[Opae157]

Recently I was thinking what type of food to feed my opae then I remembered they eat algae so I took small pebbles and put in brackish water and put out in the sun few jars to culture. How long should I expect before algae start growing. During the day it has sunlight and night there is led ceiling light on whole night so they get quite alot of light.

[odin]

@QDanT Calling QDant! This guy should know a few answers to your questions, i believe he grows his own.

[QDanT]

@QDanT Calling QDant! This guy should know a few answers to your questions, i believe he grows his own.

you should have added the word Algae ! I don't want a knock on the door at 04:00 !
Just how I do it, but it seems to work, 2 gallon tank on south facing window sill filled with fresh water from the 70 gallon Front room Amano Shrimp tank, water change, then added a few drops of 'baby bio' plant food for more Nitrate seeded with a small scrape of Algae from the Amano tank less than a week for Algae to start growing on tank sides

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cut some pieces of scrap glass drilled a hole in hung from a stick above the tank with string

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I also hung a Limestone rock in, when this had Algae growing on it, about a week, I transfered it to a jar of SG 1.010 RO Water on the windowsill for my upstairs Opae ula tank

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I don't think Algae self seeds in brackish water but continues to grow when added, here's the jar today I might add another piece of Limestone rock

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the pieces of glass are for one at a time into the Amano shrimp tank

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not knowing any thing this is just how I did it

[Opae157]

@QDanT so I need to self seed and put little algae into the brackish water that I am trying to culture the algae? To speed the process etc right

[QDanT]

this is only my observation you can leave a jar of SG 1.010 and a jar of fresh water in the sun and the fresh water will start to go green (algae) after a few days but the SG 1.010 will still be clear, maybe ? the algae self seeding spores ? need fresh water to start to grow. I don't live by the sea so not much chance of marine algae spores ?
anyway I already had algae growing in a fresh water tank and adding a scrape to both jars saw it start to grow straight away. I did add a few drops of plant food to the water in the jars to add some Nitrate
here's how I started back in February
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=304

[Opae157]

@QDanT alright bro thx. i put my brackish water jar for 1 week already then still no algae growth. will do what you suggest use a fresh water jar to culture some and migrate them over to brackish water