Algae Farming

[TXaggie]

I figured this would be the best place to put this since algae is, technically, a plant.

I'm trying to set up a small algae farm (separate from my main tank!!) to feed my algae eating goby from and I'm having very little luck. Really, I can grow algae in horse tanks and dog dishes and all kinds of things except the glass vase that I'm trying to grow it in.

Currently I have a little cube glass vase (~6" square) filled with tank water and with some rocks I took out of my 29g aquarium. I've been adding water as it evaporates and putting it outdoors for a couple hours a day (temp here in the afternoon ranges from 65 - 85 this time of year) and NOTHING is grown in the last week or so.

Do I really need to do a full on set up with an airstone and dedicated light or something??? I figured a couple hours of true direct sun and indirect sun the rest of the day would do the trick. Or would adding fertilizer of some kind help?

I'm also trying to see if adding a couple hours to my tank's lights on time will help grow some more algae in there.

 

[Rivercats]

I've grown it like that before, in a shallow dish with rock and water but I just left them in a sunny window sill to grow. I used to put a drop or two of liquid fert in the water. Or I also put a breeder box in the tank as close to the light as I could get it and put rocks in there. The reason I didn't do it long was I didn't like looking at it when viewing the tank.

 

[TXaggie]

So just keep at it? I'll try adding some Flourish to the water as well to see if that helps...

 

[Rivercats]

Oh and I would use water from the aquarium to try to start them with along with adding a touch of ferts. But ya keep trying.