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Re: Green water




> Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 15:37:15 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Jim Miller <ruddigar_99 at yahoo_com>
> Subject: green water
> 
>   Does anyone have a good recipe for green water.
> Forget natural sunlight because my Daphnia culture
> (which the green water is for) is in a windowless room
> in the basement.

Green water without sunlight is almost like ham and eggs without any pork or
poultry products. :-)

You probably can get a large metal-halide lamp that will approximate the
intensity and spectrum of sunlight, so it is not impossible. Compact
fluorescents can also get that bright. Getting rid of the heat may be a
problem, tho, for the cultures usually do better if not too warm. Aeration
helps.

Get a rich culture start from a friend, if one is available, otherwise start
with tank change water. Use abour 4W/G of metal halide or fluorescent light
over a normal shape aquarium filled with change water from your tanks
(adjust for more or less depending on tank shape). Add a couple of feeder
goldfish or some guppies, and some non-ammonia-based fertilizer. Potassium
nitrate and Tropica Master Grow o/e should work OK. Consider a chelated iron
additive, too.

The fish are there to eat any daphnia or smaller critters that would
otherwise devastate a good green culture. Their food and feces add to the
fertilization, too. It is almost impossible to prevent contamination with
the Daphnia if the containers are located in the same room.

I find the green water is a marginal food for raising lots of Daphnia (I
don't have the space), but is superb first food for almost any baby fish. I
have a culture that has been passed around among killifolk in the SF Bay
Area for nearly thirty years. I tend to add some to every hatching
container, and sometimes get such a green growth in them that the water is
nearly opaque. The baby fish seem to thrive in it, tho.

Wright

-- 
Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679  huntleyone at home dot com

"People constantly speak of 'the government' doing this or that, as they
might speak of God doing it. But the government is really nothing but a 
group of men, and usually they are very inferior men." --H. L. Mencken

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