Culture conditions can vary widely—from outdoor
ponds or raceways with nutrients added to promote a
bloom of the natural microalgae, to monocultures reared
indoors under controlled environmental conditions. This
paper focuses on the monoculture of microalgae under
clearly defined environmental conditions and production
protocols.
Microalgal culture facilities typically use seawater
enriched with nutrients—primarily nitrates, phosphates,
essential trace elements, vitamins, and, in the case of dia
-
toms, silicates. Water used to culture microalgae should
have similar chemical composition to that used to culture
the animals, and it should be pretreated. Some laborato
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ries use synthetic seawater for small-scale cultures, but
it is prohibitively expensive for large-scale production in
commercial hatcheries