difference between green algae & riccia

[toledosun]

Hi all,

I was looking through the gallery and came across this plant called the "green algae". It seems similar to riccia and is capable of having nice oxygen bubbles at its tips.

I'm thinking of using riccia to create a "carpet grass" effect and I'm wondering whether green algae can be a substitute.

Has anybody used it before? I understand that one problem with riccia is that it floats after a while. Does green alage have the same problem? Which is easier to maintain?

Thanks.

[DEA]

the problem with the green algae (presumably u mean the type that looks like cladophora? issit pithophora? can't remember) is it doesn't just grow nicely where you want it to
it'll end up all over the place if you're not careful, then it doesn't look so nice

[kluyu]

There are many people who culture algae in their tanks. You will find this often in aquariums modeled on the "Dutch" style. These usually have a badkdrop of pieces of cork tree bark, and on the cork is algae.

As mentioned above, you do have to excersize a lot of care that the algae grows only where you want it too, instead of taking over your tank.

I have seen one tank (not really Dutch style) that had all decorations and plastic plants covered with green mossy looking algae. It actually looked very nice. Very much more like something you would find in a stream or river.

(of course, the owner of the tank said that he actually planned this to happen...<g> don't know if I really, really beleive that though <g&gt

[Simon]

how to control the growth?? they spread like wild fire, growing on anything possible? used to have it covering my corkbark but my sae and shrimps cleared the whole thing

[vinz]

When I had an infestation of that, it grew on my drift wood only. I was going to keep it, but it kept trapping debris and vaccuming didn't help.

Its tenacious too... I removed the wood a few months ago, but didn't get round to cleaning it. The algae is dried up, but even a scrub can't remove it. Thinking of sticking into a spare tank with a whole battalion of shrimps and see if they will clean up dead algae.

[toledosun]

heng arr... I decided to check with you guys first. Otherwise, I would have been too smart for my own good again

Thanks all, I scrub that idea