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Algae in terrarium

hi,
anyone know how to keep from algae growing in a terrarium. I keep about 1/4" of water in the bottm of my tank and have the plants raised above it. It's not usually a problem in winter, but now that it's getting warmer, the water gets murky with algae. For the past two years, i've just cleaned it once a month or so...

Just curious if you guys have any other ideas or remedies? What do they use in swimmig pools? Chlorine?

Lia
 
although im not sure about any remedies, i do know that one of them isnt chlorine...
very bad stuff for CP's...
Best Wishes,
Hellz
 
hmm,
I wasn't planning on watering them with it...
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I wasn't necessarily advocating trying that, just thought perhaps there was a similar product on the market for killing algae... I was thinking something like one drop in the water sitting in the bottom of the tank... do you think they'll be effected by possible fumes??
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i had it in mine but i scraped it off and it never bothered me again. Most algae destroyers will destroy plants and especially cps . you can dry it out and wash it with something and put them back real fast.
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Algae is a part of terrarium growing, it CANNOT be stopped while maintaining a healthy environment for plants and especially CP's. Cleaning is the only surefire way to rid and not harm the plants. They do make an algaecide but I would not reccomend it. I have noticed that in standing water and fish tanks it will leave after a few years when all nutrient is gone from water assuming there is none added for aquatic plants.

Joe
 
One thing I did is to clean it real well and refill with a bit of pure R/O water then immediately throw in a few handfulls of utricularia gibba, riccia, or any fast growing aquatic plant will work. This seems to help soak up the nutrients and keep algae at bay. You will need to use a lot in the begining because alage can grow and establish itself much faster than higher plants so use more plant material in the begining to compensate.

This is the same trick I use for establishing a very brightly lit planted aquarium with CO2 injection and keeping the algae levels down from the git go. Just don't use duckweed! That's the little floating plant about 1 cm across with two leaves and a tiny root (Wolffia sp. I think). I tried that stuff once and had a heck of a time getting rid of that. Looks neat in ponds but not in a terrarium/vivarium! The stuff is able to multiply assexually through division so one living piece will be a continuing scourge!
 
Very cool ideas, swords - Been enjoying your photos too.

Thanks for the other suggestions as well, everyone. Haven't been using any fertilizers, so i suppose i haven't been cleaning the tank well enough and miss a tiny spot that keeps living on... Guess I'll continue the scrape & clean monthly method until I get some water plants. (oooh fun!)

wouldn't it be neat to fill the terrarium 1/4 full with water, so my plants are still raised above the level and put aquatic plants and goldfish in it. How cool would that be!

Lia
 
One floating plant that would cut down on light and would not be the  nuisance duckweed is - is called Water Sprite. It is also grear refuge for baby livebearers and can be utilized for bubblenest builders.
 
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