There are many videos on YouTube which explain the process. Above is a picture of my setup. Here are the key components:
1) For vessels I use 2000ml borosilicate beakers. The reason why is because they have measurements on the beaker, built in pouring snout which makes it easy to harvest directly into bottles for storage, have completely smooth surface inside the vessel which reduces the chances of phyto getting stuck in small crevices which can cause the culture to crash, less things (ie, microbes and precipitated) stick to borosilicate glass which helps with cleaning.
2) The tubes that go inside the culture are borosilicate glass. I bought tubes on Amazon and used a glass tube cutter (also from Amazon) to get the appropriate size. These are much better than the cheap acrylic tubes. Glass tubes collect less debris (therefor reduce chances of a crash) and are easier to clean.
3) I use seran wrap to reduce water evaporation. I do not use a lid since I want to reduce things that need cleaning. Some people use a lid with a small bulkhead but the long tube through seran wrap is more stable IMHO since it reduces the amount of surfaces inside the culture that can collect debris and need cleaning.
4) For water I use 1.019 SG. I store it in a 5gallon jug I keep in a closet by the phyto culture.
5) For fertilizer I use 2ml per 2000ml culture. The fertilizer most people use of F/2. You could dose less but 2ml helps prevent the culture from crashing due to lack of nutrients.
6) I have the air pump on a relatively high setting since I want to create turbulent water flow in the culture to reduce the amount of phyto that settles at the bottom. Excess settling will result in die off and could crash the culture.
6) In the picture above the culture on the left is Isochrysis. This is less commonly available from aquarium retailers since it is harder to culture (supposedly). I see some for sale online which has a green tint rather than dark brown which suggests the culture was contaminated. The culture on the right is tetraselmis. If you are starting out the easiest to culture is nanochloropsis and tertraselmis. The sexiest phyto to culture is isochrysis (brown algae with lots of fat) or porphiridium (red algae which supposedly helps with coloration).
7) When I started out I was harvesting once a week and swapping in new vessels every 2-3 weeks or so. I plan to eventually switch to cleaning once every 4 harvests. I harvest by pouring half of the culture into plastic bottles for storage/dosing. I then swirl the culture solution around to reduce buildup, fill the culture back to the 2000 ml line, add 2ml of F/2, and wipe the glass tubes with a disposable paper towel, put on new seran wrap, and wait for the next harvest.
8) When I clean the vessels I use dishwasher soap and the spray down with hydrogen peroxide (faster than wiping down with alcohol and less cumbersome than boiling). The vessel then air dries for 2-3 weeks.
Using the setup above I have had zero crashes since starting 3 months ago. I am as producing so much phyto I had to reduce the light exposure so I could harvest every 2 weeks rather than every week. I am not too concerned with crashes since I can start a new culture with what I have stored in my refrigerator.
For starter culture you should buy from Algae Research Supply. They provide algae for scientific experiments and therefor send clean strains.
