How to grow algae at home?

All people know that water is essential for growing algae. Therefore, entering it, you see crystal clear water or dirty as hell. You may think that they are nasty, but they keep the creatures alive, and these creatures cleanse the Earth, keeping us healthy.

Steps

1. 

   Find a clean container. Fill it with water (not salt water). If you are using chlorinated tap water, set the container to stand for at least a day to allow the chlorine to dissipate.

2. Place the container next to a window where it will receive plenty of sunlight.

   Sunlight is critical for algae growth (as it is for any green plant). High intensity UV radiation kills algae, but due to evolution, the intensity of UV radiation in sunlight is great for algae.

   • Place a small piece of lettuce in a container to speed up the growth process.
3. 

   Collect the test algae in a container. A stream or pond is usually a safe place to do this.

4. 

   Add some regular plant fertilizer to speed up the blooming of the algae. Aquarium or pond water is also suitable as it contains nutrients from fish waste that help algae grow.

5. 

   After a few days, expand the surface area for algae growth. Adding rocks to water is a good example.

6. 

   The container can be closed. However, remove the lid for an hour or two every week.

7. 

   Watch for algae growth. If you have a microscope, then the fun is just beginning. Examine a drop of your algae culture at 40-100x, chances are that you will find much more than just algae. You may even find protozoa swimming around!

Tips

• If the algae is overgrowing, you can feed it to your aquarium pets.
• Adding salt can help algae growth, especially if you've taken seaweed.
• Buy some fish food and add a little to the seaweed container twice a day. This ensures that the algae will live much longer.
• Some types of algae need a lot of sunlight in order to grow, while others do not, just google the species you are growing to find out how much sunlight it needs.
• Keeping a photo journal of algae growth will be an exciting addition to the project and will leave you with fond memories of the experience.
• Add worms, soil, and rock particles to the container.

Warnings

• Don't eat seaweed.
• Do not give seaweed to children, they may swallow it.

What do you need

• Algae sample
• Container, preferably a jar
• Water

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I will write in simple language so that it is clear to those who have just bought an aquarium and want to see growing plants in it, and not the quietly withering sprouts of a seemingly healthy bush bought, so I will not get into the endless terminology and description of the substances required for plants.

Very often I see the post: "- Tell me, what kind of seaweed I bought in the store?" Here you must immediately remember that algae is something that the aquarist tirelessly tries to get rid of, all algae belong to lower plants, for example, blue-green algae, brown algae, green algae, etc.

This is all that grows on the glass of the aquarium, stones and grottoes, green threads throughout the aquarium and the most unpleasant thing - fouling on plants, the plant loses its appearance, withers and may die.

Consider the standard case of a beginner, fish, grottoes, stones and finally, plants are bought (well, or already everything is bought plants), a few bushes are brought home, planted in an aquarium, after a few days of observation the question arises, why does not it grow ?? Unfortunately, after several attempts, many give up trying to settle live plants and do not try to understand the essence of the problem deeper, and it is not so difficult to create a garden of various plants in an aquarium (I do not mean Takashi Amano's aquarium - this is a whole art requiring deeper knowledge)

So, what you need to immediately understand is that aquatic plants, as well as plants that live outside the water, for example in a pot on a windowsill, need food and light, and not just water and stones or clean sand. In addition, the water temperature, soil, chemical composition - the amount of dissolved mineral and organic substances, the pH value (pH) and many others - matter. Most plants prefer soft or medium hard water with neutral pH (7). Here, in order:

LIGHT: Without light in the aquarium, nothing will work! If you buy an aquarium with a lid, there are already built-in lamps, but, alas, this light is often not enough for growing plants. For plants, the light power for standard aquariums should be approximately 0.5-1.0 W / L for fluorescent lamps (I take fluorescent lamps as an example, since the most common), here you need to understand 0.5 W / L - for not very demanding light of plants, 1 w / l - for more whimsical and light-loving plants. It must be remembered that passing through the water column, there is a great loss of light, therefore, the higher the aquarium, the more difficult it is to illuminate it. To ensure the normal life of plants, the entire visible light spectrum is needed, which is difficult to achieve in an aquarium. The most important role is played by two relatively narrow spectral ranges - blue-green and red, from which you need to build on when choosing lighting. Now there is a huge selection of various lamps. For freshwater aquariums, special lamps are expensive, but they were specially created with a spectrum for plants - there is even a full solar spectrum. You can also illuminate with ordinary inexpensive fluorescent lamps, you can combine ordinary lamps with special lamps, for example, one Grolux lamp, for the red spectrum of plants (if this spectrum is not enough red, the plants will not be saturated with red, but most likely will be either green or pale orange) and one usual one, with marking 865 (marking “865” indicates a color rendering index of 80 Ra, and a color temperature of 6500 K - indicate the color temperature of the lamp, the lower it is, the yellower the light, let's say 3000K will turn yellow, like incandescent lamps, 10000K will be used in marine aquariums with a blue tint).

