Algae Culture at Home



http://www.aka.org/wako/~WebContent/Articles/newsletterarticles.htm

http://www.micropia.nl/en/discover/stories/uses-of-microbes/#pullout-5

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL8553218M/Plankton_Culture_Manual

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-rear-a-plankton-me

http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Algae-Home-CO2-Scrubber-Part-II-Culturing/?ALLSTEPS

Experimental Flat-Panel Photobioreactor:

http://arkfab.org/?cat=135

Grow-> extract -> distill to make biofuel:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5982439_use-algae-biodiesel-fuel.html



Algea incubator with arduino controlled CO2 pump, simple resistive heater and some led lightning fabbing the plexi parts in the FabLab / lights on



Culturing Euglena
http://www.aka.org/wako/~WebContent/Articles/culturing%20euglena.html

from Gjino: And here is my modified euglena recipe (I can put it on Hackteria wiki if you like):

1L water (aerate it with air pump + air stone set on max for 10-15 min, before using to get rid of chlorine)

30 grains of wheat (I use oatmeal, it is better because it is smashed)

25 grains of rice (I do not use parboiled rice,because it doesn't have all the nutrients. Cheapest one - that you have to cook for longest time is the best)

one table spoon of nonfat dry milk (I use around 250 mL of low fat milk instead - and I put it in a blender for few minutes to separate proteins and fat in milk a little bit. I you are gonna use normal milk like me, cut down the water from 1L to 750mL to get 1L of medium)

Cook it for 10 min, covered with aluminum foil as a lid, and let it sit over night (without opening).

In the morning, pour just the liquid in clean flask or glass bottle (leave the residue behind).

Put some euglena culture inside, and cover it with cotton seal so it can breathe and put the bottle/flask under the lamp (light and warm place).

It should take about 1 week or so for the medium to turn nice green color..(picture in attachment)

Picking Algae Cells
Setup using a CD-ROM reading head for XY micro-positioning of a small glas capillary. The coil head is controlled using an arduino. The coils are directely connected to the PWM output pins.

Picking head mounted on a XY-table for macro adjustments using the two stepper motors.

Imgae of the capillary. String algae and single cell algae in size comparison. Positioning is very precise (+/- 5 um),aspiring the algae is not yet reliable. See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alSmZeQweVo

Discussed some theory on patch clamping cells with Ralf Weise. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_clamp Can we do this DIY? We need the Chara Corallina algae with single cells as big a 2x20mm. Let's go for algae hunting...

Algae Sample Collection
We go out with the pedalo on lake Lucern to best aproach the nice spots for collecting algae. Took samples on various places and put them into the PET containers (got them from dumpster diving at main station).

Back home, instpecting the sample using the webcam microscope. Suprised about the very diverse aquatic communities.

From discussions with Sachiko, the idea of culturing biofilms (communities) not only mono-cultures came up… "A biofilm is an aggregate of microorganisms in which cells adhere to each other on a surface." Biofilm is also referred to as slime... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofilm

Algae Samples Inspection
Nice video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtEhcU61NHs

Open Lab Session
Open GaudiLab Session with folks from Switzerland, India, Germany, USA, Japan - yeah!

Links: http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/W3732E/w3732e06.htm http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Stream_biofilm http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haeckel_Diatomea_4.jpg http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/haeckel/kunstformen/high/Tafel_004_text_1_200.html