Algae farms should produce algae instead of consuming it

[Xarian]

To me it seems fairly straightforward - algae farms should let you grow algae.

Alternately, perhaps you could let algae grow in water similar to germs, and give us a building that lets us filter algae out of the water. Both seem fairly realistic/reasonable.

[zergologist]

yea, that sounds great. Being able to grow algae without having to get it from mining or algae distillery would be a really great thing. Just think of it! There being like an algae propagator that dupes would put algae and water in and get algae. Algae terrariums should keep their algae level stable. That would be great!

[Evaris]

Just as my thoughts and suggestions on the matter;

Perhaps for balance, you'd have to keep it both lit and within a narrow set of temperatures to keep the algae dying off, say 15-30*C, and require taking in CO2, for game balance.  

Perhaps have it a 2x4 wide (or wider) tile building with a water pump going in and a polluted water line going out.  

Maybe it would take 3-5 of them to run one oxidizer, or be 1:1 to run a terrarium or something?  I'm not sure how the output balance would be.  

Of course this, and algae terrariums with output, it would change some of the early-mid game challenge from algae shortage -> oxygen shortage -> electrolyzer -> heat management
to 
Algae shortage -> algae grower -> terrarium farms -> What do I do with all this polluted water?  (early game)  There would be still some heat problems, with the 40*C output for both sieves and deoxidizers, but it would be more gradual.  

I suppose also, if you did need to keep these things lit up, they would have two downsides to electrolyzers, they would be obviously way more space intensive for the same amount of oxygen, and they would have, in tandem with terrariums and deoxydizers, pros and cons:

Pros: Less heat, less net water use
Cons: Size, power use, early game polluted water

Maybe have them unlocked at the same point as hydroponics?  

[zergologist]

6 hours ago, Evaris said:

Maybe have them unlocked at the same point as hydroponics?  

Hydroponics, a great idea, except, what about plants (like balm lily or dusk caps (I know these are mushrooms but still) or pincha pepperplants, the literal upside down plant?) Sure, it might be cool in theory, but in reality, hydroponic plants have to be checked every once in a while to make sure the food or plant growing doesn't grow to big for its container or that the roots don't rot. Like srsly, maybe Hydroponic growth tiles could be used for a select few plants, and sleet wheat is almost out of the picture (it has a max temp of 41 f or 5 c) so the only feasible plants for hydroponics would be algae (obvious, and as a plus, it's often found growing on roots of hydroponic plants) Mealwood (Tbh, how reliable is mealwood late game?) bristle blossoms (great option!) and Thimle reed (It's a reed that grows in water. Why wouldn't it?) Maybe hydoponics would remove the need for fertilizer (it needs fertilizing by fertilizer every once in a while, has a trade off of making plants grow quicker, and needs a water change every time a plant is harvested or something like that) Maybe hydroponics could be useful for irrigation hungry plants (pincha peppers would be good if it wasn't upside down) and sleet wheat would work only if water had a lower freezing point (it's just to cold and is wheat ever grown in  hydroponics?) Just generally, mealwood is plausible but is kinda useless late game, bristle blossoms are a prime candidate and maybe not even need fertilizer, thimble reed is useless when you've made enough exosuits and when you've made textiles for all your dupes (i see an opportune chance of klei making a really comfy bed using plastic or refined metal (steel?) and like idk, 4 reed fiber? would it make a really comfy bed that relives a bunch of stress when slept upon?) and pincha peppers are upside down and sleet wheat is too cold. Algae. Another perfect candidate. It easily grows in water. The problem is getting it out. Also, maybe algae could be used to turn fertilizer into fuel (natural gas or petroleum) by putting it in a super speaker that dupes controlling would put headphones on. The speaker would break down the algae into polluted water, and also maybe output crude oil or petroleum, as biofuels made from algae are made from lipids (oil or fat) that may be a mixture of fats and oils that might be in algae, maybe crude oil could be produced from breaking the cell walls of the algae and releasing the oils. Just saying, Algae could be powerful when used correctly.

[Yunru]

9 hours ago, zergologist said:

Hydroponics

You are aware Hydroponics is already an implemented thing, right?

[zergologist]

The farm tiles? I thought the farm tiles that could have water delivered weren't ones that grew with water. It takes in water for the plants, not grows the plants in water. There's a difference there. Even on the sprite you can see dirt!

[Evaris]

On 6/29/2018 at 4:58 PM, zergologist said:

The farm tiles? I thought the farm tiles that could have water delivered weren't ones that grew with water. It takes in water for the plants, not grows the plants in water. There's a difference there. Even on the sprite you can see dirt!

I'm aware it shows dirt, but it's dirt surrounded by water, and, I mean, It's called "hydroponic farm" soooo yeah.  https://oxygennotincluded.gamepedia.com/Hydroponic_Farm

As such, I see no reason why we'd not have algae either in the "agriculture" tech, or in a directly following tech called "advanced hydroponics" or something.