If you install reflectors, you can noticeably increase the lighting in the aquarium. In general, you can write more than one page about light, but I promised briefly, the main thing is to understand that it is important for plants and you should pay attention to what kind of light you have.

FOOD: Do not underestimate the role of nutrition for aquarium plants, their lack leads to stunted growth, death and yellowing of leaves, plant curvature, etc.

Plants are able to actively extract the substances they need from the external environment. Aquatic plants are more dependent on the environment than terrestrial plants, which receive most of their nutrition from the soil, since, unlike them, they absorb nutrients from their entire surface. Plants need macronutrients (nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine, silicon, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium) and microelements (boron, zinc, copper, manganese, iron, molybdenum, cobalt, etc.). Some of them accumulate in the aquarium as a result of the vital activity of fish and other inhabitants, some come with fresh water when changing. But this does not exhaust the entire list of required connections.In such a situation, fertilizers of which in stores are also an impressive amount will help to solve the problem of deficit. Perhaps, you can make fertilizer yourself, but you need to study this topic in more detail and it will not be very small. It should be noted that the use of fertilizers is advisable if you have a sufficient number of plants in the aquarium, and not 3 bushes. Excessive nutrients can lead to algae growth in the aquarium.

PRIMING: The soil is not only a decorative element, but also serves for the rooting of plants and a habitat for bacteria, which in turn maintain the biological balance in the aquarium, like plants that process fish waste products. The soil should not be too fine, but not too coarse, about 2-5 mm. Since most plants love soft water, it is advisable that the soil does not contain rocks such as marble, coral chips, limestone - these stones enrich the water with dissolved calcium and magnesium salts and make it hard, and the constantly growing GH and KH values ​​will not be appreciated by plants. The shops now have a large selection of primers of all colors and shapes, but the painted primer will discolor over time and the paint will come off. I like the natural color of the soil, I don't really like colored (blue, red ...) soils - it's not natural, and the design looks better closer to a natural aquarium. There is also a nutritious soil, just for the herbalist, if there is an opportunity and it is planned to plant most of the aquarium with plants, it will be a good idea to use it.

I would also like to say about the use of CO2 in an aquarium - carbon dioxide, this is the most important food for plants. The breath of fish is sometimes not enough to saturate many plants with CO2, so you have to let it in additionally, they do this mainly by installing a balloon system with CO2 and dissolving it in water through various diffusers, this is a rather expensive method, but a stable supply of CO2 for several months. More budgetary is obtaining CO2 by fermentation (yeast + water + sugar) or by a chemical reaction (soda + citric acid), knead it in a bottle and bring it to the aquarium with a tube, where, using the so-called bell (an inverted glass in which carbon dioxide is collected ) gradually dissolves in water CO2. This method has drawbacks - it is a short fermentation reaction of 1.5-2 weeks, the reaction is unstable, at first there is a violent evolution of gas, but every day it will be less. You need to be careful when using CO2, because if during the day the plants absorb it and release oxygen, then at night everything is exactly the opposite, and this can lead to the fact that the fish may not have enough oxygen until the morning, so you should take care of additional aeration of the aquarium at night ... CO2 also lowers the pH in the aquarium, which is good if you have a high one, but you should not overdo it with the supply, constant fluctuations in the pH value have a bad effect on the inhabitants, therefore, a stable and in the right amount supply of CO2 is good. Carbon dioxide dissolves easily in water, but it also erodes quickly, you should not create unnecessary currents on the water surface. And again, it is worth thinking about saturating the water with carbon dioxide if you have enough light, fertilizers for plants (when CO2 is supplied, nutrients are consumed much faster) and of course there should be a lot of plants themselves, and not a Vallisneria bush with a twig kabombs, otherwise you can only make it worse.
FISH and PLANTS: think carefully about what kind of aquarium you want to see at home, you should not try to settle many fish and many plants in one aquarium, fertilizers and CO2 can negatively affect fish, and most fish, in turn, are incompatible with plants, so you should think before you buy fish from the herbalist if it spoils it. Therefore, you need to decide what you want more on that and focus on it.

