# green water for daphnia/brine shrimp



## Auban

i think i may have hit on a way to get green water conveniently.
green water is probably the best food for daphnia since it is incredibly easy to use. its just about impossible to over feed with green water since it is alive. just leave a light on it and there is no danger of it rotting and fouling the water.

well, we cant always have green water handy, and it can be a pain to get started sometimes. if the algae isn't in the water to begin with, it just wont grow. its just about impossible to know what kind of algae you will end up with if you just put a tank full of water under full light. i usually end up with cyano. 

and that brings me to the latest thing i tried as feed for my daphnia. 
i saw something called astaxanthin powder. it was advertised as a fine powder, derived from Haematococcus pluvialis, a type of free floating algae.
it worked really well. 
then i noticed something odd... after a couple days in a tank, the bright red powder started changing colors. it turned green

so i looked up H. pluvialis and found out that it turns red when it is exposed to harsh environmental conditions. its one of the things that allows this particular algae to survive in vernal pools.

i had basically been feeding my daphnia a type of free floating algae that had been completely encysted. so, it was all live algae.

so, the astaxanthin powder is really dried green water, ready to spring back to life as soon as i put it in water and shine a light on it. 

fully live green water powder, for freshwater. 
except its red.


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## coralbandit

Nice!I use green water to feed my GBR fry.I actually was looking at the astaxanthin powder and golden pearls on Kensfish,and just ordered some.I got my green water going within 1 week in a specimen container with java moss and 24/7 light from my salt water sump.Sometimes I can get green water quicker(days) if I change the pH naturally.Going from ro to tap , actually mixing them.This may just be coincidence but I discovered it purely by accident when switching water back and forth for the discus breeding efforts.It seems to work for me,but I think the fry will benefit more from the powder.
Good deal dude!


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## majerah1

nice! Looks like I will too be ordering some of the powder.


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## henningc

Where did you get it and what did it cost????


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## coralbandit

henningc said:


> Where did you get it and what did it cost????


I got mine from kens fish for like $8


Astaxanthin Powder


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