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From:
Rearing a Plankton Menagerie
by Shawn Carlson
Materials needed:
Clear plastic soda bottles in the two-liter size
Granular chlorine
Dechlorinating agent from a tropical-fish store
Pump for a 10-gallon aquarium
Multiport manifold
Stiff plastic tubing
Filter with 0.5-micron openings
Micro Algae Grow
Liquid Silicate Solution
Algae samples
Fluorescent lamp
Discarded five-gallon jug
Hot air gun
What youre going to do:
First
Sterilize everything. This is to insure there are no bacteria to contaminate your culture from the very
beginning. If you overlook this step, chances are your culture will crash.
Go to your local pool supply store and purchase granular chlorine.
Dissolve as much of the granular chlorine as possible into 30 milliliters (or about an ounce) of
warm water. Stir gently.
After it is dissolved, prepare a 10-to-1 dilution by mixing five milliliters (about one teaspoon)
of the concentrated chlorine solution into 45 milliliters (about 8 teaspoons) of distilled water.
Try not to transfer any undissolved crystals into the sterilizing solution you are preparing.
Next
Fill the two-liter soda bottles nearly to the top with either distilled water (for fresh water algae)
or saltwater (for ocean algae)
Add five drops of the sterilizing solution to each.
Wait two hours for the chlorine to disinfect the water.
Chlorine tends to evaporate quickly from solution, which means you'll have to make up a fresh
batch of sterilizing fluid every time you need some.
You can also add a few drops of bottled dechlorinating agent from a tropical-fish store will also
do the job in no time flat.
Don't introduce your algae until you've made sure, (use a kit for testing home pools) that no
chlorine is detectable in the solution. If you skip this step, youll kill the algae when you do put
them in.
One pump for a 10-gallon home aquarium can easily aerate (mix with air) 10 soda bottle flasks.
Use the kind called multiport manifold (Basically this a aquarium pump device with one
input and many outputs) to distribute the air to the different bottles.
Youll also need some stiff plastic tubing (also available at the aquarium store) at this point. You
may need to use the hot-air gun to bend the tubing. Youll use it to inject the air into each algae
culture.
You should also pump it through a 0.5 micron filter Millipore
http://www.millipore.com/index.do ($79 for a 10-pack) , to keep the bacteria from invading
your clean and sterilized soda bottles.
Now start feeding each soda bottle with the appropriate nutrients.
As before, let things stand for two hours, then dechlorinate the water and test it.
Add the necessary nutrients and add the contents of one complete bottle of mature algae.
Connect the air pump and make sure the container gets plenty of fluorescent light.
You can also track the rate of growth by using a special dipstick sold by Aquaculture Supply ($7.75).
All you need to do is put the stick into the jug until the algal culture covers the black ring on the bottom
of the stick, then read the depth off the scale on the side.
For each species, you can then calculate the density of cells using a table supplied with the stick. After
about a week, you should see definite improvement.