so that was a task.... the bugs on top flew away immediately. I tried filling container with water and then slowly pouring, but I was getting more ABG than anything. So then I started pouring that into a cup, and spooning the springs off the top into the bin getting LESS ABG in the process. That was taking forever after a while, so I put the whole thing into a larger container and filled that with water.... then I poked through it for what seemed like hours moving the debree around to get as many springs as I could find.... and I mean even the TINY ones. Finally decided I didn't see any others so I drained that, put a little more charcoal in and set it up with some yeast to see if any more show up before I toss it. I sprinkled some (though I don't know how much I just know they said not to put too much) yeast onto the culture, sprayed that and will see how things go.

Honestly I don't know how many there were, but it didn't seem like that many. I am not sure in it's current state I have enough to put some in my tank AND leave them in there to hope they produce more. I will see what they say hopefully tomorrow regarding the bugs, but if they don't offer a new culture I am not sure what I should do in this situation. Would it be better to NOT have springs in my tank for the time it might take for this to become an abundant culture or to try and put some in now anyway, and hope for the best in both the tank and the culture?

Also regarding the eventual booming culture.... I definitely don't want to be keeping a bunch of cultures at a time. I am not even sure I want to keep more than one for now. Is it going to become an issue pretty quickly? If I am adding them to the tank periodically will I get too many in one culture still? If I DON'T want to make new cultures from it what would I do?

Regarding fly cultures... I have two premade ones now that I alternate from as needed. How many cultures should I have at one time? I got the stuff to make new ones, but again I don't want too many at a time for space reason, and just the hassle of it. Also if they have to be used within 30 days, I definitely don't want too many going at a time with just one frog, no matter how much of a pig she is.


I had a generous amount of charcoal in the kit, which filled it more than half way so I reserved a little and that's what I used in the left over thing.