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Intentionally growing Algae

Barbara Turner

Barbara Turner

Member
Joined
10 Mar 2018
Messages
469
Location
Aylesbury
Hi All
I've got a nano tank that currently got a colony of daphnia for feed my main tank.
I started feeding them with yeast but this leaves a horrible white residue.
With the tank full of daphnia water changes are almost impossible without halving the population..
I was looking at feeding them on Algae.

I put some nettles in the blender and put them in a bottle on the windowsill it's a horrible black colour.
Will this really go green? Have I added way too many nettles?
Does it need a bubbler?
Do I need to seed it with water out my tank?
Will adding anything from my EI starter kit help?


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I would just dose the nano tank with full EI and give it lots of light, sunlight if possible and you will have plenty of algae in no time.
 
Barbara Turner said:
Does it need a bubbler?
Click to expand...

A bubbler can be used to create a little water movement.. But no airstone, because than the daphnia get trapped in the small bubbles start to float and die.
Than put only the hose in without an airstone and don't make it bubble to hard. :)

It's not easy to make a Daphnia population not crash at one time, it can happen at any time even outdoors if you don't attend to it. I had them outdoor in the sun in a wooden barrel over 150 litres of water with plants, leaflitter in it and everything. At one time the population explodes like mad and than if not fed enough i guess it crashes again. You need to find a proper food source to keep it going.. Not giving it attention you are always at risk of a crash. Not so long ago i saw a youtube video on it and the guy adviced and swore by feeding them oatmeals and flowers instead of yeast.

Personaly i never tried.. I'm still in the middle of booming and crashing.. Still to lazy to figur it out.. :rolleyes:
 
The whole tank started smelling of dog poo. so got washed out.
At a cost of a £1 for another bag of daphnia, it's not the end of the world. Just means that the fish are living on flake for a while.

I read somewhere that spirulina was meant to be a good food I'm just to tight to spend a £5 on some algae.
 
If you have an outdoor spot than place a small tank or a bucket in the sun.. Add a little milk is enough to jump start it, or some dried pig blood or chicken manure pellets.. It wont take long before the water gets green if it gets sun. Than feed your indoor Daphnia with this green water. Could work, just no idea how much and how often.
Also could drop a bag of life Daphnia in the outdoor bucket, as long as the water is green they feed and reproduce like mad, at one point it clears, than all is eaten and wont take that long to crash after that. And in the sun it can get to hot for them too.. Too cold never is a problem, they reproduce less when it's cold, but to hot definitively kills them. :)
 
zozo said:
Add a little milk is enough to jump start it, or some dried pig blood or chicken manure pellets.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Zozo for the tip. I've got an empty bucket so I'll set it up tonight, I'm doing a big water change anyway so I'll use the water out the tank.
At least I know it's chlorine free. I don't have any dried pig blood or chicken manure pellets in the kitchen but I do have some milk.

About a cup full of milk in a medium size bucket?

The nano tank with the daphnia are in has a heater fitted so I'll set it to 20 degrees if they start breeding faster than the fish can eat them I can always turn it off.
If I split the daphnia between indoors and out at least if one crashes I use the other to restock.
 
A couple of table spoons of milk in a bucket might already be enough.. :) Don't over do it, or els you might get a sticky mess again.. It is just to get some organics in the water to jumstart the algae growth... So anything can be used, organics usualy work best, but some plant fertilizer also. There are so many different ways, just google brreding Daphnia you'll see.. A lot works, just not letting it crash is the trick not a lot of people master it.

As said, i'm yet still one of them.. Till now what ever i tried it always crashed at one point. Must be doing something wrong.. For example not lookingg for a couple of weeks and find about all gone.. :rolleyes:
 
I start my new daphnia tubs and tanks off with some rabbit poo which works great :thumbup:
I also grow algae on rocks outside for my hillstream loaches and the green water from that feeds my daphnia.
Large,shallow cat litter trays seem to work best and I just add old tank water with a small dash of liquid tomato food,leave for a few days outside and green water soon appears.
 
Thanks everyone for the tips, I'll keep trying.

On the plus side it's alot cheaper than a co2 spike when the tank does crash.

Strangely the tank is still crystal clear been running 14 hours light, no filtration, no co2 and full ei with 10% water change once a week if it's lucky. Just a bubbler with no stone.

The tank is also growing Monte Carlo that floats arround the surface and some left over oxygenating weed surprisingly well.
 
Barbara Turner said:
Will adding anything from my EI starter kit help?
Click to expand...
doylecolmdoyle said:
I would just dose the nano tank with full EI and give it lots of light, sunlight if possible and you will have plenty of algae in no time.
Click to expand...
Edvet said:
Ferts and sun should work,
Click to expand...

