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Step 6Sampling the algae medium
Okay now we're going to move completely inside the incubator where we have our sample tool, the Mason jar of algae media and our Petri dishes. Turn off the light first (just in case you were warming things up).
Remove the lid from the Mason jar and using they eyedropper dip into the algae medium and get a sample. Put the lid back on the mason jar and open up Petri dish #1. Put one drop of algae medium onto the plate and use the sample wand to make a Z shape most of the way across the agar but not all the way to the edge.
Close the Petri dish and repeat this process for each sample you take. When you are done remove the sample wand and the Mason jar from the incubator. Hopefully you've placed the incubator in a location where light is readily available (indoors near a window?) and the light bulb supplements the heat. Use a lower wattage for steady supply since the heat will build up in the incubator over time. This is okay algae like it hot.
After about 5 or 6 days the cells will have grown enough to form colonies. These colonies on this first streak plate often tend to grow together, so it is difficult to pick off colonies with only one species. You may have to scrape some colonies off the first plate and re-streak them on a second plate in order to get good separation.
Okay now we're going to breed the individual colonies to produce cultures of the individual species.
Remove the lid from the Mason jar and using they eyedropper dip into the algae medium and get a sample. Put the lid back on the mason jar and open up Petri dish #1. Put one drop of algae medium onto the plate and use the sample wand to make a Z shape most of the way across the agar but not all the way to the edge.
Close the Petri dish and repeat this process for each sample you take. When you are done remove the sample wand and the Mason jar from the incubator. Hopefully you've placed the incubator in a location where light is readily available (indoors near a window?) and the light bulb supplements the heat. Use a lower wattage for steady supply since the heat will build up in the incubator over time. This is okay algae like it hot.
After about 5 or 6 days the cells will have grown enough to form colonies. These colonies on this first streak plate often tend to grow together, so it is difficult to pick off colonies with only one species. You may have to scrape some colonies off the first plate and re-streak them on a second plate in order to get good separation.
Okay now we're going to breed the individual colonies to produce cultures of the individual species.
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