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Step 3Growth
These dinoflagellates need a constant cycle of light and darkness for optimal growth. Put your grow light and bottles in a dark place (closet) where you can strictly control how much light they get. Set the timer so the grow light is on a cycle of 12 hours on, 12 hours off. Don't be worried if your starter culture doesn't emit light right after you receive it. They will only bioluminesce in their night cycle, so plan the light cycles accordingly for when you want to see it.
Monitor your cultures for any sudden changes in color, and give them a gentle shake every day or so or all the sediment will collect to the bottom. If you have a successful culture, you will eventually need to 'split' the batch. Mix up another batch of saltwater/nutrients, and halve your culture between the new bottles.
Remember, these cool creatures will only brightly flash when disturbed and only during their night cycle. Too much disturbance can both harm them,and wear them out. They have a 'recharge' time so to speak between disturbances for optimal performance.
If you're looking for something which will constantly glow, you might want to check out bioluminescent bacteria instead. You can get some from Carolina Biological supply. Culturing this is a rather different process, but you can find some guides on the net. One bioluminescent strain is Vibrio fischeri. See here: http://www.carolina.com/product/living+organisms/prokaryotes/bacteria/vibrio+anguillarum%2C+living%2C+tube.do?keyword=Vibrio+fischeri&sortby=bestMatches&page=1
The pictures on this page are mostly from this site: http://www.biology.pl/bakterie_sw/bac_pict_en.html
Good luck and have fun!
Monitor your cultures for any sudden changes in color, and give them a gentle shake every day or so or all the sediment will collect to the bottom. If you have a successful culture, you will eventually need to 'split' the batch. Mix up another batch of saltwater/nutrients, and halve your culture between the new bottles.
Remember, these cool creatures will only brightly flash when disturbed and only during their night cycle. Too much disturbance can both harm them,and wear them out. They have a 'recharge' time so to speak between disturbances for optimal performance.
If you're looking for something which will constantly glow, you might want to check out bioluminescent bacteria instead. You can get some from Carolina Biological supply. Culturing this is a rather different process, but you can find some guides on the net. One bioluminescent strain is Vibrio fischeri. See here: http://www.carolina.com/product/living+organisms/prokaryotes/bacteria/vibrio+anguillarum%2C+living%2C+tube.do?keyword=Vibrio+fischeri&sortby=bestMatches&page=1
The pictures on this page are mostly from this site: http://www.biology.pl/bakterie_sw/bac_pict_en.html
Good luck and have fun!
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i ordered some pyrocystis fusiformis from empco and tried to make my own growth medium. i emptied fresh bottles of mineral water, filled them with destilled water and added sea salt until it reached a density of ca. 1025 kg/m3 (at 25°C). finally i added some nutritions. they are not the same as in the article since i had to buy them in germany, but they are f/2 as well.
unfortunately, in my mixed media, the algae dies within a single day! now, the empco starter culture is nearly empty and i really need some good ideas about what is going wrong.
could a lack of co2 let them die that fast? the starter culture is living for a month now in it's bottle without air pump and everything. what about salinity? it's not that sensible, is it? or maybe ph? is destilled water a good choice?
any ideas whats going wrong?!?
thanks a lot!
I changed a few things in the protocol: First, I used "Micro Algae Grow" this time.
Second, and I think this is important, I started each experiment with a small portion of algae and added only a little bit of growth medium every few hours. This is to avoid osmosis through a a sudden change in salt levels. This might have been the problem last time.
I have the impression that my algae is growing pretty slow. It can takes weeks until it reaches the same density as before.
For one I agree with kholland, and remember its not the replication of the organisms environment that matters in these kind of experiments. What you are trying to achieve is growth of a species, so you want to achieve perfect conditions for growth, i.e. the perfect environment, not their usual one. So hell make a CO2 generator and make sure you use that algae grow! I'll be trying to grow the same species in a month or two so that's what I'll be doing as I've perfected growing freshwater algae with the method above.
Hope I helped,
Zane
I realize 1025 kg/m3 is the density of sea water, but, I think you will get better results measuring that way rather then doing it based on density....
Additionally, I wouldn't use distilled water, ideally, I would just get fresh water from a source (nearby streams, which will already have some salt) and then add salt to 35ppt.
they conduct photosynthesis and meet the definition of a "plant"
therefore, they are a plant
I would add more detail cut too lazy
(p.s. we just studied this in science)
O
L
again