Algae carpet

[rsousa]

Hi all, I bought a new tank last month and would like to grow an algae carpet. I watched a few videos online, it appears the type of algae that will grow will depend on the fish tank parameters and condition. I just noticed a few green dots on my tank walls, I think it is green spot algae. According to my research to have a algae carpet to grow the tank needs to have green water. Some people say I could buy green algae seeds to acelerate the process; I have been reading about algaes and it appears the carpet algae type is called Oedogonium? I could not find any live cultures for sale of this type, however I found on ebay a type of green algae called scenedesmus and also chlorella. Could I use these to create green water in the fish tank, I can't find information regarding toxicity in fish for the scenedesmus type. Does anyone have knowledge regarding this subject? Thank you!!!

[Flumpweesel]

I've had a of a think on this and no idea's at all on cultures but the best way to grow one in to my mind would be to only fill the tank a couple of cms deep light it well so there are no dark spots and add fertilizer. 

If you try and grow it in a full tank you will get algae forming every where and nearest the light source first so you will be forever scraping it off where you don't want it. 

Also no matter what you do you will probably get more than one sort of algae so you will need to manage that manually. 

You will get some dieback if you later add plants and décor as these will compete or add shade

[Biotope Biologist]

Algae is kinda like a plant that you don’t plant. I have a stream style tank so my main ‘plant’ is algae. It took a while for mature mats to grow like 3-6 months. I didn’t touch the medium that was growing. I watched it go from green spots to brown to hair like to structured like it is now.

 

My fish strike it and eat it which is a cool behavior I’ve never seen before. I couldn’t tell you what different algaes I have. One downside though is if you have some sunlight come in from a window the algae will have periods of high photo intensity where it’s green and beautiful and lush, and low phot intensity where it’s brown. Some people may not like that, but I suppose if your light is strong enough it may never do that

 

Here are different photo intensities:

low:

Medium:

high: