Description
From a 15-year veteran of algae culture, this kit is for growing algae in your home is the perfect fit for beginners who want to experiment, learn and explore.
Spirulina is the common name of the colonial blue-green algae Arthrospira Platensis. Spirulina is commonly consumed by humans and animals and its blue pigment phycocyanin has medicinal and biotechnology value. Our culture is grown in our laboratories and it is concentrated prior to shipment.se Nutrient Formula
Spirulina Nutrients Formula
The nutrients used in the algae culture kit are a modification of the spirulina media developed by Aiba and Ogawa 1977, and Schlösser 1994. It uses NaNO3 (sodium nitrate) and NaPO4 (sodium phosphate) as the nitrogen and phosphorus sources. Our salts are a combination of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, and sodium chloride. We are supplying all the things that you need to grow algae that you don’t already have in your basement, or could buy from your local pet shop.
What’s Included in this Algae Culture Kit
- 50ml starter cultures of concentrated algae (inoculum)
- 50 ml of concentrated nutrient media
- Salts, (sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, and trace metal containing sodium chloride)
- Instructions for cultivation
What You Will Need
- Chlorine-free water
- A growing vessel (such as a 10-gallon fish tank)
- Air supply
- Aerator or agitator
This kit is for growing 5-gallons of Arthrospira Platensis, AKA Spirulina.
Contains easy to follow instructions, nutrients, alkali salts, and algae inoculum
Important Note for Teachers!
Have this product delivered to your school and we will include extra supplies to aid in teaching algae culture in your classroom! Please send a message to us letting us know what supplies would be helpful and we will send what we are able for FREE! (limited time offer)
gerald –
So, there is quite a story with this order. One of my elementary school students wanted to grow spirulina, both as an experiment and as a source of nutrition. I am pretty much a nutrition guy too, and the student didn’t have the means to get what he needed, so I ordered the kit. My goal was to get the kit during the first week of the summer and grow it during the vacation in a fish tank. The kit came and I had done quite a bit of research and watched many you tube videos of people growing spirulina in fish tanks, so when I read the directions, I thought I understood them, but I filled in the blanks with what I thought was knowledge about how to do it that I had “gained” from watching the videos. Long story short, within 2 weeks, I had killed all of the spirulina. I called the company and a kind gentleman went over the entire procedure with me to see what I had done wrong. He sent me a whole new kit at no charge… didn’t even charge shipping. Then when I started the next batch, he talked me through the process for about an hour, and on his advice I kept some of the culture out to the side in case something went wrong. Well, something did go wrong. Once again, I did things the way I had seen on my computer screen and somehow mus-interpreted my helper’s instructions. Once again, the spirulina died. I was beside myself, so I got out the instructions and read each and every word and compared what I read to what I had done. On all of the previous trys, I had way too much water in the tank. I used the small amount of spirulina culture that I had left, and following the actual instructions, grew the little guys for several months. They are really cool to look at under a microscope, and all of my students were able to study them on several occasions. When winter came, I tried putting them in a friend’s greenhouse. One good deep freeze and they were history. I will likely do this project again in a year or two, and will definitely do business with the same company.
Natan Gammer –
Hi Gerald, what a great story! and a quick tip: cold weather doesn’t kill spirulina, it only slows down the growth, so you may want to give it another try. Good luck!
anonymous –
Algae Research and Supply shipped two cultures instead of one since the cultures had to go a bit of a far distance (california -> ontario). good thing they did that since one ended up dying. thankfully the back up sample was okay
verified under a optical microscope, it is indeed arthospira platensis (spirulina) and did not contain contamination. everything is as advertised.
robert bouillon –
This came in faster than my amazon order! Algae was alive and healthy (no brown algae in the tubes) and the kit was complete with good instructions. Everything was well-sealed and packaged for shipping.
Keep an eye on your mailbox when you order this! It will arrive sooner than expected.
chan chee seng –
If there are more stars, I will definitely them all click. Matt was absolutely helpful and went beyond my expectation to help.
Thanks Matt!! You are amazing. Felix