Growth performance of Spirulina maxima in organic-carbon pretreated seawater

Abstract

Spirulina sp. needs higher amount of carbonic salt to grow, in addition, S. maxima, a saline species also requires NaCl. The possibility of growing S. maxima in seawater was studied in organic-carbon pretreated seawater instead of using carbonic salts (Na2CO3 and NaHCO3). S. maxima culture was grown in different salinity regimes (A, B and C; 20, 30 and 40 psu, respectively), and each group had three categories of nutrients concentrations as low, moderate and high (A1, A2 and A3) which was same as for B and C groups. S. maxima was grown in A B and C culture conditions and in SOT medium as a control group for 16 days. Finally, the maximum specific growth rate (μmax), biomass production, phycocyanin and chlorophyll a content were compared among all groups. The μmax was higher in C, followed by B and A group with the highest (0.46 d-1) in C1, and the μmax in A group was similar with that of μmax of SOT while the μmax of B and C group was higher than that of SOT. The highest biomass production was 1.91 g L-1 in A3 of A group which was close to the biomass production of SOT medium. In B group, the highest biomass production was 2.44 g L-1 in B3 followed by B1, which was higher than that of the biomass production of SOT. The biomass production in all three categories of C group was higher than that of the biomass production in SOT, A an