Effect of Salinity Difference on Lipid Content from Chaetoceros muelleri on Continuous Reactors

Abstract

Chaetoceros muelleri is a microalgae class of Bacillariophyta (diatom) which is generally only used as feeds for fishes and shellfish larvae. Nevertheless, the biochemical content of this species is quite high and has the potential to be developed. This research aims to explain the effect of different salinity on the growth and lipid content of Chaetoceros muelleri cultured in a continuous photobioreactor. This research was carried out in August 2018 - February 2019. The research was conducted at the Laboratory of Marine Microbiology and the Laboratory of Bioprocess and Bioprospection of Natural Materials, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, Padjadjaran University. The samples of Chaetoceros muelleri isolates were obtained from the Jepara Brackish Water Aquaculture Center. The methods used for the study was a ‘Completely Randomized Design’ (CRD) with four treatments. The salinity used is 15, 25, 35 and 45 ppt. The main parameters observed were growth and lipid content, while the supporting parameters were temperature, and pH. The results of this study showed that the highest lipid content was a salinity treatment of 35 ppt with a value of 25.37% of total dry weight obtained at the end of the culture. Based on growth, the highest density occurred in 25 ppt salinity with a maximum density of 3.80 ± 0.49 x 106 cells. ml-1 and maximum growth rate of 0.36 ± 0.008 div. day-1