Hi Jayc, I am from Sunshine Coast, and am happy to share my experience with algae. I am working on a concept which I call algae aquaponics. Algae drives nutrient and energy cycles for my aquaponics.
I have a 1000l ibc which I harvest algae daily, which feeds: 3 by 200l drums (2 honey blue eyes fry, one riffle shrimps) , a 1000l ibc breeder tank for honey blue eyes, 300l glass shrimp container, ibc for red claws, and aquaponics.
Riffles are amazing I throw in 10l of concentrated algae mix daily and it goes clear within 1hr. Glass shrimp breed like crazy with constant algae.
Growing algae is easy, the hard bit is managing boom and bust cycles. Algae is so productive it kills itself with its own success. Below is a summary of how I manage algae:
1) constantly harvest the algae to thin it out;
2) feed it to your shrimp; then collect solids. I have a bioreactor in with shrimps to convert ammonia to nitrates.
3) mineralise the solid waste from the shrimp, converting it to cation/ anion nutrient.
3) return the mineralised nutrients (cations/anions/nitrates) back to the algae.
4) algae/zooplankton goes crazy. Rinse and repeat above process.
It’s a circular economy that keeps on giving.
Im in the process of developing a training course (and eventually a web site) on how to build the systems which I can let people know when finished.
cheers