FAQs about Growing Spirulina
The first thing you’ll need to get started is a spirulina culture. If natural Spirulina is available in your area, fetch a bottle and get going! Otherwise, Spirulina culture can easily be posted by mail, so look at our Live Spirulina shop to find your nearest supplier. Once you have your Spirulina culture, it’s best to get going right away or no longer than a week, because she grows quickly!
For the growing stage, all you’ll need is:
- A large tank, aquarium or pond
- Water pump, paddle wheel or aerator
- Heaters and lighting for colder/darker days
- Air pump
- PH/ temperature Meter
- Secchi disk to measure culture concentration
- A large tank, aquarium or pond
- Water pump, paddle wheel or aerator
- Heaters and lighting for colder/darker days
- Air pump
- PH/ temperature Meter
- Secchi disk to measure culture concentration
There are many different feeding formulas that you can use to cultivate spirulina. While the mineral composition may defer, these are the general components:
– Lots of good, clean water
– Bicarbonate soda
– Sea Salt variations that are high in magnesium like epsom salt
– Potassium source like ash from natural wood
– Nitrogen source like urea or urine
– Lots of good, clean water
– Bicarbonate soda
– Sea Salt variations that are high in magnesium like epsom salt
– Potassium source like ash from natural wood
– Nitrogen source like urea or urine
It depends on the culture volume and the size of your tank. When the water level in your tank has reached full capacity, you can stop adding culture medium and wait for the water to thicken with green. This process usually takes about 2 weeks, but it also defers greatly depending on the climate.
Spirulina harvest can be done by either pumping your tank water through a thick cloth or sieve and letting it drip until a cheese like paste is left in your filter. Remove and dispose of any brown clumps, wash twice and press the water out. Return the wash water back into the tank.
Replace what you’ve extracted with adequate proportions of culture medium
To learn more about how to harvest your spirulina safely, please refer to our books Algae Bloom- A Handy Guidebook For Starting A Scalable Spirulina Farm, and Be The Medicine- A guide to Growing Organic Spirulina At Home.
Replace what you’ve extracted with adequate proportions of culture medium
To learn more about how to harvest your spirulina safely, please refer to our books Algae Bloom- A Handy Guidebook For Starting A Scalable Spirulina Farm, and Be The Medicine- A guide to Growing Organic Spirulina At Home.
If you have too many bubbles in your tank its probably due to one of two things:
1. Your air pump has been operating for too long. Air pumps should only work for about 2 hours a day, and in periods of 1/2 hour each time. You can do this using an electric timer so you don’t forget to turn it off.
2. Another thing that could cause too many bubbles to appear is wrong nutrition proportions. To correct this, ad a little bit of ash water, stir, and see what happens. If several hours later you still see the same bubbles, you may need to add some culture medium.
1. Your air pump has been operating for too long. Air pumps should only work for about 2 hours a day, and in periods of 1/2 hour each time. You can do this using an electric timer so you don’t forget to turn it off.
2. Another thing that could cause too many bubbles to appear is wrong nutrition proportions. To correct this, ad a little bit of ash water, stir, and see what happens. If several hours later you still see the same bubbles, you may need to add some culture medium.
If the clumps floating in your tank are dark green and healthy looking, you win! It means you haven’t been harvesting often enough. Clumps can be harvested without going through the long process of filtering spirulina of the water, but try not to repeat that too often because overtime, it will turn your filaments from coiled to straight, which is harder to filter.
Harvest more often and it’ll sort itself out.
Bare in mind if the clumps are grey, brown, or white, they are not suitable for eating. Scoop them out and use them as a plant fertilizer.
Harvest more often and it’ll sort itself out.
Bare in mind if the clumps are grey, brown, or white, they are not suitable for eating. Scoop them out and use them as a plant fertilizer.
Since the organic spirulina culture medium contains urine, it doesn’t keep for more than a few days. The chemical alternative, Urea, also tends to develop a smell of ammonia when it sits for too long.
If the feeding mix smells bad- DO NOT US IT! Make a new batch and use it within 24 hours.
If you don’t want to be making new culture medium each day of the growing stage, you can mix all the other ingredients together in advance, and add the nitrogen source just before you use it.
If the feeding mix smells bad- DO NOT US IT! Make a new batch and use it within 24 hours.
If you don’t want to be making new culture medium each day of the growing stage, you can mix all the other ingredients together in advance, and add the nitrogen source just before you use it.
Yellow spirulina indicates unsuitable growing conditions. It could be that the temperature is too high or too low, not enough movement in the water, or bad culture medium proportions. If your spirulina has turned yellow, we recommend you to separate it into several containers and try different things to see what works. Either way, yellow Spirulina is like a child who’s ill, and should be treated with lots of loving care.
Spirulina thrives between 30-37 degrees Celsius. That’s 86-98.6 in Fahrenheit.
She’ll DIE at 42 degrees, but anywhere in between she’ll probably survive.
If the temperature is lower than 25 degrees, she would still be growing, but not as quickly,
And bellow 15 degrees she would not grow at all.
