I am currently doing a research in regards to micro-algae.
The research involves in buying a stock or starter culture from another lab, since the stock culture was cultured from another island. It would be shipped by a plane, will be transported by a car, so it would be delivered to my school's laboratory.
I'd like to ask you guys, since a teacher of mine told me that cultivating micro algae ain't easy. Since there are prescribed conditions in cultivating it and there are a factors that can eventually lead the micro algae to die.
You should be fine following the standard culturing method.
Are you starting on an agar plate first or you are going directly to culturing in flask?
Three basic requirements for culturing microalgae are light source, nutrient and aeration.
Both outdoor and indoor light source will do. Better production can be achieved if you put the microalgae under constant 24 hours light source, i.e: normal tube light will do.
For nutrient, you need to make a culturing solution which should be auto-claved before used. There are some common recipe you can try, either F/2 media or Conway media. There are basically made up with nitrogen source, phosphate, trace elements and vitamins.
As for aeration, it's to promote homogeneous mixing of your culture and make sure constant steady supply of carbon dioxide. A normal aquarium pump will do the job.
Hope you managed to complete your experiment. Best of luck.
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