Algae progress

It's been a busy week, with all kinds of family stuff going on and home remodeling getting done.  I'm also looking to start a career as a trucker.  Once I'm on the road and settled into the routine, I hope to be able to return to working on my master's degree in biological chemistry.  I actually barely passed chemistry in college, but it's really the biggest part of farming.  Understanding all the processes that are involved in the transitions between different forms of nitrogen in the soil is what farming is all about.  It's also a big part of raising livestock. 

So, I'm pretty sure that the soda ash which I acquired from a pool supply store has something which is limiting the growth of the spirulina.  It lists a 2% impurity, but that could be anything, including some pretty caustic residues from manufacturing.  Regardless, the algae is growing, but also dying off and clumping up pretty bad. 

Baking soda can take water to a pH of approximately 8.3.  Balancing different alkalinity sources may be key to producing a perfect solution with minimal inputs. I may try a solution using ammonia (11) to raise the pH, but it's doubtful that it would be successful since it's known that ammonia reduces populations.  Still, it may be more successful then the caustic soda that we're currently using.  Balancing the pH is arguably the most important part of successfully cultivating algae.  Also, I'm wondering if I might be able to use a solution of baking soda to calibrate my pH meter, since it didn't come with a calibration solution.  It's approximately correct, but accuracy is important.

Also, the live filter buckets (2.0) are almost ready for a test run.  So exciting to see an idea come to fruition.  A successful test doesn't always result in the expected outcome because often the most learning and discovery comes from failed experiments.

So much cleaning and organizing to do.