The above could be described in much more detail, but I did not have such a task, this is an article for those who have just started growing something in their aquarium, you need to understand that if you want to see what will be in your "reservoir" pleasing the eye will have to make at least some effort for this.
In conclusion, I want to say that if you strive for the correct ratio of all elements - light, fertilizer, CO2, you will eventually get a good result that will delight you with a beautiful underwater garden.

I found this article on the aquarists forum and, I hope, it will definitely come in handy for someone!

Best wishes for your creativity!

Beginner aquarists who decide to practice

growing plants , are often asked questions on the forums: how to apply fertilizers, how to supply CO2, how to plant, how to prune, what to do with black bloom on the leaves, etc. and so on ... They are usually advised to "achieve balance" ... And this is certainly true, but all this general words, there is no instruction such as: "How to achieve balance in the aquarium, step by step ..." Recently, I am also often asked about similar topics and the idea came to me to write such an instruction based on my own experience. Why not? After all, we all launch new banks and use the same launch schemes and parole.

In order to immediately avoid the wrath of the great gurus, who are always and everywhere, I will give a photo of my aquarium (at the bottom of the article) and how it looks at the time of this writing. Since the launch, all this has passed through all types of algae without chemistry and technical means such as CO2 cylinders, external filters, UV lamps ... Ordinary T4 6400k daylight lamps stand instead of the standard ones, as I wrote earlier ... No super-spectra and similar super-means for super loot no!

The instruction I will most likely get multivariate, and the number of options will depend on the goals of the aquarist and the initial conditions .. However, it seemed to me possible to average it so to speak)) Therefore, I decided not to take the initial conditions into account at all! No, no, I'm not feverish and I'm not delirious)) But since we need to achieve a balance, it means there is still no balance ... which means that the initial conditions are as they are. Well, I think it will be clearer further ...

Perhaps I'll start with the simplest option: the aquarist grows plants for himself and the growth rate of plants is not important for him. If only it was clean and without algae. A gardener-aquarist does not grow plants for sale in bulk, does not cut them after three days and does not have technical devices such as CO2 installations and expensive parole, which, by the way, for example, I did not need at all. As I already wrote, I use my own self)

So the first option and let's call it:

Growing plants in the simplest way.

We have an aquarium 1 or 6 months old with a flip-flop, a beard and black bloom on the leaves, the water is clean but periodically come out, green threads, sometimes blue-green (for example, in the ground or at the roots) ... The light in the aquarium is just very important. LIGHT AND NOT SUPER LAMPS! For example, I have ordinary fluorescent lamps, but: 100 watts per 140 liters ...

Let's start, as it was previously suggested, with a change of water. But first, let's take a couple of steps. To do this, we need clay balls and udo, which are described by me below.

Step one: We plant the aquarium tightly with plants such as valisneria, hornwort, hygrophila and, for example, rotal indica ... In short, we add cheap but very unpretentious plants that grow quickly and are designed to consume excess nitrates and phosphates. Plants are selected by me so that there are both lovers of nitrates (hornwort) and big lovers of phosphates, or rather quickly absorbing them - as a rule, plants actively give aerial roots and are ready to eat not only leaves ... By the way, contrary to popular belief, it perfectly eats both nitrates and phosphates Well, this is so, by the way I had to ... The main problem is the amount of fish and organic matter in the water. therefore

Step two: We cultivate in the ground, EXACTLY IN THE GROUND, the culture of nitrobacteria. I would recommend Nitrivek, I use it myself when starting .. Why in the ground? Because since the water is full of organic matter, the filter (simple, with a sponge) needs to be washed often! Once a week and thoroughly.

We put clay balls in the ground to the plants, which you can make yourself, there would be clay. This is necessary in order to make less udo by water ... After feeding, we begin to change the water.

The first week - every other day by 30%. The second - in two days by 30%, the third week - once by 50%. Then change the water weekly by 25 - 30%. And it is important: we try to keep the temperature, if possible, not higher than 25 degrees! The fact is that at low temperatures, plants that have not yet started growing properly will have the advantage of supplying nutrients over algae. At higher temperatures, plants are less likely to grow unless they are already actively growing. Algae will start much faster!

