success growing Spirulina, chlorella etc?

Has anyone had any luck or success stories growing spirulina or chlorella ect ?
Been looking at setting up a tank system here in Australia but a starter culture from CSIRO is $240 for 250ml , wondering if anyone has been doing it for any extent of time

I've been to visit the Earthrise farm in Calipatria, California. Quite a big operation, each pond is several hectares. Didn't quite get hooked on it though.

OK !!! .. well given this post sufficient time for reply , TY John for your post , we have one registered for production in NT that i know of (http://www.australianspirulina.com.au/), and not going to throw $500 at something that i can see being common practice... which is a little disheartening , so i'll take it upon myself to be the pioneer as to which i will set myself several tasks and report back to you all
Firstly ,
a) make a small scale setup
b) capture a wild specimen
c) cultivate it
d) examine the purity of the sample
e) re-cultivate it

Secondly
after having the species identified professionally , try experiments on uses
a) seeing if able to produce livestock feed
b) an addition to our diet (providing "a)" works out)

since i have all the gear and ability to do the first step now without expense seems silly not to give it a go... nothing to loose and everything to gain ...."the game is afoot"

Peace and Love Dave oxoxox

I don't know about chlorella, but I've done quite a bit of research on spirulina. Pure cultures of spirulina are readily available online. Spirulina can handle very high ph, higher than what most other algae can handle, so to maintain a pure culture you just need to maintain a high ph, around 10 I think. I've been unable to find the specific nutrient ratio that spirulina needs, but there are prepared fertilizers available for the production of spirulina. Don't take this information as fact, this is what I remember right now off the top of my head, but tons of info is available online, just google "grow spirulina at home". From what I've read it is not very hard at all.

Jeff Sayler wrote:Pure cultures of spirulina are readily available online.

That seems to hold true on every continent other than Australia I have done extensive searches on aquaponics, aquaculture, pet-fish trade forum sites ect , All say to get it from CSIRO ($240 for 250ml) and kinda pricey for pond slime lol , would be happy to pay $20-40 for it, simply for the fact it's a live culture and likely not to be 100% successful first time around, and cant see that value since it doubles it's weight every day in the right conditions, seems like a licence to print money....

David Williams wrote:

Jeff Sayler wrote:Pure cultures of spirulina are readily available online.

That seems to hold true on every continent other than Australia I have done extensive searches on aquaponics, aquaculture, pet-fish trade forum sites ect , All say to get it from CSIRO ($240 for 250ml) and kinda pricey for pond slime lol , would be happy to pay $20-40 for it, simply for the fact it's a live culture and likely not to be 100% successful first time around, and cant see that value since it doubles it's weight every day in the right conditions, seems like a licence to print money....

Looks like you've got an awesome business opportunity there. Spirulina is very popular here, and if it isn't in Australia it's bound to be soon. Seems like you could make your money back super fast if you spent that $240 and started selling cultures for $40-50. Especially if nobody else is doing it there yet.

I'd have to check it out maybe there is a reason why they are the only sellers , maybe they own the species sold here ?!? and would have to sign a waver , not sure , CSIRO invented/own BlueTooth patent... they kinda invest heavily into research and patents , hence why i was looking at capturing a wild strain as it would have different genetic markers (not patent breach) AND in Ph10 salt water with iron ect , not much else would grow there, i'm 450km from the sea but have some creeks around , anything that's NOT PH 10 stable will just die off so thinking of getting a few algal samples , micro-scoping them to see they look "like" what i need and starting a culture that way.... Won't be out of my way as they are near my usual driving routes.... If I find nothing then I might consider buying it in or just as easily spend $240 on spirulina tab's would be more economical if that's the case , just thought there may have been more people doing it in my state considering the amount of people doing it in other countries... as you say it's popular elsewhere

webpage
Seems as tho there's is imported

And being a blue-green algae i'm not going to "Taste test" any of it with this many Species so my pleco's can wait for now

Great thread, just what I was loking for. If you already have or know someone who has live spirulina and would be so kind to share, could you please rely? I'm asking for health reasons. Already got aquarium, nutrients and iron solution. Look forward to your reply. I pay all expenses, you got nothing to lose.

Please be very very careful if attempting to start 'Spirulina' from wild isolates of cyanobacteria.
The edible 'Spirulina' is actually a member of the 'Arthrospira' genus (group) of cyanobacteria, which are superficially similar to the 'true' 'Spirulina', but which are not actually closely related.
Some cyanobacteria produce toxins, and this is a big issue in Australia.
$250 for a starter culture is not unreasonable, given the costs of production for pure cultures. As you note, it will grow up quickly, and if you are careful, you could save some of the initial culture in case your launch fails.

I got the spirulina culture from the place in Texas. I did not have enough window light in our north Idaho winter so I lost the batch. Probably should have gotten a light.

Hi Paul here,
I live in Qld Australia,  & I also want to grow my own Spirulina
As like the other people...it does not seem to be available here....?
if someone who aleready grows some here in Australia
Would like to contact me....So I can buy some of them
it would be much appreciated...