I'm Gonna Try To Grow Algae. Crazy Huh?

[TallTree01]

So, I'm thinking of growing algae externally from my tank and when I have some I'll feed it to by bristlensoe Pleco and other fish.
At the moment I'm thinking small box with water, some fish food and daylight will do it.
So, thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[TaurineLittle]

I've heard of a few people trying this, what they did was put a rock or an ornament in the small tank with water and they left it in the sun with a bit of fish food in there. The rock making it easy to take the algae out of the tank and into the tank with your BN pleco, takes out the hassle of scraping the algae off the walls of the tank and making a mess in your BN plecos tank.

 

[TallTree01]

Hmm, that sounds like a better idea . I'll definitely do that too.
I'll set this up tomorrow when I get my hands on another cricket box. The cricket boxes are extremely handy I find always good to have a stack of them laying around but alas, I used my last one to grow an oak tree in.

 

[TaurineLittle]

Haha no worries, first time hearing someone growing an oak tree from a cricket box
Well... I guess I am about to try growing some mandarine tree cuttings in my old Aquastart 430Pro throw a bit of dirt in there and its an instant green house lol

 

[techen]

So, I'm thinking of growing algae externally from my tank and when I have some I'll feed it to by bristlensoe Pleco and other fish.
At the moment I'm thinking small box with water, some fish food and daylight will do it.
So, thoughts? Suggestions?

 
Overall, Sure, Go for it. But as I say, Never let a fish depend on algae alone. Algae wafers are a balance diet and if a pleco was to live on those alone it would be a very happy guy.

 

[TallTree01]

@ techen - I won't, I'll keep him on his wafers as well as his algae rock when it grows.


@ taurine - the oak tree has a few leaves. The sapling in my front yard was dying of cold so I bought the little sprout inside. I had run out of pots so i chucked him in a cricket box with some soil and water. He's grown beautifully. In the spring I'll release him into the wild with all his buddies.

 

[techen]

Mkay, Once you start it's madness

 

[TaurineLittle]

@ taurine - the oak tree has a few leaves. The sapling in my front yard was dying of cold so I bought the little sprout inside. I had run out of pots so i chucked him in a cricket box with some soil and water. He's grown beautifully. In the spring I'll release him into the wild with all his buddies.

 
LOL

 

[TallTree01]

Pet store was out of crickets so algae growing has been delayed, will try a different store tomorrow.

 

[snazy]

Just fill a transparent box with tank water, overdose it with nutritients, put some stones on which the algae to grow and place that on the window sill.

 

[TallTree01]

I got the box today. My camera is being a butt again so I can't take pics but its basically a pair of large rocks in a 800ml cricket box filled with water and with about 50 tropical granules in it. I'll keep y'all updated.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

I'm interested how this will turn out

 

[fluttermoth]

So am I; I've tried it, for my hillsteams, and I just get algae growing on the sides of the box, and never on the rocks 

 

[the_lock_man]

When you said "cricket box", I assumed you meant a cricketer's abdominal guard......

 

[TallTree01]

No.... The boxes in which you buy feeder crickets from silly billy.

No noticeable changes bar the food beginning to break down.