I was able to use method suggested here https://ashishware.com/2022/02/12/diatomfoldscope/ to separate diatoms from sample. Used laundry bleach to oxidize sample. Had trouble with mounting medium (Pleurax). Will try mounting with acrylic based adhesive tomorrow.

Closterium in its full glory seen through a foldscope. I had heated the sample, which I believe made the lines on this thing come out.

More fresh water diatoms observed using Foldscope. Waiting for some equipment to be delivered before I try lab like methods for extracting these things. So far it has been challenge to a nice clean slide only containing diatoms.

Found something interesting when looking for diatoms in pond water using Foldscope . Not sure what this is but certainly is broken.

I tried to create a kind of centrifuge using a thread and dropper to separate diatoms from pond water sample 😅😅 Working on perfecting the method.I would say results are inconclusive so far !!

Staining vs no staining results seen through a foldscope. Tincture Iodine is easily available in most medicine shops !!

Need help identifying these from fresh water sample !! @

Using a stain can make huge difference !! Algae sample stained using Tincture Iodine and observed through a Foldscope. Chloroplasts are clearly visible along with cell walls.

Diatoms and various types of algae seen in drop of water from a farm. Looks like I can easily spend a year exploring half a cup of water sample with a foldscope.

Any help in identifying different species will be highly appreciated

Looks like a diatom. This was observed using Foldscope in water sample from farm.