
Originally Posted by
greenspan
after reading many sources online I decided I want to make a system to grow bio-luminescent algae at home.
Why would you want to do this, what is the economical benefit you try to achieve here?
The only problem I am thinking will come up is that coming from a sustainability perspective, having to dispose of 50-70% of my culture after growing it for a month seems to be a waste.
Algae are pretty much perfect for sustainable growth. You can combine green algae, which provide the culture with energy and oxygen, and bio-luminescent algae which can live off them, plus a bacterium species that can digest the algae which have died and dropped to the floor, including its own dead cells. You would need a constant input, and output, and you would need to test under which environment none of those organisms gain the upperhand or grow too fast.
Is it because after the time period the algae grow so quick that they eat up all the nutrients, in addition to having a high turnover rate of cells that it gets flooded with dead cells?
Nope, mostly toxins, so much waste in the water that it becomes unsustainable.
So my real question I need answered is, how possible would it be to minimize the water that needs to be disposed of?
Keeping the number of bacteria or algae as low as possible.
Could I add some sort of non-toxic bacteria that would just eat the dead bio-luminescent algae and not interfere with the rest of the algae?
Yes, but you would need to balance this out, will be trial/error.
Say I have a special aquarium I want to build to grow this bio-luminescent algae, and on the bottom of the small 1-2 liter aquarium I am building is an air pump for bubbles, or a fan, or a fluorescent or LED bulb. I even thought of perhaps a speaker in the base to vibrate the container.
The water of which these bio-luminescent algae grow doesn't bubble, maybe methane of CO2, but not air. This doesn't mean that it will not grow good when you bubble like this, you don't want it to grow well, trust me.. Don't bubble, just use a pump create turbulence, and if possible immobilize the algae on a flat surface to create a biofilm.
Do the dead algae cells float to the bottom, would I be able to see a layer? Or will they just float and pollute the mix and I still need to empty most of the culture after a month?
Possible, they do float down. But i doubt they will all go to the bottom, especially since you create a flow, or bubbles.