She’ll DIE at 42 degrees, but anywhere in between she’ll probably survive.
If the temperature is lower than 25 degrees, she would still be growing, but not as quickly,
And bellow 15 degrees she would not grow at all.
1 liter is enough to start your culture with, given that you feed it properly and provide it with the right conditions.
What is the color of your culture? is it still dark green or has it gone yellow? if the color is still green then you’d be fine with what you have.
Yellow culture can also be revitalized in some cases but that would require a more intensive care.
What is the color of your culture? is it still dark green or has it gone yellow? if the color is still green then you’d be fine with what you have.
Yellow culture can also be revitalized in some cases but that would require a more intensive care.
Question:
I am from Canada and grow spirulina and prefer to make/mix my own nutrient solution. I bought a live sample and instruction manual from a Canadian supplier in Ontario. I have no trouble growing spirulina in a new batch of solution however struggle with maintaining the culture after harvest. Cannot seem to make a proper nutrient solution mix to maintain an ongoing culture.
One of the hardest nutrients to find to grow spirulina is potassium nitrate. Its highly regulated and requires special permits to buy. I typically buy it on ebay in small quantities. I’ve read that UREA or even urine may be substituted instead of potassium nitrate as part of the nutrient replenishment solution after harvest. Apparently if using UREA it must be done so with caution.
So my two questions are as follows:
1 Does the book explain how to use urea as part of the nutrient replenishment mix after harvest which may reduce or eliminate the need for potassium nitrate?
2 Does your DIY book explain how to go about finding some of these necessary yet hard to find nutrients/fertilizers or recommend alternative substitutes using household chemicals. For example one fellow on Youtube recommends placing a few nail-spikes in vinegar and use the resulting solution for iron.
Thank you,
Terry
Answer:
Hi Terry,
Thanks for connecting with us. indeed, maintaining the culture after harvest tends to be the difficult part of growing spirulina. Did you make sure the water is warm enough? I know that in Canada this could be a problem. The ideal temperature is around 32 degrees Celsius.
In my book, I explain how to grow spirulina without any chemical nutrients, because personally i find it to be safer and better. This is of course a matter of controversy and taboo because as you mentioned, we replace the potassium nitrate or urea with human urine. While this may seem unhygienic to some, it is in fact far cleaner than any chemical fertilizer you can find on ebay, and all you have to do to keep is clean is maintain a healthy diet.
All other ingredients are either food grade or from natural resources, and can easily be found anywhere in the world.
As for making the iron solution, yes, some people soak rusty nails in vinegar and it works, but I prefer to use Iron drops which i buy in the pharmacy, because its easier to measure and its food grade, just make sure its 100% iron and doesn’t contain any other additives.
Hope this helps :)
I am from Canada and grow spirulina and prefer to make/mix my own nutrient solution. I bought a live sample and instruction manual from a Canadian supplier in Ontario. I have no trouble growing spirulina in a new batch of solution however struggle with maintaining the culture after harvest. Cannot seem to make a proper nutrient solution mix to maintain an ongoing culture.
One of the hardest nutrients to find to grow spirulina is potassium nitrate. Its highly regulated and requires special permits to buy. I typically buy it on ebay in small quantities. I’ve read that UREA or even urine may be substituted instead of potassium nitrate as part of the nutrient replenishment solution after harvest. Apparently if using UREA it must be done so with caution.
So my two questions are as follows:
1 Does the book explain how to use urea as part of the nutrient replenishment mix after harvest which may reduce or eliminate the need for potassium nitrate?
2 Does your DIY book explain how to go about finding some of these necessary yet hard to find nutrients/fertilizers or recommend alternative substitutes using household chemicals. For example one fellow on Youtube recommends placing a few nail-spikes in vinegar and use the resulting solution for iron.
Thank you,
Terry
Answer:
Hi Terry,
Thanks for connecting with us. indeed, maintaining the culture after harvest tends to be the difficult part of growing spirulina. Did you make sure the water is warm enough? I know that in Canada this could be a problem. The ideal temperature is around 32 degrees Celsius.
In my book, I explain how to grow spirulina without any chemical nutrients, because personally i find it to be safer and better. This is of course a matter of controversy and taboo because as you mentioned, we replace the potassium nitrate or urea with human urine. While this may seem unhygienic to some, it is in fact far cleaner than any chemical fertilizer you can find on ebay, and all you have to do to keep is clean is maintain a healthy diet.
All other ingredients are either food grade or from natural resources, and can easily be found anywhere in the world.
As for making the iron solution, yes, some people soak rusty nails in vinegar and it works, but I prefer to use Iron drops which i buy in the pharmacy, because its easier to measure and its food grade, just make sure its 100% iron and doesn’t contain any other additives.
Hope this helps :)
Spirulina thrives on a PH level which is above 10.5, so as long as you maintain that level, no other microbes will be able to survive those conditions.
If you suspect that your culture has been contaminated, you can raise the ph to above 11, which will slow down Spirulina’s growth, but will destroy any unwanted organisms while maintaining the spirulina alive.
once you have ensured it is no longer contaminated you can take the ph back down to 10-10.5.
