No Algae growing help!

[jacksongirl]

I am doing the experiment "Study the Effect of Fertilizers on Algal Growth"
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p054.shtml
My mom and I followed the directions carefully and even set up 3 trials.
We used Turf Builder granule fertilizer and it seemed like very little (1T per 4 Liters of distilled water-then only using 40ml for the experiment!)
Its day 5 and NOTHING is happening. Our assignment was 10 days but we do have till June 7th so I have time to start over if I need to.
It has not been really sunny or warm in Wyoming either (it is in a room that is warm and in the light, but not SUNNY)
I would love any suggestions. My teacher said I could add some more fertilizer but maybe I used the wrong kind? The experiment did not specify.
thanks!
Tea Drew

[MelissaB]

Hi,

Did the fertilizer completely dissolve in the distilled water? I might suggest using some kind of organic fertilizer than something that comes in granules, which might be set to release over a period of time rather than dissolve completely right away.

It's also possible that the algae is just taking its sweet time to grow, since, as you say, it's not really warm or sunny where you are. Could you purchase a grow lamp for the algae? That might help them grow faster.

If you do decide to start over, I would leave this experiment running and see if you eventually see some difference. If you don't, remember that that's a result too, and that you could then explain it in your discussion by saying that perhaps you used too little/the wrong sort of fertilizer, or that it wasn't sunny enough.

It's hard to know what to tell you, since you are right in that there could be several problems with your experiment. My suggestion is to try again with some organic fertilizer (which is more likely to be able to be taken up by the algae), and a new collection of pond water (since that could also be an issue, though I doubt it). You could also try increasing the amount of fertilizer; I'm honestly not sure whether or not that will make a difference--it depends on whether the algae aren't growing because it isn't sunny or whether they aren't growing because they don't have enough nutrients.

Good luck, and let us know if you have any more questions!

[jacksongirl]

Thanks, yes, my mom bought a grow lamp (it is coming today)
We will try another fertilizer (the one we used did NOT dissolve all the way, we strained it out and actually added some more but that does not seem to have made a difference)
and maybe use more (and document it)
and leave the experiment we have alone, to see if anything comes of it.
Thank you,
Tea Drew

[MelissaB]

Good, it sounds as if you have everything covered. And good for you for staring in advance so that you did have time to repeat the experiment! Here's hoping the algae grow this time around.

[jacksongirl]

Well, my teacher said give it another couple days. She said if I could find results of the experiment or something similar online I could use it
as long as I cited it.
I have looked FOREVER for someones posted results.
Can anyone help.

[MelissaB]

Sorry, but even if we had results (we don't), we couldn't give them out. You need to report YOUR results in your project, which is that there was no difference between any of the treatments because none of the algae grew at all. Although it may not seem like it, you have completed (and, I presume, repeated) a successful experiment. Sometimes in science we don't get the results we want--in fact, it happens all the time. When that happens, we still have to report our results and then try to explain what might have gone wrong or what we didn't control for.

In your case, if you have done a second experiment and are still not seeing anything, it could be that the pond water you took just didn't contain algae. Could you see if there was any algae growing in the pond? What sort of pond--artificial or natural--did you get your water from? That might be your problem.

I would suggest discussing this with your teacher again--tell him/her that you cannot find results online and plan to report your own results. I am not sure why he/she suggested that you look online for results.

[jacksongirl]

this is what she said to my mom:
Laura, don't worry too much, there are no failures, just new questions to
ask:) I think temperature may be a factor. You can certainly add more
fertilizer, just be sure to have Tea document all of her steps. Maybe
putting them under a constant light source would work. I will trust your
and Tea's judgment, again just be sure to document everything you do.
Thanks for being involved-it makes a HUGE difference!!

Laura, keep the experiment going through the weekend and see what happens.
Students are working on graphing their raw data Thursday and Friday. In
theory, Tea could set the graph up in school and then enter the data on
Sunday (hopefully something will have happened by then). If not, my
suggestion is to find a similar experiment online and get their data (with
citation of course). Tea can then compare her data to that of the other
experiment. I hope this helps:)

I guess then I will just guess that the experiment did not work well, as there has not been much sun this time of year in wy (it has been rainy) and
the other experiments that were similar stated they did theres for 75 days! (the one on here says report your data after 10 days but then on the side it says length of experiment weeks to months which I did not see till way later)
The ponds I think are manmade but my mom called our homeowners association and they said they don't put any chemicals in them. There are trout and wildlife living in them. There seems to be algae on the rocks and stuff but its kind of brownish (but is is still kind of cold here in wy.Our spring is in June! )
Thanks for all the advice,
Tea Drew