512-863-1640 FAX: 512-863-1696 email: [email protected] Website: http://people.southwestern.edu/~burksr/
