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Food of the Future: Window DIY Spirulina Superfood

by SpirulinaFan on July 23, 2013 Table of Contents Food of the Future: Window DIY Spirulina Superfood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: Food of the Future: Window DIY Spirulina Superfood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 1: Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 2: Tank Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 3: Hardware Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 4: Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 5: Adding your culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 6: Mark you water level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 7: Cover tank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 8: .................................................................................................................. 1 2 2 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 9

Step 9: Growing Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 10: Repeat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 11: Harvesting Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 12: Harvesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 13: Enjoy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

http://www.instructables.com/id/Food-of-the-Future-Window-DIY-Spirulina-Superfood/

Intro: Food of the Future: Window DIY Spirulina Superfood

Having your own spirulina window farm is one of the easiest most satisfying things you could ever take on. It is an environmentally friendly way to produce and consume a complete protein and nutritional source! Algae Spirulina is 25 times more efficient per squared foot than any other plant, which makes it optimal for indoor growth. Integrating algae into our homes can be one of the most significant things that can impact our nutrition. It is truly the food of the future as it contains all of the amino acids and is a complete protein!

Step 1: Hardware
To grow Spirulina at home you are going to need some hardware to optimize and automize the process. Most of it is readily available at your local pet or fish store. 10-20 Gallon Aquarium Tank Air Pump Heater Air Line Bubble Wand Thermometer Food Grade Harvesting tube Ph Strips Bi Valve Harvesting Cloth The only thing that you will need to get from a specific source is your initial spirulina culture. SpirulinaSystems.com is the most affordable source.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Food-of-the-Future-Window-DIY-Spirulina-Superfood/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Food-of-the-Future-Window-DIY-Spirulina-Superfood/

Step 2: Tank Setup

Find a south facing window for your tank. You can either use a table to place tank, or you can place a piece of wood on the window sill to make a shelf for the tank. Place tank on top. You can also grow spirulina in a greenhouse!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Food-of-the-Future-Window-DIY-Spirulina-Superfood/

Step 3: Hardware Setup

Start by arranging the bubble wand around the wall of the tank. This will aerate the spirulina. Suction cup you heater to the wall of the tank. The clear harvesting tube is also suctioned to the glass of the tank. Now, run your air line to the bivalve: then to the bubble wand and the bottom of the food grade tube.

Step 4: Medium
The growing medium is the water solution that spirulina can grow best in. Since spirulina grows in alkaline environments, you have to make your water alkaline. This can be done by adding 16 grams/liter of sodium bicarbonate to non-chlorinated water along with other nutrients: Ammonium Phosphate, Sea Salt, Potassium Nitrate. The most important of those is of course the sodium bicarbonate that creates an environments that resembles the ash lakes in nature in which spirulina grows. To simplify the process, you can buy these nutrients pre mixed like I did. Again, SpirulinaSystems was pretty affordable. 2.5 Gallons of non-chlorinated water along with 1 of a cup of pre-mixed nutrients is the recommended amount to start the culture.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Food-of-the-Future-Window-DIY-Spirulina-Superfood/

Step 5: Adding your culture

Once your starter powder has dissolved and your water has reached room temperature or higher, you can now add spirulina to the medium. Adding spirulina to cold water can shock it, its like taking a cold shower! Only pour in 3/4 of your bottle so that you may have some in reserve in case anything happens to your first culture!

Step 6: Mark you water level

A simple step to record your water level is to use a book mark. This is used because water naturally evaporates so you need to replace the water that evaporates periodically.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Food-of-the-Future-Window-DIY-Spirulina-Superfood/

Step 7: Cover tank

Adding a glass or plastic cover can decrease the amount of evaporation and help keep in the heat at night. This will also prevent contamition from any airbourne organisms.

Step 8:
At this point you can add Chelated Iron. It completes the nutritional needs of spirulina. Iron deficiencies are noticeable, just as they are in plants. Slight yellow shade is an indicator of iron deficiency.

Step 9: Growing Period

This is where spirulina will begin to use the sun, CO2 from the air and the nutrients you added! Its nice to know that CO2 sequestration helps the environment AND it feeds your spirulina, which will feed you! In a time lapse anywhere between a few weeks and a month, it will begin to get more populated.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Food-of-the-Future-Window-DIY-Spirulina-Superfood/

Step 10: Repeat

Repeat the previous steps to double your culture: Add another 2.5 gallons with Starter and Iron. Do this until your tank is full. If your culture is a good performer you can add 5 gallons at a time! Once your culture is well populated it replicates far quicker. In ideal conditions, it replicates (doubles) every three days! Much faster than most plants and it can do it year round! You can now officially can call yourself a spirulina Farmer! Take a moment to understand the monumental significance of this! Spirulina superfood is being produced in your own home in an environmentally friendly way that does not require transportation, excessive water, and does not create runoff like most commercial plants! A pat in the back is well deserved!

Step 11: Harvesting Safety

You are just a few steps away from easy harvesting. Over the last two years of research and development, I have been eating spirulina with healthy outcomes. To replicate that, you just need to follow simple steps. Spirulina has an advantageous characteristic that allows it to grow in highly alkaline environments, meaning pH levels of 10 and above. This dramatically decreases the chances of foreign organisms growing your culture because they just can't survive in that kind of alkalinity. To safely harvest you simply have to wait for your culture to reach an approximate pH level of 10 using readily available pH strips.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Food-of-the-Future-Window-DIY-Spirulina-Superfood/

Step 12: Harvesting

Once at the safe pH level you can set up your Integrated Harvesting Tube. It is important to only use a material that meets FDA standards because you want to use safe food grade elements in your spirulina farm. I got my kit from Spirulinasystems.com. Once you open the valve leading to the harvesting tube, fluid should begin to rise and flow. You can now tie your harvesting cloth to the end of the tube with a rubber band to catch the spirulina flowing through the tube while letting the clear medium flow back into the tank.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Food-of-the-Future-Window-DIY-Spirulina-Superfood/

Step 13: Enjoy

Related Instructables

Tasty & Easy to make "Green Rice" with Spirulina by homesteadcat

Home-grown Organic Turmeric and Ginger. Cultiver le curcuma et gingembre bio. Crecer la crcuma y el jengibre orgnicos (video) by Pavlovafowl

Make Sweet Potato Slips to Plant Sweet Potato (video) by LetmeLearn

Home-grown Sweet Potato organic Part 3 - Reveal. turmeric & Organic homeginger update. grown in Curcuma/gingembre containers, Nos bio, ca pousse! patates douces Curcuma y bio en jengibre Normandie organicos 2 (video) by races y nuevos Pavlovafowl brotes (video) by Pavlovafowl

DIY Modern Animal Masks (video) by Meg Allan Cole

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Comments
3 comments

Add Comment
Jul 24, 2013. 3:32 PM REPLY

Kiteman says:
What, you just eat it raw and unprocessed?

SpirulinaFan says:
Yes, exactly. Live! The Aztecs used to make fresh spirulina cakes from local lakes.

Jul 24, 2013. 3:59 PM REPLY

Drying destroys much of the essence. Live spirulina also tastes nothing like powder spirulina. People say it has a fishy taste when you eat processed. That is because the cell wall has been ruptured. Cost is another benefit of growing it yourself. Average cost of powder spirulina is 30-40 dollars a pound. I have been able to grow it live for about 2.5 dollars a pound.

SpirulinaFan says:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spirulinasystems/food-of-the-future-home-grown-spirulina-superfood Just another link with resources.

Jul 24, 2013. 3:55 PM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Food-of-the-Future-Window-DIY-Spirulina-Superfood/