Use of secondary sewage water as a culture medium for Chaetoceros gracilis and Thalassiosira Sp (Chrysophyceae) in laboratory conditions.

Experiments were carried out in order to test the efficiency of additions of secondary sewage as a culture medium for Chaetoceros gracilis and Thalassiosira sp (Chrysophyceae) under laboratory conditions. These algae were cultivated in sea water with concentrations of 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% of wastewater. The results were compared with those obtained by the nutritive medium f(2) of Guillard (1975). The best results in terms of cellular densities were observed at 40% additions. There were significant differences (significance levels of 5%) between the nutritive medium f(2) and the 40% additions for both the species. Maximum cellular densities observed for all additions tested were, 4,125.00 x 10(3) cells/ml for Chaetoceros gracilis on the ninth day and 834.00 x 10(3) cells/ml for Thalassiosira sp on the fifth day. Biomass was higher in the nutritive medium f(2) than in the other treatments, reaching average values of 2,363 mu g/ml for Chaetoceros gracilis. At all experimental units, the best results were registered at 40% addition for Chaetoceros gracilis, where average values of 0.768 mu g/ml were observed on the fifth day, and at 30% additions for Thalassiosira sp where 0.883 mu g/ml were observed on the thirteenth day. It was concluded that secondary sewage could be used as a culture medium for the species tested here, after large scale tests.