Water was collected in front of the Pyramid Lake Fisheries Research Station in Sutcliffe. A portion was filtered through 0.1 µm filters, while some was left unfiltered.

Nodularia spumigena was filtered from 500 mL of water collected from a fishery pond that had an active phytoplankton bloom. Nucleation experiments were performed by adding CaCl₂ solutions to Pyramid Lake waters until whitings were visually observed. Three conditions were studied:

• 1) Filtered Pyramid Lake water
• 2) Unfiltered Pyramid Lake water
• 3) Filtered Pyramid Lake water (100 mL, with phytoplankton from 500 mL of pond water added).