Freeze-dried algae

For one experiment, different freeze-dried algae species were used to determine a potential difference in the growth rate of oysters based on the diet. Vincent, who is responsible for this experiment, noticed in the past that the batches of freeze-dried algae he used, sometimes had issues. Clumping of the algae occurred instead of a clear suspension and this could be a major reason of failure for the experiment, as clumped algae can impede the uptake by the oysters. So he bought new batches and asked me to compare the amount of cells in each batch and the suspension. I made dilution series of all the different batches, checked them with a microscope to make pictures of the suspension, learned how to work with a flow cytometer to count all the cells of samples in triplicate and did a manual check by counting the cells with a Bürker chamber (microscopy).