At this stage, we are not pouring any udo at all! We only rely on fish. The number of fish can be calculated like this.

Optimally 7cm for 10-12 liters of water. Those, if you have a can of 120 liters, then it is advisable to have no more than 12 fish there, the size of which is about 7 cm ... This is of course roughly and rough, but the principle is clear, fish is the best producer of fertilizers, but also organics, and we need it in such a proportion that would have time to decompose and feed our grass. The task is for bacteria to quickly decompose organic matter and plants have time to assimilate it faster than algae.

Step three: We take a time out ... About 2-3 weeks ... We change the water and don't do anything .... The aquarium is a self-regulating system .. Clay does its job in the soil .. We do not interfere and wait for the biological balance to manifest itself, and this will happen in about 2-3 weeks. How to see it? Just. You will see that the filter has become clogged more slowly, the water is always transparent, and you wipe the glass less and less often from plaque ... and ... you cut the rotala once every 10 days and the valsnria begins to spread its processes along the bank ... All this is still not in perfect condition, but you can see that the life of the grass began to spread throughout the volume ..

Now we are one step away from what we want !!!

Step four: This step depends on the results of the previous steps. Namely:

If algae disappear in the aquarium, and the plants grow, then you should not give extra udo .. In general, you do not need to climb into the biosystem while it heals itself! Then, when cleanliness comes, you feed the plants on the leaf and improve their size, but for now just watch the miracle: everything grows by itself! This is really a miracle, nature regulates itself very effectively without our intervention and chemistry ... You can add more complex and beautiful plants)

If the cleanliness has already come, then with a planned change of water, we begin feeding with the sammes. Very careful! Macro and micro + separately iron citrate. Slowly. We continue to keep the temperature not high. If the temperature is reduced to 23-24 gr. then you can increase the number of fish by 50 percent! Temperature and light are the most important factors, and in my opinion, temperature is more important.

That's all! It's simple. but there are small additions.

• if the aquarium is young, less than 6 months old, the tighter you plant it, the better.
• if the jar is older than 6 months, then the stocking density will affect the amount of CO2 in the water, the rate of UDO absorption and metabolism, and it can be changed arbitrarily by changing the amount of UDO and the amount of CO2, respectively.
• if the light in the aquarium is less than 0.6 watts per liter, then CO2 is not needed at all when planting 30% grass. If the light is brighter, then either give the mash CO2 or tighten the landing.
• I will separately note the usefulness of settling cherry shrimps, Beeline snails, etc. into the aquarium. Organic matter will become several times less and black plaque, respectively, too. With thick grass, cherries will survive even with barbs and cichlids - it's proven, I'll publish the video soon.

In the next article, I will describe in more detail and accurately the schedule and amount of my personal parole. How much CO2 to give and more about the temperature ... and maybe something else))

Forget the algae! There is nothing good or bad in this World. There is only our attitude to something. Give everything for plant growth! The problem of green plaque is especially acute in aquariums with high lighting levels. ” To start . Not algae, but plants for the aquarium. There should be enough plants in the aquarium so that they can suppress the lower algae. Tomorrow, if available, I'll buy a ribbon. I'll install it in days.

I think this is bad. And the leaves of plants do not grow badly enough, but they are also not badly covered with something (as it seemed to me) and slowly become full of holes, and die. What do I think now ... It seems to me that the key to success in this matter will be, first of all: desire , perseverance, thirst for knowledge and experience of the aquarist himself. Until the moment when I decided to take up Shaman's herbalist, I didn’t know about the “Herbal Balance” and the peculiarities of keeping “elite” aquarium plants.

I will not analyze each component, because the message will turn into a talmud. I focus only on those moments, features that I felt on my own experience. LIGHTING is the primary concern for keeping a plant aquarium.

The explanation is simple - almost all micro and macro are found in tap water, in fish food and kakuli. That is, the source of Micro and Macro, in one amount or another, will always be present in the aquarium. And in general, micro and macro are dangerous things. Poured a little and green algae went. Experience, experience and more experience ... is needed! Here are the daily manipulations I do: 1. At 7-8 am I drip Ermolavev: Micro, Macro, Algicide + CO2.