I often wonder whether I'm living in an alternate universe. After all we have been through, do people still believe that nutrients, and specifically EI based nutrients cause algae? Really? Is that why we add nutrients to our tanks, so that we can grow algae? Aren't EI nutrients used to combat poor plant health so that we can reduce or eliminate algal blooms? Have we still not learned that LACK of nutrients causes algae?
If we continue to hypnotize ourselves that "ferts cause algae" then we will continue to draw the wrong conclusions regarding our plants and the health of our tanks.

Barbara Turner said:
Strangely the tank is still crystal clear been running 14 hours light, no filtration, no co2 and full ei with 10% water change once a week if it's lucky. Just a bubbler with no stone.
Click to expand...
Thank you for confirming via this experiment that there is zero correlation between EI nutrients and algal blooms.

Cheers,
 
If there are no plants and there is plenty food available for the omnipresent algea why wouldn't they consume the food and start growing?
In pure RO water they would grow less then in a nutrient rich environment, wouldn't they.
 
Edvet said:
If there are no plants and there is plenty food available for the omnipresent algea why wouldn't they consume the food and start growing?
Click to expand...
Not automatically. Algae really do not care how much nutrients are in the water. They respond to light, temperature and other chemical signals in the water.

Edvet said:
In pure RO water they would grow less then in a nutrient rich environment, wouldn't they.
Click to expand...
Folks who use RO water in their tanks have just as many algae problems as any one else. Algae require nutrients in the parts per billion range PPB as opposed to PPM.

Having said that, we are talking about water in our tanks, and we are specifically talking about NO3/PO4/Traces.
In some natural freshwater systems algae dominate, and in other natural systems they do not.
In natural freshwater systems where algae are the dominant species, often, these are poor nutrient systems.
Adding NO3/PO4 to those systems typically results in a fall in the algae population and a rise in plant population.
The poster child for this type of nutrient pollution is The Everglades, where in the natural state of this system, algae comprises greater than 50% of the bio-mass. Under conditions of PO4 pollution the percentage falls to below 50%.

In other systems, the opposite occurs. Each system is different, so cause and effect has much more to do with the nature and content of that system than just how much nutrients are added.

Now if we start talking about NH3/NH4 then that's another kettle of fish. While NO3/PO4 result in a change in the balance of species, NH3/NH4, or rather the rate at which it enters the system, normally triggers algal blooms outright, especially BGA.

Often, when a bloom occurs in a lake or other waterway, all of these ingredients are present, but somehow, only NO3/PO4 get the blame.

The key thing to remember is that algal spores do not simply respond to the levels of NO3/PO4 in the water and they do not need the water to be rich in nutrients in order to grow quickly. PLANTS need the water to be rich in nutrients in order to grow quickly because they require 1000X more nutrients than algae do.

Light is the single most important and straightforward factor in triggering algal blooms, regardless of the water. The other factors such as nutrient levels, Oxygen and CO2 content and so forth are complicated.

Cheers,
 
Personally I think Its the perfect example of how light intensity affects algae growth.

The nano tank has a budget led light that I suspect is less than 5 watts and never going to be sufficient for rapid plant or algae growth. I'm guessing the daphnia can eat the algae faster than it can breed.
There are definetly advantages of running a low energy system that I had never considered.

Two options for fun, what do you think. What should I try

Stick 2 X 50watt cob led's above the nano tank and count the hours till it goes green.
I can then test various things that are meant to reduce algae

Twinstar ozone thingy
High doses of seachem
Co2 levels
Blackout duration.
RO water Vs tap water

The other option would be to plant the tank with plants that are happy at 20 degrees and low light.
I suspect even liquid co2 would kill the daphnia.
I wonder what other micro organisms will breed alongside.
 
Barbara Turner said:
Personally I think Its the perfect example of how light intensity affects algae growth.

The nano tank has a budget led light that I suspect is less than 5 watts and never going to be sufficient for rapid plant or algae growth. I'm guessing the daphnia can eat the algae faster than it can breed.
There are definetly advantages of running a low energy system that I had never considered.

Two options for fun, what do you think. What should I try

Stick 2 X 50watt cob led's above the nano tank and count the hours till it goes green.
I can then test various things that are meant to reduce algae

Twinstar ozone thingy
High doses of seachem
Co2 levels
Blackout duration.
RO water Vs tap water

The other option would be to plant the tank with plants that are happy at 20 degrees and low light.
I suspect even liquid co2 would kill the daphnia.
I wonder what other micro organisms will breed alongside.
Click to expand...


It would be fascinating to see a high light and low light tank with same EI nutrients for your algal experiment. :cheers:!
 
Actually RO water would also be a good control (hint even RO will grow algae eventually depending on light....;) )
 
I've just ordered a 50W Led 6500K Light.

It's only a 14-litre tank and the light is rated at 4000 Lumens it works out to roughly 266 lumens per litre so definitely excessive.

rebel said:
Actually RO water would also be a good control (hint even RO will grow algae eventually depending on light....;) )
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how long I want to wait, I'm sure distilled water would go green if I wait long enough.
 
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