Growing Algae...

[Jetijs]

What is that? What do you use it for?

[Savvypro]

What is that? What do you use it for?

It's a Paraffin wax film that can be used to seal the openings of things (everything from test tubes, petri dishes, jars etc.). But still allow gas exchange without allowing foreign organisms to pass through as well.

Do a search on youtube, you'll get the idea.

I've been using cling film on some of the Spirulina flasks, but it's not ideal and breaks easily. The parafilm can stretch by upto 200%. And can supposedly self seal - we'll see (never used it before today)

Plus the discarded bits can be used to make fuel

[Savvypro]

Update: 2nd June 2012

Been some time since I've posted in this thread...

I've got some interesting developments to share. About a month or so ago I spent an afternoon doing some sample isolation work. Basically, trying to isolate some Spirulina spiral cells so as to end up with a pure spiral sample - that was the goal.

One of the things that I noticed when trying to separate the spirals: was that the idea that spirals float better than straight non spiral cells - is complete nonsense. During the isolation work, I would only take samples from jars which had been sitting for half a day. With the only movement being that which the Spirulina cells do naturally, and with the help of gravity. The reason for doing this, was supposedly: that the straight non spiral cells would sink to the bottom of the sample container, while the spiral cells would still be floating. That was the theory.

The samples I would collect with an inoculation loop, from the surface (within the top 1 inch or so of the sample jars), would all contain straight non spiral Spirulina cells and spiral Spirulina cells. This is not a one off event, something I just noticed when I was doing the isolation work. It is something that I have observed happening every time I have taken a sample to view under a microscope. Be it from jars that have been sitting without movement for hours or those where the samples are in motion.

New rule, based on my observations and experiments: spiral and non spiral Spirulina cells, have the same buoyancy.


Back to the isolation work...

The best way to isolate some Spirulina spiral cells is not as follows:

If you place a drop onto a glass slide (using an inoculation loop) and try to isolate an individual cell: you'll find it is damn near impossible. The moment you break the surface tension of the drop with a syringe tip to suck up the single cell, you cause a change in the flow of the medium, moving all the cells around.

Your only hope is to get lucky. After a couple of hours (actual time by the clock, but felt more like 5), of frustration - I did get lucky. So far the result from that lucky sample, looks to be all spiral Spirulina cells. Be warned: if you don't have the patience or the ability to persevere through self imposed mental stress - the frustration could make you flip.

Save yourself the hassle and do the following:

After that I went onto a drop method. Basically what you do is: get a tiny sample using a inoculation loop, dilute it in a sample of medium (say half a mil or a mil of new medium).

Using a syringe, suck up the dilute solution and then squeeze out a number of drops, onto the lid of a petri dish (or some other clean flat see thru surface you can use). Stick that petri dish lid under a microscope and then look at each drop, looking for the best sample that you want to isolate. Once you have found it or if you are lucky, and have found a number of them.

Using a clean syringe or pipette, suck up the drops which contain the sample(s) you want, place them into test tubes or sample bottles with a small sample of new medium (a mil or two - no more). Then wait for the samples to multiply.

My description of the process sounds more complicated than it actually is, trust me on this. You’ll have a far greater chance of getting lucky in the first 5 minutes, than I did in 2 hours using the other method.

Based on the results so far, I have isolated a couple of different types of Spirulina spiral cells. That were all from the same sample I received from UTEX. This was not my intention, I was just looking to separate the spiral cells from the non spiral cells, I was not looking for different spiral types. The only other explanation for the different spirals, is that the Spirulina cells that I isolated, have evolved/changed/adapted to their environment.

Once I have enough volume of the new samples, I'll take some pictures of the different cell types.

[Savvypro]

How to recover from a sample that has gone wrong...

When I was doing the isolation work, it hit me that one could use the same method to recover from a failing sample.

I have a number of samples which I have been neglecting for this very purpose.
So stay tuned...

[Jetijs]

Hi.
My sample that you sent me is now multiplied so much that I need to use 40 liter bioreactor. And it seems to grow faster and faster. Will take some samples under microscope to see which types of spirulina are dominant.
Thanks,
Jetijs

[einarskula]

Live Spirulina

Hi
It's fascinating to read through this thread and see how your work has evolved. Thank you for sharing the experience. I've been searching for ways to get live Spirulina and as you say previously it seems that UTEX is just about the only one that ships to Europe. Strange. But I wanted to ask if its possible to get live Spirulina sent if I cover all the costs?
All the best,
Einar

[Savvypro]

Hi
It's fascinating to read through this thread and see how your work has evolved. Thank you for sharing the experience. I've been searching for ways to get live Spirulina and as you say previously it seems that UTEX is just about the only one that ships to Europe. Strange. But I wanted to ask if its possible to get live Spirulina sent if I cover all the costs?
All the best,
Einar

Depends where in Europe you are located. I can't promise anything, but ask me again in September. I may be willing to ship a sample.

[einarskula]

I'm in Iceland.

[carmonacr]

Hello Algae Folk!

I am very interested in your thread and would love to be a part of it, thanks to you I have seen the AlgaeLabs website and done some research as I would really like to make my own algae food and maybe a business! I am wondering about AlgaeLabs' culture, do they tell you the duplication rate and protein %? Because I found much more expensive strains hereSUPER SPIRULINA CULTURE - SOLEY BIOTECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE and I thought about first understanding how to cultivate the $60 AlgaeLabs strain and work towards a fast strain like the one in the link I provided that needs 8 hours... at only $2,800 a 100ml vial! Yikes, haha it must be worth it!

[carmonacr]

Lighting

I also notice that some people use florescent lights, this I guess would be the blue light that you mention makes the spirulina bigger?
Algae Photobioreactor Basics - YouTube
The American Algae System - YouTube

[IndianaBoys]

Electrostatic Treatment of Plant and Animal Matter

This may be of interest:

Electrostatic Treatment of Plant and Animal Matter

http://www.quantum-seeds.com/Electrostatic Treatment.pdf

Page 18:

6. EXAMPLE: Influence of the electrostatic field on stress behavior

6.1 Retarded Start of Senescence for Green Algae Green algae cultures obtained by smear on algae culture medium in Petri dishes are developed at insufficient illumination (133 μwatt/cm2). Both at a field strength of 1,500 V/cm and at 750 V/cm the cultures outlive comparative material without electrostatic field. The latter already after 1 month shows a distinct deficiency appearance and is after 2 month brown. In the same period of time cultures cultivated in the electrostatic field develop normally.

6.2 Increased Salt Resistance of Ubiquitous Bacteria An arbitrary mixture of ubiquitous bacteria from a soil sample is cultivated in Petri dishes for 5 days in water at room temperature. From this suspension each 1 ml is inoculated into 6 Petri dishes which each contain 15 ml of a diluted seawater medium (see Table 4; dilution 1:2, 1:4, 1:8). 3 dishes are subjected to an electrostatic field of 1,500 V/cm, the remaining serve as control. After 7 days the dishes in the electrostatic field show a distinct increase of the bacteria population, whereas the control dishes do not show any development. The electrostatic field aids in overcoming the salt stress.

In a second adaptation step bacteria from the culture grown at a dilution of 1:2 in the electrostatic field are removed. These serve as starting material for inoculation onto a further Petri dish, which now contains the culture medium according to Table 4. 1 ml of this suspension is transferred into 15 ml seawater medium and the Petri dish again subjected to an electrostatic field of 1,500 V/cm. Within 3 weeks the culture develops completely and reaches maximum equilibrium population. In this manner a ubiquitous bacteria mixture is adapted from sweet water to a saturated salt solution.

IndianaBoys