Wow! That was very helpful. How do you harvest your VEs, LaBella?

I have a how to harvest somewhere, I'll have to find it, and link into or maybe do a collecting vid...

OK
here is my easy VE collection how to.
I am not feeling well, my head hurts, and I have chills, so I don't feel up to doing the whole html thing.. It hurts to think too much.
But here you go.
You start with your set up..

The items shown are an empty 1 litre bottle, a bottle full of VEs, a box cutter, a wad of floss, and a cup of water.


Take you box cutter, and cut the top off the empty bottle.
I use the lable as a guide.


Pour the VE medium into the bottle you just cut open. 1/3rd or so full is usually plenty. Oh, but before you do that, take the lable off, it will help you to see if you have collected enough.


Now this is the tricky part.
You are going to fit the cut off top of the bottle into the bottle itself.
You want to push it in slowly, so the the sides remain sealed, but the solution goes up the neck of the bottle, just to the top.
If you make a mistake, just ease the top out, and retry.


Now, you will put your wad of cotton, or floss or whatever into the mouth of the bottle top. Then gently pour water into the bottle until it is over the top of the wad. It is best to direct the stream of water down the side of the bottle, rather than over the top of it, because that can knock the wad into the VE solution.
Also, you may want to prewet the floss, or squeeze it a few times once the water is added to get the air out of it faster than letting the bubbles surface themselves.


Within a couple hours, you will be able to start collecting.
I use a ridged airline connected to a flexible one, and siphon it out, using gravity.
This is because the small size of the rigid hose fits into the crease of the inner bottle, and the outer bottle.
The water and VEs are collected into another container, and doles out with a baster, or with the same hose thing.


And there you go.
By the way, it took all of 5-7 minutes for me to set up, and take the pics, ect.
It is fast, simple and easy.
And no need for kids to have explain the long necked beer bottle, (cause any 1 liter bottle will do).
And if the floss falls into it, you just put in another piece, you'll get the fallen one when you're finished.
Also, you hardly ever collect ALL the VEs, but you seriously deplete them.
If you pour the used solution into another bottle, after you do each batch, when the first bottle is finished, you can add about a 1/4 teaspoon of sugar to the bottle where you have been pouring the used solution, put a cap on it lightly (if you squeeze it, air will come out), and leave it alone.
It will usually regenerate after about a month or so.
One bottle is good for one spawn, for 3 days..
Oh, and the first time you take the water out, you can usually add more water to it, and get more VEs from the same collection.
I am usually emptying, and refilling the same collection through out the day.
But after a day, you've exhausted it.
Once a bottle has been used up, it is time to start on bbs, unless I see that not all of them can eat them, in which case, I break out another bottle.
I have about 10 1 litre bottles going at any time.

The whole thread can be found HERE

Awesome, thanks! :Y :hug:

Another way to do it for smaller amounts is to have two one gallon VE cultures well up and running (we use two, you could more than easily get away with just one), a 3/4in by 6in long test tube, a test tube clamp, turkey baster, and a wad of floss.

Take the turkey baster and get VE solution to fill the test tube 3/4 of the way. Put the floss in so it is half way into the VE solution, and fill the rest with clean water. Wait half an hour, and use a baby medicine dropper or a peice of hard plastic tubing to get the clean water out, and put into the tank of fry. Fill the top again with water.

This lasts for 2 feedings with two tanks of young fry. The left over veniger you just dump back into the culture. The culture gets pretty heavy, especially if you have two, and work off of one at a time (One for two weeks and the other for two weeks), and when the solution gets low, fill it up with more apple cider vineger and toss in a few more chuncks of apples. Works REALLY well if you only have one or two young fry tanks at a time.

This my small spawn collector.
it is a large test tube, PLEASE, don't ask me how big, and a floss wad, that I tied a string around, so that I can pull it out.
I rather like to over feed VEs, because I know they are nutrient deficient.
BUT if you feed enough, they get bnig enough to handle BBS.

Fantastic presentation bella!!!!! :Y :WOW: :Y

Well done well done!

4AM?!

And you just decided you'd make of video of your work?!

:OO
You're something else girlfriend!

I get insane in the middle of the night, when I can't sleep.
I DO things, and yeah, on a whim, decided that I was going to do this vid. It was a good idea at the time, lol.

LaBella! great information, thanks for vidding that for us.

That was SO cool! I totally understand how to do it now, where as before, I was clueless about VEs.

Thank you so much! :hug: I think after your hard work, you deserve some sleep. :D

As a plus, in the middle of the night, there are not a ton of kids making a ton of noise.
Stay tuned, the next how to is going to be how to water and Micro worms..
I am thinking also of a how to.. Brine Shrimp, lol.