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Q&A: Idea for an algae “farm” for my Mollies. Could use some info.?

By Aquaboy on Monday, February 7th, 2011 | 1 Comment

Question by Syll: Idea for an algae “farm” for my Mollies. Could use some info.?
In my 55 gallon planted tetra tank, I’ve had a pretty big outbreak of algae. Not sure what kind it is, but it’s green, photosynthetic, long, and when it gets thick it looks a lot like moss you’d find in a lake. It’s very soft to the touch.
I think I’ve figured out why and am going to be working on that, but an idea came to me. I took a soft brush I use for cleaning out tubes in the aquarium, wound a bunch around it, and plopped it in my Molly tank. They loved it! They could not eat that stuff fast enough!
Since Mollies are primarily vegetarian in the wild, I figure it would be a good supplement for their diet. So, I’m thinking of setting up a tank for the sole purpose of growing this stuff as I intend to do what I can to get rid of it in the tetra tank. I wish I could just put some mollies in there to eat the stuff but the water is soft and unsalted.
Anyway, on to the question at hand. What could I do to promote the growth of this stuff? I plan on using an aquarium with no fish in it as I don’t want to harm any in my experimentation. Also planning on bright light since it’s photosynthetic. The stuff seems pretty prolific, but I want to get as much as I can as fast as I can for the Mollies.

What color spectrum is the best for this kind of algae?
What water hardness (both GH and KH) are best for this kind of algae?
What pH and temp is best for this king of algae?
Forgot to mention, no windows provide consistent sunlight through the day, so natural lighting is out. Stupid north facing windows!

Best answer:

Answer by Ianab
Dont give up on the natural light, even if your window doesn’t get direct sunlight it will still be plenty to grow algae.

As an experiment, get some glass jars, fill them with old tank water and some random aquarium ornament sized rocks. Leave them on the window sill for a couple of weeks, I bet they will be covered with algae. Now just swap them with some rocks from the Mollie tank. repeat as needed. If you have several jars and a lot of spare rocks you can keep a steady supply of algae.

If you are going to grow it in a tank, then you need light and nutrients. A bit off ammonia and high nitrate levels are going to help, hence using the old tank water. Dropping in some liquid plant fertiliser will probably help, You dont have to worry about the fish, so consider how fertiliser run-off from farms causes algae bloom in rivers and lakes, That is what you are trying to create.

As long as there are no fish in the tank there is not much that can go wrong.

Ian

What do you think? Answer below!

TOM TM1290 Aquarium Maintenance Easy Scrape-hand held algae scraper

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I Have An Aquarium With Algae Problem Please Help Me?

By Aquaboy on Sunday, February 6th, 2011 | 11 Comments

i have a 120 liter tank with one small flower horn about 5-6 inch, i feed it 2 times a day with XO humpy head food. and my tank also have plenty of plants cabomba 5-6, banana plant 5, hydrila 5-10, java fern temple plant 5. i am using CFL light of 15W for 10-15 hours a day. in my tank a lot of algae (BOTH GREEN AND BROWN) has been grown within a week. please suggest me some ideas to control algae, and which type of algae eaters can i leave to my tank.

I Almost Poisoned My Fishy With Algae Killer Is He Going To Be Alright?

By Aquaboy on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 | 2 Comments

I feel so guilty. I have two fish tanks. One is a 10 gallon tank with a goldfish and two tiny aquatic frogs. One is a 2.5 gallon tank with a different type of goldfish (it was actually one of my boyfriend’s bait fishes which is now my pet. lol) and a small aquatic frog in that tank.
Yesterday after work I came home and noticed there was a lot of algae growing in the filter of the small tank. I took out the filter and rinsed it. This was a new filter I had just changed it last week. Anyway, I put it back in and in frustration poured way too much of that algae killer onto it. I figured it was probably way too much at the time but I thought it would be ok.
This morning I went downstairs to feed the fish in the small tank. The poor thing was just sitting there near the bottom of the tank and so was the frog. Usually the fish gets very excited to see me cause he knows he is getting fed and the frog hides in his little house so this was odd behavior for both of them. Immediatly I started scooping water out a glass at a time and I put fresh water in the tank, but I only changed about 20% of it at most. They both moved around a little bit so I felt a bit better, but I put some food in the tank and the fish didn’t come up to eat which worried me.
I went to work. Felt extremely guilty so during lunch time I went back home scooped up the fish and the frog and transferred them to the bigger tank. They were still acting very slow when I got back home to transfer them. I actually thought the frog was dead for a moment because he was just chilling at the top of the tank and he never does that.
I feel like a horrible fish mama. Is there anything else I can do for them? The big tank I put them in has really clean, clear water. The tank is much lower maintenance to keep it that way than the small one. I put some of that melafix and some more aquarium salt in when I transferred them.

Waste Dirt Or Algae Eating Fishes………….?

By Aquaboy on Monday, January 17th, 2011 | 4 Comments

i wanted to keep my fish tank clean..
i currently have some 4-5 gold fishes in it.
i heard there are some fishes, that keeps the tank clean by eating the wastes and algae
what are those fish called?
will they cause any harm to the gold fishes/

I Am Cleaning My Fish Tank Right Now And Need Algae Help!!?

By Aquaboy on Friday, January 7th, 2011 | 7 Comments

my fish tank got full of green algae stuck to all the walls and stuff this has never happened to me before, all the ornaments that i have inside the tank are also full of algae and look hard to remove because they resemble like fake sponge that have little holes in it. if i clean my tank and put these things back in with a little algae will it start growing all over again??

Small Bright Green Algae On Walls Of Fish Tank?

By Aquaboy on Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 | 5 Comments

I have a 50gallon aquarium and I am just now starting to get small green spots of algae all over the walls of the tank. I really do not want to have to empty to the whole tank to clean it. Will the algae work to removie the bright green algae? i have tried using my algae scrapper sponge thing and it dont seem to work.

if i remove phosphate from my reef tank will that kill Red Slime Algae (Cyanobacteria)?”?

By Aquaboy on Wednesday, November 17th, 2010 | No Comments

Question by Edward: if i remove phosphate from my reef tank will that kill Red Slime Algae (Cyanobacteria)?”?
tryed less light & removal by hand & moved powerheads i dont want to have to use a algea remover cause it my kill good bacteria

Best answer:

Answer by jokerbonnz
what i did is bought some feather caulerpa it got rid of all of my cyano, phosphate and red slim algae
here is a link for some on ebay it is realy cheap to

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270478045767&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Add your own answer in the comments!

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I Have A Apple Snail , But I Don’t Have Any Algae? Will He Live?

By Aquaboy on Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 | 3 Comments

I just bought him 2 days ago after I cleaned my tank, I have a 32gallon tank and I have 2 cichlids that are very vicious and aggressive and snail is the only thing that can be protected from they’re bite. they don’t bite it that much only if the snail goes near they’re cave , but I’ve never had one of these before so what is he gonna eat if I don’t have algae and my fish eat most of the flakes, but i’ve mastered a trick to feed the snail I stuck some flaked against the glass and he ate 3 huge flakes , I don’t want him to starve but was that enough to eat? I mean there is food on the ground but I see him crawling everywhere and I feel bad..any feeding techniques of special food I can give, how long do they live? how long can they go without eating ? and I don’t have algae to.. ?

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