# Making Green Water... How?



## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I am considering other delicious foods fo rmy fish and fry, how can I create greenwater and if I get it started are there any folk local to burlington who have Daphinia that I may start a culture of?


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## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

from what i head.... just grab a bottle of water from your local strem. or maybe the lake you go to some times. and put it in a nice sunny window.. and voila. but ive never done this... so its just hearsay


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## desjardo (Aug 30, 2008)

I created mine using Miracle grow. Works great. I beleive I was told its the amonia that is needed. The other method I was told was anything green - Lettuce. They contain Infusoria(think thats right) which is beneficial for green water.
Hope that works out! If you have managaed to get your hands on Daphnia I would be interested in a purchase! Looking everywhere...


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I will try to locate some. Winter might be a poor time of year to get it, mind you.


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## desjardo (Aug 30, 2008)

Yeah I tried some water from the local stream with no luck. By using the fert it worked very fast. But light is also required.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I put a squirt of flourish and a shot of water from my tank. Hope that takes off. I have it by claude's tank.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Put some aquarium water in a 2 litre soda bottle and put in a sunny location. If you can get some water from a turtle tank, even better.
If you really want to grow daphnia, keep in mind that you need to grow them in large quantities. They are almost 90% water, so fish need to eat many of them to be of any real value. If you have nice greeen wtaer, they will thrive at an unbelievable density, but you still need a fair bit of water to grow the many thousands necessary to feed a few fish. Feeding large quantities of daphnia to youg fish will result in growth rates that are hard to believe. By large quantities, I mean enough that the fish have them in front of them 24/7 for as long as you can supply them. So our goal is to grow them by the many thousands, if not millions. I use the winter cover on my swimming pool as my daphnia farm. My source for green water was my Golden using the top of the pool as a bathroom all winter. We no longer have her, and the new dog is too small to do the job, so I have taken to adding fertilizer. Ideally you want it so green you can't see through it, but any greenness will work. As long as there is food available, the daphnia will throw live youg. As the food supply diminishes, the females will form cysts and cast them off. They look like little bits of pepper forming a ring around the edge of the water, on the cover.


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## coryp (May 28, 2008)

Sunstar said:


> I am considering other delicious foods fo rmy fish and fry, how can I create greenwater and if I get it started are there any folk local to burlington who have Daphinia that I may start a culture of?


lol you can have mine i got another 40 gallons of it agin


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

tank go funny?


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

BillD said:


> Put some aquarium water in a 2 litre soda bottle and put in a sunny location. If you can get some water from a turtle tank, even better.
> If you really want to grow daphnia, keep in mind that you need to grow them in large quantities. They are almost 90% water, so fish need to eat many of them to be of any real value. If you have nice greeen wtaer, they will thrive at an unbelievable density, but you still need a fair bit of water to grow the many thousands necessary to feed a few fish. Feeding large quantities of daphnia to youg fish will result in growth rates that are hard to believe. By large quantities, I mean enough that the fish have them in front of them 24/7 for as long as you can supply them. So our goal is to grow them by the many thousands, if not millions. I use the winter cover on my swimming pool as my daphnia farm. My source for green water was my Golden using the top of the pool as a bathroom all winter. We no longer have her, and the new dog is too small to do the job, so I have taken to adding fertilizer. Ideally you want it so green you can't see through it, but any greenness will work. As long as there is food available, the daphnia will throw live youg. As the food supply diminishes, the females will form cysts and cast them off. They look like little bits of pepper forming a ring around the edge of the water, on the cover.


Any chance I could get some? I got buckets I will work with any excess I intend to freeze. I am just working on getting the green water. I will use ferts if necessary.


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## coryp (May 28, 2008)

Sunstar said:


> tank go funny?


limiting nitrates high po4 ... bacterial die off from after getting rid of it the fires time 75% water changes and then white fuzzy water got rid off that clear water for 3 to 5 days and then bam wake up green water agin 
so i have 40 gallons of it lol



Sunstar said:


> Any chance I could get some? I got buckets I will work with any excess I intend to freeze. I am just working on getting the green water. I will use ferts if necessary.


if its possible could i get some too ive been looking for about 2 months now ill trade you some green water lol


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Sunstar said:


> Any chance I could get some? I got buckets I will work with any excess I intend to freeze. I am just working on getting the green water. I will use ferts if necessary.


