Algae connoisseur/snob

[Scott Stevenson]

I don't have a algae problem and the algae I do have is fine with me, but would love if I could get it to be that healthy, vibrant looking green algae. How do I go from newbie brown to that SWANKY green stuff?

[B7gwap]

Let it season (give it time). Also get some diatom eating critters like nerites and otos. (Give your ottos blanched spinach sometimes too, they should have little white pot bellies and green poop 🙂 ) don’t feed the rest of the critters too much and don’t let your light go more than 10 hrs a day.  Good luck! 

 

[PineSong]

I got this vibrant green algae in many spots on the matten filter and basically out the wazoo in my fry grow out tanks by chronic overfeeding, direct sunlight through the window, and tank lights on 4-5 hours per evening. I currently have a patch of it growing on driftwood in my other tank and I am leaving it. Trimmed it yesterday to make it thicken up. Not sure if that's how algae works but I'm basically treating it like a shrub.

[Scott Stevenson]

@PineSongwas there a point when you noticed that you went from brown diatom to green or has your experience always been with the green kind?

My main tank is well cycled and has 3 albino BN plecos in it, no algae issues there. I have two tanks that are low-key cycled and with out fish at the moment. One of them has pest snails helping to keep the cycle going and some plants. The other has Pothos and some mulm (bare bottom), no algae issues to speak of in either of them.

I started a qt a couple months ago. it gets indirect sunlight and I ghost feed it. I for sure have algae in that one (which as I said before is not an issue to me). I assume cycling is beginning per the algae. I'm going to get some otos to put in there and toss in some pest snails. I would love to go from the brown to green.

I like the idea of the blanched spinach to promote greening.

Oh I also easy green my tanks except the qt

Edited March 8, 2022 by Scott Stevenson
add info

[PineSong]

Hard for me to remember the beginning of that fry grow-out tank, but I know my new 29 gallon was seeded from established tanks and set up to cycle for  2-3 weeks before I added fish, and is now in the brown algae stage. It kind of looks like dirt has settled on things--you may be able to see it in this photo on the large stone.

Now that it finally has fish in it (molly, platy, several guppies, mystery snail were added in the past four days) I am expecting that they will get rid of the brown stuff pretty quick.

 But there is a huge difference between me feeding this tank a bit to feed the cycle and the volume of food I was putting in my fry tank. So I would say if you want bright green algae, increase food and increase light. Just be sure to check water parameters to make sure fish are safe, and give it time. My fry tank was set up for about six months, and most of the green algae grew in the last three months for sure. 

Edited March 8, 2022 by PineSong

[Jennifer V]

I actually got my beautiful tufts of green algae on a piece of driftwood with an anubias attached that I ordered online. Like @PineSongI just trim it into the shape I like, kind of like a topiary. Ha! But that leads me to a crazy idea. If you're really dying to have some, could you locate it at a trusted LFS and introduce it that way? That may be a recipe for disaster, but that's the way I got mine and I'm nothing but happy I did. Food for thought, or the insane ramblings of a pretty green algae lover. 

 

[AndreaW]

I got some Black Beard Algae (BBA) from a moss ball I bought. It's actually tufts of dark green algae. It's never taken over the tank and kept to a reasonable amount. I've also had Green Spot Algae for many years (the tank has been running for about 20 years) and some of those types of algaes grow in well-seasoned tanks. Give it time and you will get there! Also, 'borrowing' algae from another source (like my BBA) is an option. I wasn't actually looking for it, but since I've got it, I figured I might as well appreciate it since I will probably never get it to go away.

[Scott Stevenson]

Ill probably just work with the brown that I have and try to work towards green

[Scott Stevenson]

@Jennifer V...although Maybe at some point Ill set up an experiment tank and see what I can find to introduce that way.

[Guppysnail]

In my tanks I grow the swanky green like shag carpet gone wild if I leave my lights on to long or have them to intense bright. It will also appear and go bananas with blue light.  The blue for me also grows long Goldilocks hair algae that is vibrant green. 
the brown eventually goes on it’s own unless like me you have high silicates in your tap. Then you learn to appreciate it as awesome live food for fry.  It’s not a true algae. 

Edited March 10, 2022 by Guppysnail