Past work has demonstrated that carbohydrate storage and mobilization is important for the uptake of nutrients across diel light/dark cycles in suspended algal cultures and communities. Specifically, exposure to lit, nutrient limited conditions can induce the storage of biopolymers which can then be leveraged under dark conditions to support nutrient uptake and continued metabolic activity. To determine whether the microbial community had the capacity to balance metabolic activity under the more rapid light/dark cycling observed across EcoRecover unit operations, batch experiments were conducted on-site under mix tank (dark) and PBR (illuminated) conditions in May 2022 (prior to examining the extant, full-scale carbon and nutrient dynamics). In the simulated PBR (performed with EcoRecover mix tank effluent), the initial orthophosphate of 0.383 ± 0.015 mg-P•L -1 was removed within 40 min (Figure ) and the initial ammonium concentration of 36 ± 4 mg-N•L -1 was reduced to 5.24 ± 0.13 mg-N•L -1 over 360 min (Figure ). As expected, phosphorus limitation and the availability of light in the simulated PBR resulted in carbohydrate storage and an increase in the carbohydrate:protein ratio of solids (Figure ). Consistent with this observation, the solids C:N and C:P mass ratios increased (SI Figures and, respectively) and PBR solids concentrations increased (from a VSS of 470 ± 40 to 700 ± 20 mg•L -1 over 360 minutes; Figure ). This photosynthetic fixation of inorganic carbon also resulted in oxygen production, with a significant increase in DO over time (SI Figure ). In the simulated mix tank (performed with simulated PBR culture mixed with EcoRecover influent), the initial orthophosphate of 0.337 ± 0.012 mg-P•L -1 was removed within 120 min (Figure ) and the initial ammonium concentration of 14 ± 2 mg-N•L -1 was reduced to 8.90 ± 0.01 mg-N•L -1 over the course of 240 min (Figure ). The dark conditions in the simulated mix tank resulted in carbohydrate mobilization, which was observed as a decrease in solids carbohydrate:protein (Figure ), C:N (Figure ), and C:P (Figure ) mass ratios over time accompanied by the consumption of DO (Figure ). Although storage carbohydrates were consumed, a net change in VSS was not observed in the mix tank (two-sample t-test, two-tailed, p = 0.876; Figure ).