Help me grow algae!

[Cammywammy]

I'm trying to grow algae in a 2.5 gallon fish bowl for daphnia to eat. Does anyone know how to get this going faster? I have old fish tank water in it right now next to a window with lots of light. Will fertilizers help? If so can I use organic fertilizers? Also will an air pump or any other accessories help?

 

[Cammywammy]

Anyone please help I've been trying to do this for months with no success

 

[Cammywammy]

I'm going to add a picture of my setup later tonight. My water is yellow not green the algae won't grow in the water!

 

[Zimmanski]

Use old tank water from water changes since it will have a higher concentration of nitrates, add some thing like flourish, put it in front of a window and add a high watt CFL above it and keep it on 12-14 hours a day. I added a cheap CFL fixture to my ten gallon with 2 60w bulbs and boom! all sorts of algae after 2 days maybe. Also, no co2 or excel can be added as this will slow algae growth

 

[Cammywammy]

At the moment I have an air pump going into the bowl with a clump of algae from my neighbors pond along with some pond water and the rest of the water is from my fish tank. I have 1 60watt cfl on a lamp facing towards the bowl and the bowl is in front of the window during the day. I added a tbsp of organic fertilizer to try and jump start the algae growth but I got nothing although the algae clumps are more green than they were before so I do believe the water is healthy for plants.

 

[obedey]

How cold is the water? If it was really cold would that inhibit growth. Is it warm outside where you are? I have a container of daphnia outside with algae growing in it pretty much self sustaining with rainwater.

 

[Cammywammy]

The water is inside at room temperature which is about 67-68 Fahrenheit during the day when none is home it never goes lower than 62-63 Fahrenheit

 

[Grand1011]

All lights all day. If you direct as much light as possible, algae is a sure fire thing.

 

[Cammywammy]

Here are some pictures of the setup the pvp pipe acts as a pump, an airline goes to the end of the pipe and the bubbles go up the pvp pipe creating suction. It is the morning and no sun is out but normally the window will give off lots of sun.

 

[Alex ski]

Get some plant fertilizer and add some of that it will pretty much start the growth of it because alge is a form of plant

 

[BillD]

What you want is green water which is made up of single celled algae. The water will be a green colour and if the culture is really strong you won't be able to see through the container. Any algae that forms a structure, isn't of much use to daphnia, as they are filter feeders.
Growing green water is a hit or miss proposition in my experience. Water that has had turtles in it turns green very quickly. Fish tank water is a little more difficult. I have never been able to do it consistently.

 

[Cammywammy]

The water is yellowish because of the fertilizer I put in there... Also the pond water contained algae and I also took a hunk of it (the structural algae) and put in in there just to see if it would help turn the water green.

 

[Cammywammy]

Will the water turn from yellow to green or should i restart and use miracle grow?

 

[Cammywammy]

Here's an update: Color seems darker yellow but no sign of algae..

 

[Grand1011]

Throw in some fish food, maybe that will help.

 

[Zippo1313]

Get it up to 75 or80 it doses better in warmer water if using tank water try to get it from gold fish works like a charm for me when I didn't want it to

 

[Cammywammy]

I put a mini heater that'll bring the temp up to around 79-80 hopefully that'll help I'll idk if putting anything else in the water will help because of all the nutrients already in it I think I have too many nutrients in the water...

 

[Zippo1313]

I was thinking like in a swamp where the water dosnt move much is where u see the most green water so I don't know if the air is a help or hurt for that

 

[Cammywammy]

I agree with you on that but algae takes in air at night and takes in co2 during the day so I thought the air would help, maybe not. The real reason I have the air pump in there is to keep the bowl mixing so the fertilizer will dissolve the pvp pipe is like a pump. Does anyone else agree with taking out the air pump though?

 

[Cammywammy]

The water is giving off a very awful smell I think I give up on the organic fertilizer