spiritrancho Hatfield

I forgot beverages:  beer 100% from purchased barley, teas 25% from homegrown herbs.  We drink lots of our good well water 100%
also forgot medicinals:  herbal extracts and tonics 25% homegrown home brewed from purchased another 25%,  50% of treatments are purchased prepared.
spices:  garlic 100%, onions 50%, mint 100%. fennel 100%, basil 100%, salad dressings 90%

meat:  We raise and butcher, eat fresh, freeze, or can.  About 95%
eggs and poultry:  100%
butter and cheese:  100% we both have teeth and do not drink milk
veggies:  about 40% counting sprouts
fruit:  drought and well pump problems took half our orchard so only 30% now
grains: we make all our bread and pastry. do not have land or water to grow any,  0% 
seafood:  our aquaponic fish farm is not productive yet so 0%
feed and fodder:  counting cottage cheese from whey, weeds, thinings, waste etc 50%
electrical power:  80%  still have a wind genny left to install
transportation fuel:  biodiesel from WVO = 90%
heating fuel:  wood 60%,  biodiesel 40%
cooking fuel: solar oven 20%, wood stove top 10%.  Plan to build biogas digester

After months of working with the spirulina, I am satisfied that I can do it if I have to.  However It is a takes more time and effort and more power than it is worth.  i CAN BUY POWDERED SPIRULINA FOR ABOUT $20 PER POUND.  The intension was to provide high power supplement to our diet to make up for degraded foods with questionable supply.  We cant seem to grow enough high quality food, to supply all our needs.
The solution is to sprout seeds.  All of the vitamins minerals protien and energy are there as in algae, and it can be eaten in a variaty of ways.  The only power is that to drive a timer and solinod valve.  The time and labor consists of daily havesting a tray and reseed, less than 5 min. The equipment cost me less than $50 using mostly materials at hand.  A guide to build an automatic sprouter is found at www.greensmoothie.com.  Sprouting seeds are widely availble and can be stored for years.  I am sprouting and eating home grown peas, beans and grains.
I am consuming them in smoothies, salads, soups, and sandwiches.  The automatic feature prevents mold or seed failing to sprout because to dry as was common with other methods.
I still have the set up for spiulina and in the event of a total breakdown of the food chain can activate it, for survival. 

Hey goatguy
When I was on Kodiak years ago they couldnt keep the bears out of the dump.  Noone dared keep compost or raise goats.  That would be bear bait.

Some grid tie invertors do not require batteries.  They take power direct from the P.V. panels and invert it and feed the load and/or grid.  More efficient than battery based systems, largely because the grid is never fully charged up, restricting output from solar.  With a battery based system you could divert power to heat water or make hydrogen to utilize solar when battry is charged.

Like many laws on the books there is little power to enforce water catchment restrictions.  The counties, states and cities are broke and laying off law enforcement officers.  Unless a complaint is registered look for no action.  Even then inspectors may not cite you for violation.  Zoning laws, building permits and health laws may be enforced. 
My nieghbor has decided  that my activities make her ill and has called in every county and state enforcement agency she could l think of.  She even went so far as to try to buy unpasturized butter from us.  Her complaints were regarding odor and flies from animals, biodiesel making, compost pile spoiling her air, and wind generator noise.  The inspection by three different agencies resulted in only one citation.  That was my wind generators had no permit, which was not required 10 years ago when installed but now is.  Cost me $107 and a visit by a building inspector lasting 10 min.  They examined my composting system, grey water system, water catchment, well and water storage, wind generators, animal pens, biodiesel production facility and storage.  They all ignored the aquaponic systems, pond, solar systems, and large diesel generator and humanure. 

I could not afford to buy 25 micron filter media so I went to walmart fabric dpt. and found curtain shear material so dense that I could not see my hand thru it.  A yard of that and a yard of some less dense cost less than $6.00 and filtered my spirulina very well.  For the first filter I used standard cheese cloth.  I filtered the whole batch (6 gal) at a sieche of 4 cm and got about 3 tablespoons of nice algae.  Concept prooved so next will build up to 5 gal and 2 cm for a standard harvest.
Putting the aquarium heater in a jar of water in the aqurium of algae causes far less clumping than directly in the culture.  That got me thinking.  I have read about using cool flourecent light inside of a PPR so I put a cool compact flourecent in a heavy jar in the aquarium.  Only problem is the jar tends to float and turn over so required extra wieght to keep it down.  The result is much faster growth than the blue red L.E.D. lamps I was using.  I still keep the light on a 14 hour timer, during daylight.
Thanks again for your guidance Daerk

I have kept back 1/4 of my solution so will just add the 8 oz. of culture to it when it arrives.  Meanwhile I will add fresh water and nutrients to keep going.  I have put the milk contaminated spirulina on lettuce but cant detect the results yet. 
The instructions for my F2 nutrient says to add 1 ml per 2.5 liters of water.  That is what I do to feed the existing stock.  I add double that when adding fresh water to increase the batch size.  Does that seem correct to you, Daerk?  I also add 0.2g sea salt and 0.5 g montromorillianite clay per 2.5 liter of fresh water.  Any other supplements required or suggested?

Thanks Daerk.
Yesterday I seperated cream and followed with 4 gal on spirulina solution.  I ran it thru twice and got very little increase in density.  Utter failure.  Now that solution is contaminated with milk solids, but have been running it for 6 months.  You taught me that it needs refreshing with new culture.  So I ordered some.
I have tried 50 mc bags singly and captured very little green.  I will follow your three layer tip down to 25 mc.  After passing thru the filters do you add fresh nutrients and reuse that solution or dump it and add fresh water and nutrients?  As to the heat, should I put the heater in a jar of water and indirectly heat the solution, in hopes of avoiding algae kill?  Air temps here often drop 30 deg. F at night.

The spirulina I started growing came from Wards Scientific.  It originally clumped together and was easy to harvest with a fish net.  Now it will only stain a 50 micron strainer, even tho it is dense ( sieche 1-2).  I keep the solution above PH 9.5 to insure it is not cross contaminated. 
I regularly use a cream seperator for goat's milk, making cream for butter.  Has anyone experimented using a cream seperator for harvesting algae.  Seperators from the urikrane are listed on ebay for as low as $72, $35 shipping.