If you suspect that your culture has been contaminated, you can raise the ph to above 11, which will slow down Spirulina’s growth, but will destroy any unwanted organisms while maintaining the spirulina alive.
once you have ensured it is no longer contaminated you can take the ph back down to 10-10.5.
To answer your question, one must look into the environment where spirulina thrives naturally. We are talking about volcanic soda lakes that are rich in minerals and salts, with hardly any organic material.
This creates the high pH which is crucial for spirulina growth, but it also prevents other organisms from growing within the same water.
When cultivating spirulina, we seek to resemble that natural environment as much as possible by adding the same nutrients or their synthetic analogs.
The culture is maintained at around pH10.3, and can be temporarily raised up to 11.5 if contamination is found.
Finally, it is a good practice to wash the spirulina several times right after the harvest, to get rid of excess nutrients and lower the pH so it’s more suited for human consumption.
This creates the high pH which is crucial for spirulina growth, but it also prevents other organisms from growing within the same water.
When cultivating spirulina, we seek to resemble that natural environment as much as possible by adding the same nutrients or their synthetic analogs.
The culture is maintained at around pH10.3, and can be temporarily raised up to 11.5 if contamination is found.
Finally, it is a good practice to wash the spirulina several times right after the harvest, to get rid of excess nutrients and lower the pH so it’s more suited for human consumption.
Although anabaena and spirulina are both classified as cyanobacteria, they are very different from each other. While Anabaena is capable of producing neurotoxins, spirulina is not only edible but also highly nutritious.
It is unfortunate that the lack of basic understanding has brought certain researchers to confuse spirulina with Anabaena and other types of toxic cyanobacteria, because of their visual similarity. The wild samples of spirulina which were found in certain lakes and rivers in Africa and were claimed to be toxic were in fact a mixture of spirulina and a mixture of cyanobacteria such as anabaena and others, creating the assumption that spirulina itself can be toxic for human consumption. This was later found to be a false claim.
Indeed, it is not advisable to consume spirulina from natural sources without first looking at it in under a microscope lense, as there is no other way to identify what species are present in the water.
To avoid such contaminations, spirulina cultivators are advised to maintain high pH, and increase it even more when any other organisms appear in the water.
It is unfortunate that the lack of basic understanding has brought certain researchers to confuse spirulina with Anabaena and other types of toxic cyanobacteria, because of their visual similarity. The wild samples of spirulina which were found in certain lakes and rivers in Africa and were claimed to be toxic were in fact a mixture of spirulina and a mixture of cyanobacteria such as anabaena and others, creating the assumption that spirulina itself can be toxic for human consumption. This was later found to be a false claim.
Indeed, it is not advisable to consume spirulina from natural sources without first looking at it in under a microscope lense, as there is no other way to identify what species are present in the water.
To avoid such contaminations, spirulina cultivators are advised to maintain high pH, and increase it even more when any other organisms appear in the water.
Unfortunately no. Since spirulina is a live cyanobacteria, you need a live mother culture that can grow and multiply as single celled organisms do.
The drying process, whether done naturally under the sun or using an industrial spray drier, kills any living bacteria, including the algae itself.
The drying process, whether done naturally under the sun or using an industrial spray drier, kills any living bacteria, including the algae itself.
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This is useful if you want to save them on multiple devices, such as your phone, computer, and tablet.
After 30 days, the download link will expire. We advise you to download and save the files on multiple device so you can access them again in the future. If you've downloaded it before, a simple search of the book's name on your device will probably do the trick. But don't worry! If you happened to lose your copy you can always write us an email and after a quick verification, we'll be happy to send you another copy.
For a long time, we didn't have the capacity to offer our own set of products for spirulina growers. Instead, we created a catalog of highly recommended products that we found useful for the cultivation of spirulina, and let Amazon do the rest.
We are currently developing our own set of quality nutrients and equipment that we can stand by 100%, so we no longer have to rely on Amazon. Stay tuned!
We are currently developing our own set of quality nutrients and equipment that we can stand by 100%, so we no longer have to rely on Amazon. Stay tuned!
Due to customs regulations and freshness considerations, live algae cultures are only sold in their origin country.
This means that if you want to start growing spirulina you need to find someone in your local area who’s already growing and can supply the starter culture. We try to keep our collection of live spirulina cultures updated.
Browse it to find a supplier near you or try on UTEX (University of Texas).
This means that if you want to start growing spirulina you need to find someone in your local area who’s already growing and can supply the starter culture. We try to keep our collection of live spirulina cultures updated.
Browse it to find a supplier near you or try on UTEX (University of Texas).
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Digital products are available immediately on the "My Account" page.
As for physical products, we will begin processing your order as soon as we receive it. Once we deliver your order to the shipping provider. we will send you a code that you can use to track your shipment status every step of the way. Processing and shipping times may vary depending on the shipping providers, local holidays and unexpected circumstances, but usually take no more than 10 days.
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