jersey Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 So, back in the day we used to take Java, christmas tree, or other various moss for fresh water tanks and sandwich them between 2 pieces of mesh.. they would then grow in and make a carpet of moss.. We would use these for tieing to driftwood to get it to take hold and cover the wood.. I used them as backgrounds, to cover pipes from filters and stuff like that.. It made the tank look very natural.. So, I was thinking.. would this application work in salt tanks with some of the "encrusting" type algae.. Stuff like Blue ochtodes or maidens hair, even chaeto although not sure I would like that look of a green afro growing on the back of my tank wall.. lol Anyone thought about this, or done it? I didn't see any topics covering it, but my nano-fu is weak tonight. Link to comment
jersey Posted December 7, 2012 Author Share Posted December 7, 2012 GSP: http://www.3reef.com/forums/soft-corals/fu...lyps-61245.html I know people do let some of the matting stuff grow like that.. I was more interested in algae being done like this.. Link to comment
VeganBrian Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 I have my pico tank workin on filling up the whole floor and backwall full of neon green gsp taking quite some time though.. Link to comment
nano_reefer10 Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 What about like maidens hair algae? I know it would take a loooong time, but might look nice. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_di...&pcatid=659 Link to comment
VeganBrian Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 What about like maidens hair algae? I know it would take a loooong time, but might look nice. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_di...&pcatid=659 You would have to be mad to pay those prices for it. plus 35$ shipping.. Chlorodesmis sp. is a great option though. Link to comment
jersey Posted December 7, 2012 Author Share Posted December 7, 2012 Lots of options.. I'm not sure I am ready to try it out, but might be an interesting experiment down the road. I have my hands full with breeding salt water mollies and feeding them to my mandarin. lol Link to comment
nano_reefer10 Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 ya, I wouldn't pay that lol. just giving the picture for reference. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 Lots of options.. I'm not sure I am ready to try it out, but might be an interesting experiment down the road. I have my hands full with breeding salt water mollies and feeding them to my mandarin. lol Mollies come out way bigger than a mandarin's mouth, plus one would never be able to catch them. Link to comment
jersey Posted December 8, 2012 Author Share Posted December 8, 2012 Mollies come out way bigger than a mandarin's mouth, plus one would never be able to catch them. Oh he catches em.. and eats them as well. He's full grown so manages to take down the day old ones.. the rest get dumped into the turtle tank and shockingly usually make the transition to fresh.. The turtles don't really eat them unfortunately.. They might but between about 30 platties, 20 swordtails and 10 mollies that grew from babies they just barely keep the population in check.. I also cull the less attractive ones (to me) and give em away to locals and trade them to a store for credit. It's not really a way to sustain him, but it's a treat he seems to enjoy. Link to comment
jersey Posted December 8, 2012 Author Share Posted December 8, 2012 Oh he catches em.. and eats them as well. He's full grown so manages to take down the day old ones.. the rest get dumped into the turtle tank and shockingly usually make the transition to fresh.. The turtles don't really eat them unfortunately.. They might but between about 30 platties, 20 swordtails and 10 mollies that grew from babies they just barely keep the population in check.. I also cull the less attractive ones (to me) and give em away to locals and trade them to a store for credit. It's not really a way to sustain him, but it's a treat he seems to enjoy. I have my mandarin trained to eat frozen bloodworms and live blackworms which I feed him in a "mandarin diner" I usually drop 4-5 in and what he doesn't eat the other fish get when they swim out of the box or I dump them. I'll have to take a video one day so you can check it out.. pretty cool. Link to comment
keydiver Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 I've done it with blue ochtodes. I started a bunch of small colonies in my frag tank, on eggcrate. The small colonies eventually completely grew into each other so that I could slice up the eggcrate into desirable shapes and sizes and put them in a macro display. It worked really well and I'm sure you would have no problem doing something similar with mesh. Link to comment
loyalhero90 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 +1 on the ochtode mat. They attach really well to rock and grow well also. They can easily become a little weed if given the right conditions. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.