Are you speaking of excess daphnia to freeze? They don't freeze well as they burst when frozen. I have frozen some in the past, but I don't often do anymore. Without exageration I have propogated millions of them over the last 13 years, and every feeding would be with thousands of individuals, so you need a lot before you have excess. You would be surprised at how many one small fish can eat. Because of the high water content (of all live foods actually) you need to feed more volume than you would with dry foods.


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## coryp (May 28, 2008)

do you have any excess of the eggs you speak about lol


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## desjardo (Aug 30, 2008)

Yes, Cory and I have been searching hi and low. I had a guy shipping from Ottawa valley but he has fallen off map and no daphnia.... I also have started green water but didnt receive the daphnia. poo. I keep hearing talk of these things but no one wants to give any up....LOL
Think I am just going to go with this......
http://www.hometrainingtools.com/product_categories/53/products/6644-daphnia-instant-culture-kit
I had previoulsy found one that was about a 1000 eggs for 12.99 but can't seem to relocate... But would love to find localy instead..


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

and we add sunstar to the list, she's just starting her hunt. 


I am wishing it is summer again so I can go to a few local water bodies to look at night. Or if I go to mothers, I'll grab my kayak and go to a canal or something. I'd rather not get wild ones(paracites), but a few to start probably will be okay.

Is that the one that you were going to buy from with plants and whatnot?


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## desjardo (Aug 30, 2008)

Yes. His name was HappyGuppy. I had worked a deal for Red ramshorn snails, daphnia, and micro worms. He hasnt been on since the 6th so I am hoping he is ok and nothing bad happened.
As soon as my cell bill comes in I will be able to try calling but hope I hear from him b4 then. I am think we should get two or three of us togethor and purchase a culture. If more than one of us have it we should be able to keep it going. I think it is a fair amount of work.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

The thing with me, is I don't have a car to get anywhere to pick the culture up. But I would be in for red ramshorns and the daphnia. I will be game for a group purchase is to help get a population going between us. We could be trade buddies or something to help keep the genes intact or you know what I mean.

I am also considering white worms and red wigglers. I can grow both easily enough and have grown the reds in the past.


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## desjardo (Aug 30, 2008)

Sounds good. The cost is low but the buddy system is I think they key to keeping the culture going. I will continue to try and reach this guy over the next week or so and if I have no luck I will order some eggs.
The snails also help the daphnia by providing beneficial nutrients or by-product. What ever it is....
And yes the worms would be cool too!


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

Buddy system is ideal as you can have several systems spread over so if one crashes, there could be another start somewhere. I'd buddy microworms too, I am getting two cultrues going from the one last one.


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## desjardo (Aug 30, 2008)

Well if you already have worm maybe I could cover the cost of the daphnia and we could just trade. I am game either way I just want some daphnia, and worms...


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

We can do that, I can get you worms for Daphnia. I just got a starter culture of vinegar eels. I think I am trying to cover all my live food bases.


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## coryp (May 28, 2008)

lol i just want the daphnia for my angels because i heard its the easyiest thing to culture ... dont kill me but my gf gets really mad when i dump my guppy fry in there lol but its awsome seeing them hunt ... ive got a freezer full of frozen food lol


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

wait until the GF finds how cute daphnia cultures are....


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## coryp (May 28, 2008)

lol the guppy fry are cute too thats the problem .... lol in three months im gonna have a tank set up for daphnia because she wont want me to feed them to my other fish lol


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

Thinking of green water... when my Zebra nerite died, I put it's corpse in a jar of water on the windowsill to let it decompose. The water went pea soup green, is this what I want? Should I keep that as a culture?


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## coryp (May 28, 2008)

might be use able id test for no4 and trates tho ... from the decompoasing body


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I was thinking to use it to seed the bottle I am tyring to get green.


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