Algae!

[Spinal]

So.. strangely enough, I am trying to culture algae. The other day, while diving I found some water-fleas (daphnia). I tried feeding them to the fish, and guess what. My killies went absolutely wild! They loved them! After figuring out what they were, the other fish decided they loved them (so much so that the day after I divided grindal and water-fleas and most of the fish ignored the grindal!).

Now, I've decided to start culturing water fleas; but I need to figure out a way to get algae to feed them. I need LOTS of algae. I was thinking of scraping some of the green dust algae off the inside of my tank, putting them in bottles of dechlor water and TONS of ferts. And leaving these out in the sun. Do you think that this will work, or will I need to put these under brighter light? (remember, I live in the UK, sunlight is dim at best )

I'm planning to feed the daphnia cultured algae and bascteria. I was planning to get the bacteria from dry dung.

Ideas? Comments?

Michele

 

[Teelie]

You could set them up under a set of double light strips. That always seems to bring the algae out for me.

 

[Gill]

So.. strangely enough, I am trying to culture algae. The other day, while diving I found some water-fleas (daphnia). I tried feeding them to the fish, and guess what. My killies went absolutely wild! They loved them! After figuring out what they were, the other fish decided they loved them (so much so that the day after I divided grindal and water-fleas and most of the fish ignored the grindal!).

Now, I've decided to start culturing water fleas; but I need to figure out a way to get algae to feed them. I need LOTS of algae. I was thinking of scraping some of the green dust algae off the inside of my tank, putting them in bottles of dechlor water and TONS of ferts. And leaving these out in the sun. Do you think that this will work, or will I need to put these under brighter light? (remember, I live in the UK, sunlight is dim at best )

I'm planning to feed the daphnia cultured algae and bascteria. I was planning to get the bacteria from dry dung.

Ideas? Comments?

Michele

I had the same problem, Did not want to keep buying packets of Daphnia. So I ordered a Large Box of them from Ebay.

then Dumped them all in a Spare tank i had. Added Loads of exta plants and left it alone in the garden in full sun. added a few apple snails to the tank.
Never added any water to it, just let the rain fill it up.
Added some bog wood after a week or so. the water turned green pretty quickly and has stayed green.

Hey Presto
Daphnia Culture thats been goinf for 3 months now. it also has plenty of bloodworm in it now and mayfly larvae.

Moved it into the Veranda as its pretty cold outside now, and did not want a frost to kill them off.

 

[CBBP]

buy a pack of plant Tabbs..
dum all 50 in..
add 3 WPG
0_o gave me green water.

 

[Spinal]

LOL... seems like most people see green water as a pest

I think I'm going to tackle this from multiple angles. I will put a few bottles on the sides of my tanks where some of the T5's leak light. I then have several rubbish bins full of mosqito larvae in the garden (used them during the hozepipe ban) which I will add some daphnia to. I also plan to shove some in the spare tank I keep in the shed (which I use to dump all my plant cuttings... if a half dead/rotten piece of plant recoveres in those conditions, it deserves to go back to the tanks ).

I'm also experimenting with several "alternative" feeding methods... I've heard of yeast, so I will try that (sill have tons from my pre-pressurised days). Also, I have some friends in bioeng in Imperial (the college i graduated from); I'm sure they will be able to submit some ideas... they seem pretty big on little creepy things...

I'll make sure to keep everyone informed

Michele

 

[Liam]

If you have a garden, a small wildlife pond will yield a lot from spring until well after the first frosts. Lots of other critters grow in the pond also, the water woodlice are much loved by the fish too. I have about 50 small fish and I get more than I can use from late February/ March to December, form the frog pond. They survive the winter but the numbers are pretty small so I don’t take them out often. They don’t like too much heat and in mid summer there are usually more mosquito larvae than daphnia. Yeah they will eat yeast. I also keep an old bin close to the house where its not too cold and the daphnia keep going through the winter though not much, a net full a week or so. I just throw in leaves, the old fish water, muck from the filter, enough to grow the microorganisms without over polluting the water.