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Re:How many Daphnia does it take.....




    * From: "Kinney, Travis" <kinney at pdtarchs_com>

>>to clear a 29-gallon green water tank? Anyone have experience with this? I
have about 150 daphnia in my tank enclosed in a netted cage so the fish
won't eat them. I have a puddle out back full of daphnia. My 3 year old and
I harvested a bunch yesterday and put them in the tank. I thought I'd try
this approach before resorting to some chemical. Might borrow the UV light
from a fellow maple syrup guy here at work.

I have tank woa's. Plants are growing, not real great, but growing. Problem
is I can't seem to get them to outpace the algae and get it on the run.
Maybe the green water is not allowing enough light to reach the plants?
Plants are pearling, but not a whole lot. They used to give off a constant
stream of oxygen bubbles, but not now.

Don't know if need to add more nutrients so plants will thrive better of
slow feeding of fish and cut light source by a few hours????

SHOULD I GET A PHOSPHATE KIT? HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO KNOW?
5KH - Carbonate Hardness
<.3mg/L No2- Nitrite
PH 7.5-8.0
7.5GH - General Hardness
.09 Nitrite-nitrogen concentration
NH3/NH4 - no traces

I feel like I'm missing one important thing to get the plants back on line.
Don't know what it is. I have 2watt/ gallon using (2) 40w biax rated at
3500K. Could that be my problem with algae growth?

Wife isn't liking the look of the tank in the living room anymore so know
I'm getting desperate. She wasn't impressed with the 150-water fleas either!
ha ha>>
=======================================

One hundred and fifty is a good start.  Give them a week or two to respond
to the green water and start producing eggs and young.  The number will
increase until they clear up the green water, providing your cage isn't
really small.

IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT to know what the netting material is made of.  A
long time ago I tried cages made of a woven nylon curtain material which
gave off substances that started killing my plants after the cage was in
the tank for a few weeks.  It took me a few years to work out that the
cages were the cause of my plant problems because the symptoms did not
appear until I had the cages in the tanks for about a month.  It is better
if the netting is a monofilament material that is relatively inert.
Monofilament is better because it provides much less surface area for
release of the bad substances.

The cage should extend out of the water so that the Daphnia in the cage
have access to the surface.  I found that an entirely sunken cage with a
netting roof killed the Daphnia.  I have no idea why.

Paul Krombholz in hot and dry (for this time of the year) central
Mississippi