Hello Pio forum! First time user trying to gauge community knowledge.
I am trying to use the Pioreactors to do long running ALE experiments where bacteria are grown in the vials to a target OD, followed by draining the vials with as much culture as possible and refilling with fresh media with increasing concentrations of a stressor chemical. I’ve poked around the docs/forums and I think what I am looking for is a way to run the chemostat setting with a dosing automation where the media exchange happens at a target biomass reading and exchanges a set volume (first to waste and then refill). Seems similar to what was discussed in this post too.
Has anyone done this type of experiment with Pioreactors before?
Have done it before without target biomass by simply setting the exchange volume of the chemostat to be equal to the total vial volume and change every 48 days or similar. essentially what you are describing is a turbidostat with bigger doses in between to get proper growth curves. Rather than running using chemostat, why not turbidostat? and set the target biomass you want. then set the exchange volume to much higher than standard for turbidostat. I would suggest changing the check frequency on the turbidostat so it does not check during this bigger dilution event and trigger more dosing.
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If vial volume is 30mL but the efflux tube is not at the very bottom of the vial, how would the exchange work? To save on liquid, I would want to design it where it drains first and then adds the exchange volume
I see you are using the bigger pioreactors. Then what I suggest would likely not work optimally for you. In that case your initial intention of using something similar to what was posted in the link is more likely to work.