Algae Fish Food
Howto & Style 7 years ago 4,220 views
One of my projects was building this aquarium in July 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lig8FRbunA8 It involved the algae scrubber HOG.5 shown on the left side of the screen http://www.santa-monica.cc/HOG5-Hang-On-Glass-UAS-Upflow-Algae-Scrubber--12-Cube-feeding-per-day_p_21.html Please check my videos about it for more details https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s2QbXm34Oo&list=PLM88hGt0AfGu53Y7_dyWMbPY9Up6YRni5 The LED light shines on the white rocks inside of the scrubber where algae grows. As algae grows on the rocks, it may grow on the glass blocking the LED light. Cleaning the glass under the scrubber with a brush or sponge works well to resolve this problem. Moving the algae scrubber to another place works better for that purpose. Notice algae on the wall under the scrubber. Words of gratitude to YouTube user Swiper Fox for an idea of using a transparent cover between aquarium wall and the algae scrubber. Thank you Swiper Fox! First I use plastic food wrap to make the transparent cover for the scrubber. Wrap the scrubber nicely, leaving open holes on the sides of the scrubber for water flow. HOG.5 algae scrubber hangs on glass and can be mounted on up to 6 mm thick wall. The thin food wrap fits nicely in the maximum 6 mm thickness. September 27th, 2017 The algae scrubber is all set with the transparent cover for the first test. October 9th, 2017 Here, you can see a thick layer of algae is growing on the transparent cover. Let's pull the scrubber with the transparent cover out from the aquarium. The aquarium wall is clear of any algae! Remove the transparent cover from the scrubber. There are some snails. I drop them back into the aquarium. Scrub the algae from the cover using a plastic card. Feed it fresh to your fish or freeze it for later feeding. Guppies of any age love fresh algae! Check it out! Algae stays fresh in a cup of water for couple days. Now, I use a clear plastic cover, from a take out food plate, to make the transparent cover for the scrubber. I cut it to fit the width of the algae scrubber. Cut off the brim of the cover leaving the top side. The top side of the cover serves as a bumper against water splash ;) Make the length of the cover slightly less than the height of the aquarium. Place the cover in the aquarium, along the wall with the bumper on the top of the cover pointing into the aquarium. Install the algae scrubber. The clear cover is hardly visible from the outside. It also thin enough to fit in the allowed 6 mm for the wall. The bumper works perfectly against water splash! October 20th, 2017 The layer of algae is growing on the clear cover blocking the LED light. I have made another clear cover. Let's pull out the dirty cover. Here you can see the cover with algae on it. Place the clean cover in the aquarium between the wall and the scrubber. Put the dirty cover in the aquarium along any wall. Fish eat any large chunks of algae they can nibble off of the cover. The feast is going on and on all day long :) October 21st, 2017 Snails gathered on the dirty cover to feast on leftovers of algae. October 22nd, 2017 The feast is still going on. October 23rd, 2017 It took them 3 days to eat all the algae clean from the cover. Using the clear cover with HOG.5 algae scrubber makes feeding fish with fresh algae very convenient. I leave it to you to check if it make sense to use a clear cover with other models of algae scrubbers http://www.santa-monica.cc/ Have fun and happy aquarium :) Blog: http://rndmbits.blogspot.com/2017/10/algae-fish-food.html More fun on my website www.fewdoit.com Views as Money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03hgIT4HTiE
I don't do water changes starting from beginning of 2017. I've done water changes before on weekly basis from 10 to up to 20% at a time. You may find more details on my present and previous aquarium fish care routines in videos on this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyjeDFyoDb8&list=PLM88hGt0AfGtxx0l2sr_e7ZL4uZsgrgC4
I bought a pair of guppies at Petco store in NYC back in 2001. The mail was a snakeskin strain. The female was plain color uncertain strain. I kept them with all babies in one aquarium. The fish was left to breed at random as the Nature will let them until middle of 2016. That's when I start breeding a strain of small size guppy from whatever I had at that moment. You can have a better look on my fish in videos on this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm2D4-dnKqg&list=PLM88hGt0AfGsF7UD45C23Su_VEJjWXCe5
Cuz most Youtubers talk about the species of plants and fish(their profiles), aquarium filters, their setups, the latest aquarium tech and etc.
Cuz of you I've started collecting different types of mosses, which after a month of soaking in cycled aquarium water, will be placed in one of my aquariums. So thank you for posting these helpful videos.
All the best!!
10. comment for Algae Fish Food
The amount of food you give to the fish daily is the main criteria for choosing the size/ model and numbers of algae scrubbers. The size of the aquarium is not so important. The HOG.5 scrubber shown in this video can handle up to 5 pinches of fish food flakes a day - I give 1 pinch a day. Here is a link to manufacturer webpage to help you make the choice: http://www.santa-monica.cc/Which-one_p_63.html Also, they have YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/SantaMonicaMale
You got it right - the algae grows only inside of the scrubber and on the glass between parts of the scrubber (this video shows how to deal with it ;). However, I had some algae growing outside of the scrubber when the air flow was to strong! You can avoid it by regulating the air/water flow through the scrubber. The slow water flow let's the algae inside of the scrubber to take more nutrition from water leaving little to nothing for algae outside of the scrubber to feed on. It is explained very well in the manual to the algae scrubber.
Being the first is a honor and a challenge ;)