# if you cant beat it...



## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

Aquascape with it!!


cladophora algae that i grew into a pad









immediately after cutting it into thin strips and attaching it to some small driftwood pieces









one day later









almost a week after setting it up. i pulled it out and trimmed it twice.









so far so good, the algae is behaving like a fast growing moss. my wife says i have created the "Dr. Seuss" tree. if this works out well, maybe i can create the first "Trufulla" scape? *w3


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## Mr_Pat (Apr 13, 2010)

Nice work. LOL I had the same problem with a pad i was trying to grow a few smaller plants on floating around the top of my tank. It is now on the back wall of the tank for the shrimp since the plant that was originally there is gone it seems.


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

i grew this pad in another tank. it is pure cladophora algae. i kinda discovered it by accident when i added some clado to a small tank that had about ten amano shrimp in it. the filter in the tank spit out bubbles that got caught in the algae and caused it to float. after a few weeks, the floating clump of algae formed a flat dense mat. 

i had been trying to grow the algae into a mat for a while, but never thought about using bubbles to make it float. that part was just dumb luck.


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## Mr_Pat (Apr 13, 2010)

you can also use plastic mesh... the stuff i was using for this floated.. see link below 


http://www.aquariumforum.com/f34/diy-moss-wall-29805.html

so as long as you had a small piece to "seed" the mesh with might make it even easier for ya.


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## FishFlow (Sep 13, 2011)

Lol, Funny. I have this stuff growing on/around/consuming one plant. I pull it off once a month, and it's back a month later. Just the one plant though.


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

Oh that's nothing compared to the hair algae trees I can grow. I get that stuff about 4" thick when it's bad, and at that point it's a tossup between ripping it all off, or using it like cheap moss


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

haha very inventive!


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

Mr_Pat said:


> you can also use plastic mesh... the stuff i was using for this floated.. see link below
> 
> 
> http://www.aquariumforum.com/f34/diy-moss-wall-29805.html
> ...


i think that would work great as an algae based moss wall or even for a sort of ground cover, but i think it would be harder to cut the mesh into strips and sew it onto driftwood than it is with just pure algae. as it is, all i have to do is wrap a thread around the algae and wood and within a couple days the thread is invisible. i dont even really have to tie it.

now i just have to figure out how i want to set up a tank devoted entirely to algae. im thinking about lining some wooden skewers with the algae and setting up rows along the bottom of a tank. then i can find a little barn to go into it, a toy JohnDeer tractor, maybe a grain elevator...

or better yet, make terraces and make the whole thing look like a rice paddy, complete with a little korean family . if i use very thin lines and keep it well trimmed(not hard) i should be able to do things i couldnt do with regular plants.


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## Mr_Pat (Apr 13, 2010)

I would just peel the algae off the mesh.. let it grow on thick then peel it off as a pad. LOL I love the John deer Idea


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

If you do the little farm thing, take a picture. Better yet set it up for a betta fish, haha. It would feel at home with the rice paddies.


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

So you take the clad...trim it...and instead of pitching it...ya send it my way.


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

its looking more and more like a marimo ball every time i trim it.










i set up a new tank. algae mat, stapled to a log.


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## Mr_Pat (Apr 13, 2010)

I use mono-filament fishing line to tie stuff to logs.. doesnt break down and no metal introduced to the tank.


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

day 2. the algae has started to grow, the water has cleared up, and i have started injecting CO2.











it should grow in really thick on the log. i will probably end up with what looks like a little patch of golf course on the log once it fills in and i start trimming it.


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

added a few things, better filtration and old used carbon along the bottom. shrimps love it. i started adding fry from my bluefin killifish tank. they grow incredibly fast in this tank.


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