Algae help

[fishymommy]

I don't have any algae in my tank yet I have many algae eaters living in there so I have been trying to grow some algae in my windowsill.. only.. its not growing :P Is there something else I should be doing? I have a mini terranium thing that you can get from petco with aquarium water and a few rocks for it to grow on sitting in a south window. Its been there for two weeks and hasn't done anything. Any tips?

TIA

fishymommy :11:

[wijnands]

Chuck in some fish poo? :hmm3grin2orange:

Seriously, algae need, besides sunlight, some form of nutrition. Did you start with tapwater? If there's any bottom muck in your tank use a small hose to syphon off a bit of that.

Lots of algae eaters will also apprieciate some parboiled veggies such as cucumber, carrot or spinach. Don't feed too much, weigh it down with a pebble or something and remove what's uneaten after 24 hours.

[Alfcea]

Are you using water right off the tap? Or dechlorinated? Maybe that's why it is not working...

[fishymommy]

at first i filled it with tap water.. then i thought of the chlorine so i added some dechlorinator.. then i thought.. maybe it needs fish water for some reason so I added some of that too.. so its a mix of fish water and treated tap water

[wijnands]

so, not much in the way of nutrition thqen

[digital3]

You can blanch some zuchinni, cucumber or carrots if you want to supplement your Algae eater's diets. That will keep them happy.

[travie]

Algae needs an ammonia/nitrite/nitrate source to grow along with the light. Put a fish or two in the mini terranium to help with that (Me assuming its big enough to have a fish or two).

[fishymommy]

I am feeding them some zucchini and cucumber and being an overacheiver I want to give them more nutrition stuff and I figured since they are "algae eaters" I can't get much better than feeding them fresh algae. as for putting a fish in, its only about a pint of water and there's no way for me to keep it running so the fish would be healthy. I could do "water changes" and add some nitrate water from my tank. There isn't any ammonia or nitrites since its cycled so i hope those aren't extremely important to the aglae...

I read somewhere that I might need a sample to start growing more algae.. is this true? where can I get some? (note: i have no algae growing in my tank)

[Alfcea]

As long as there is a source of nitrogen like nitrates, you will be fine. Algae can use all those sources of nitrogen (ammonia, nitrites and nitrates) so there's no need to worry. About the sample, don't worry about that either. Algae spores are ubiquitous, so sooner or later they will find their way into the container where you want to grow them. You'll be fine.

[fishymommy]

sweet. Thanks guys