Green Water

Are those species available as cultures? An easy to culture unicellular algae would be a great help to me in breeding fish. Growing fairy shrimp, Daphna, and all the other little filter feeders. i once had a marine aquarium go green, a 50 gallon tank, it stayed the way for three months, it would go away if I left it in the dark for several days but came back as soon as the lights were on a couple of days. The individual cells were very tiny, it took extreme magnification to see them. I raised some brine shrimp on them but when the weather cooled down the green water disappeared. after they went away the tank had lots of tiny oysters and sponges growing in it! I've often wondered if some of the organisms we inadvertently culture might be unique strains of these organisms that are suited to culture better via selection just because they live in captivity. I've noticed that some people will have a "plague" of one organism that other people cannot grow. Possibly these odd strains of organisms should be preserved in some manner as cultures to be used by people instead of trying to culture organism from the wild. Any thoughts?

Never seen any available as commercial cultures - we just started experimenting with them since we had them on hand and knew their phenomenal potential for growth in nutrient-poor environments. Correct me if I'm wrong but most cultures serious breeders use are usually not directly cultured from wild stock...but rather a known strain of particular species that has been "domesticated" through years or decades of monoculture (i.e. Nannochloropsis spp., Spirulina spp., Tetraselmis spp. et cetera). If you contact any of the usual suppliers I'm sure you'll find these products produce much more reliable cultures in the long run than trying to isolate/culture them yourself from wild stock...just my thoughts, I see no real need to "preserve" some of these spp. that some find to be a nuisance unless there is a demonstrable benefit ... kind of why we're playing with this int he first place- if after some growth studies and nutritional content studies we find a real benefit to Schroederia then it might be worth making available, but until then it's just an informal science project on my back, back burner

Not to get too far off the original green-water (in the tank) topic, but a good insurance policy agianst culture crash (seasonal or otherwise) are some of the preserved super-concentrated phytoplankton products. I won't mention any brand names, but my favorite is available by the quart in half a dozen different species concentrated 3600 times...the stuff has a super long shelf life and is the closest thing I've ever seen to live green water cultures.

Never seen any available as commercial cultures - we just started experimenting with them since we had them on hand and knew their phenomenal potential for growth in nutrient-poor environments. Correct me if I'm wrong but most cultures serious breeders use are usually not directly cultured from wild stock...but rather a known strain of particular species that has been "domesticated" through years or decades of monoculture (i.e. Nannochloropsis spp., Spirulina spp., Tetraselmis spp. et cetera). If you contact any of the usual suppliers I'm sure you'll find these products produce much more reliable cultures in the long run than trying to isolate/culture them yourself from wild stock...just my thoughts, I see no real need to "preserve" some of these spp. that some find to be a nuisance unless there is a demonstrable benefit ... kind of why we're playing with this int he first place- if after some growth studies and nutritional content studies we find a real benefit to Schroederia then it might be worth making available, but until then it's just an informal science project on my back, back burner

Not to get too far off the original green-water (in the tank) topic, but a good insurance policy agianst culture crash (seasonal or otherwise) are some of the preserved super-concentrated phytoplankton products. I won't mention any brand names, but my favorite is available by the quart in half a dozen different species concentrated 3600 times...the stuff has a super long shelf life and is the closest thing I've ever seen to live green water cultures.

The whole not being able to get greenwater thing is new for me, I used to be able to just fill a tank full of tap water and let it sit in the sun for a few days and it would turn emerald green but since I've moved I now use well water it will not support greenwater at all as far as I can tell. I guess commercial algae culture is the way to go.

It would take a little technical know-how, but I think the solution is to add a sump to the tank and stock it with daphnia. You'd need to rig some kind of fine mesh screen at the intake for the sump outflow, but daphnia can clear green water in a hurry.

Barley straw is also reputed to clear green water.

Beyond that, you could try growing water lillies in the tank, or, if it's in a room with ambient light, letting philodendron or pothos cuttings dangle over the side. Emergent plants absorb a heck of a lot of nutrients, and would probably starve out the algae.

Ahhh, green water, when you want it you can't get it and when you don't want it you can't git rid of it. Light and nutrients is the cause limiting one or the other is the cure, a healthy growth of plants will prevent green water and old tanks seem to be less likely to go green, at least for me. A better bio filter might help but the root is too much food for the algae. I've found that lots of bogwood seems to prevent green water, Acidic water is less likely to go green.