Growing algae

[limpport]

So in physics, we are working on an alternative energy project, and I'm doing something around making bio diesel from algae. I'm going to be growing some in the classroom, but I need to know a good ratio between algae and fertilizer. I'm pretty sure that too much will kill it. I have everything else that I need, including a CO2 bubbler set up (yay for making alcohol in high school!).

So my question is: How much fertilizer would be good to grow algae (and not kill it)? I don't remember exactly what variety the algae is, but it should be coming in tomorrow, and I'll update.

(And I did scour the internet for anything without success. The best I found was along the lines "100 ppm of nitrates will kill the fishies, lol")

[Kurt_]

Read the instructions, then triple it. I worked at a garden center all last summer (in the pond section, specifically), and I can tell you I dumped entire cans of fertilizer (literally) into 100 gallon tubs (The bottles were rated for 10,000L I think) to no ill effect. The plants grew like made with the sun. That's another important part of it, more than anything, do it outside. Bright indoor sun is still far inferior to outdoor sunlight.

[vskid]

There are several instructables about what you're doing (such as these ones), try asking one of those authors.

[DK]

The fertilizer shouldn't poison the algae, it would be the low relative volume of oxygen containing water that would kill it. For part of your experiment, how about taking samples of your algae and growing it in different concentrations of fertilizer, then after time has passed check the dry volume of algae to see the optimum concentration. Done stuff like this in my Marine Biology course while studying eutriphication.