Polycarbonate culture vials were soaked in Decon 90 (Decon Laboratories) for 4 days, rinsed 4 times with 18.2 MΩ resistivity Milli-Q water, soaked in 10% v:v HCl for 7 days, and rinsed a further 5 times with Milli-Q water. Pipette tips used to transfer media, algal culture, and faecal stock to the sample containers were rinsed 5 times
with concentrated HCl, then rinsed 7 times withMilli-Q water.