For the entire weekend, I could not stop worrying about the algae. I could not keep the fan on, so I was afraid that the algae would be overheated. What if a bottle tipped over and knocked down several other bottles with it? I ran in this morning, flung the aluminum foil aside, and...breathed out in relief. The algae were doing fine, and they were much greener than they were last Friday. I had tried installing an air pump and airstones, but half of the airlines did not work. The ones that did produced very inconsistent bubbles. It would only take away from the control of my experiment, so I decided to circulate the algae by shaking the bottles a few times every day. I am also randomizing the bottles by switching their positions so that they would receive equal amounts of UV light.
I worked on my presentation and paper in the library in the afternoon. At around 4:00, I transferred 20 mL of each solution into their corresponding plastic containers and took them all to Parsons with Julie. We again measured the chlorophyll concentrations in the fluorometer. This time they were significantly higher - on the order of 10-17 fluorescent units. However, I am concerned that the results displayed too much variety. Also, all four bottles in the third set of the triplicate exhibited consistently low chlorophyll levels. My theory is that I happened to place all of the bottles of the third set towards the sides of the tank over the weekend, so they may have received less light. I hope that I will see some distinct growth curves by Wednesday.
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