Tip 2: How to Grow Aquarium Plants

Such my "individual" scheme was developed within a month - and aqua. it worked like clockwork: the plants bubble and twig like tops in the garden, the fish rejoice, the water is crystal clear. ALGAE FIGHTERS. Siamese algal traces and ototsinklus should be in any aquarium. The reference point 1 / 3-1 / 4 of the aquarium should be in plants. TIME. Not all at once, I mastered my herbalist for six months, of which 4 months is study and preparation, 1 month. disembarkation, 1 setting.

But how difficult it is to do what I have already done. I'm talking about reworking the light. In my case, it will be practically all over again. For myself, I decided that I do not want a herbalist. Well, let's just say not in this aquarium.

Together with his wife, or rather planting plants, this is her occupation. We managed to probe the aquarium in such a way that even huge and harmful parrots do not interfere with the plants, but they do not interfere with them. Certainly not 100%, but still. By the way! I was afraid for the fish. One and a half mash plus a reactor, and everything is in openwork !!! And it turned out to be for the best! Therefore, if you take it exactly for a good herbalist !!! On your question, taking into account what has been said, I can add briefly that you still need to make good lighting, taking into account your volume and a water column of 50 cm (all are not 30 or 45 cm) ...

Grow algae

And that's what I decided. 1. Change the flow of light. it was: from 7-00 to 11-00 14-00 to 16-00 19-00 to 23-00 while all the LL light + ice tape was turned on error: a lot of light but in small intervals. In order not to alter the ice strips, I decided so. there is a place between the two profiles of the ice tape. And to my two meters of 4,000 Kelvin tape I will add one meter with 9,000 Kelvin.

All the same, you have more experience and it is positive. Better 6-9h. Total. As I understand it, when choosing such a daylight regime, you also take into account your interests - to see the aquarium, but ... this is not very correct! But, you need to see everything with your own eyes and by "eye" feel how the aquarium feels. Do you remember under what conditions it was and after how many plants began to bubble?

T5. And although the aquarium and light are native and quite respectable from JUWEL, they are not at all designed for the maintenance of plants. More than 100 watts of native light, this is even less than 0.5 per liter.As a result, my plants don't bubble at all.

After reading the literature, I realized that "The appearance of brown algae in the aquarium is a sign of insufficient lighting."

I would like to note Andrey, that this is the beauty of the FanFishki forum and FF in general. Someone is engaged in plants, someone with goldfish, someone with cichlids, someone with fish farming, etc. TOGETHER - WE ARE FORCE. And the beauty of the FF site itself is that it is a kind resource and it attracts with its responsiveness and kindness.

Let's!!! It seems to me that it will be a good addition to the topic previously covered by you LED strip in an aquarium - Forum of aquarists. 1. Plants grow successfully in my aquarium. I want to change it and put in a couple of small jugs so there is more room for the plants.

Algae on the contrary pests

2. Last time I got rid of brown algae. Therefore, the main method of dealing with these algae is to establish the correct light regime. Katerina, you are asking all questions in the same topic, from which you get porridge-malasha. Why did you put these sentences in quotation marks? It is difficult for me to answer this question specifically, since I do not see your aquarium live and I don’t know "anything about his life" at all.

But aquarium plants pleasing to the eye need care and attention.

Enough is about 1/4 to 1/3 of the tank. Now I advise you to purchase an algae drug (tablets or liquid), the same TetraAqua Algo-Stop. Apply and start looking for the cause of the greening of the aquarium. ZY Personally, I have the most powerful lighting in an aquarium with soil plants, so for 2 weeks I have not cleaned the walls of the aquarium (my hands do not reach), and there is not a tiny little green dot.

7 am and turn off at 9 pm. As I already understood, you need to reduce daylight hours and turn off around 17.00. Is it okay to keep dim colored LED lighting? Aquarists keep aquatic plants in aquas! Algae is something that does not have an attractive appearance - for example, in the summer this bloom of water in ponds is algae - an overview of the types of algae.

Cryptocoryne and Vallisner can take root, and rotala, hygrophila and ludwigia can float up - these plants have not so many roots, they do not hold well in coarse soil. The duration of daylight hours should be within 10-12 hours. In addition, it depends on the brightness of the lighting.

No not like this! This is the meaning of biobalance in an aquarium - when all aquatic organisms (fish, plants, algae, bacteria, fungi, etc.) live in complete harmony. What do you want from the aquarium - a lot of fish or a lot of plants? What kind of fish do you plan to have? Aquarium algae are not the kind of plants that decorate your home pond or that aquarists want to grow in their underwater fish garden.