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Biofilm alternative


fishmosy

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Decided to try out an alternative biofilm recipe. Really simple, just egg white and spirulina (although in this case I used a powder form of some marine microalgae). Mix it up and coat onto rocks. Leave to dry in the sun and thats it.

Heres an example.

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My snail seemed to like it.

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Yet to try it on the shrimp but will let you know how it goes.

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Interesting.

Very creative dude.

Going to follow this with interest.

You could potentially use all sorts of nutritious foods instead of spirulina or algae.

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Very cool idea. I wonder how this would go with Otocinclus cats and whiptail fry.

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I'd love to advance my testing of Astaxanthin and Chlorella using this method.

 

What micro algae powder are you using and where did you buy it?

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Very cool idea. I wonder how this would go with Otocinclus cats and whiptail fry.

I think that is where this was originally developed from. Feeding finicky plecos and whips. Should work well for pretty much anything which eats from a surface - snails, shrimp, plecs, loaches ect ect

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I'd love to advance my testing of Astaxanthin and Chlorella using this method.

 

What micro algae powder are you using and where did you buy it?

I'm using a dried mix for feeding rotifers. Its a mix of dried nannochloropsis, isochrysis galbana, yeast and a few other nutrients and bits and pieces. The bulk is nanno though, which is a green microalgae used for greenwater in marine aquaculture.

I wanted to see if the technique would work. If I had to buy new ingredients, I'd go with Spirulina as my base - simply because its readily available as well as being a nutritious microalgae.

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How long does it take the algea to grow before you drop it in the tank?

Its an alternative to the algae/biofilm that naturally grows on surfaces submerged in water. So you dont grow the algae. You use a dried algae product like spirulina, mix with the egg white, paint the resulting algae paste onto the rock, let it set, and then its ready to feed.

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Fantastic ideas Ben, definitely be watching your progress on this. I'd have to agree with jayc on this, Chlorella might be better as it's got a higher protein content than Spirulina. :thumbsu:

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Fantastic ideas Ben, definitely be watching your progress on this. I'd have to agree with jayc on this, Chlorella might be better as it's got a higher protein content than Spirulina. :thumbsu:

I haven't investigated the nutritional profile of chlorella so you are probably right.

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I had some food left over which hardened in the glass that I mixed it in. I broke it out and fed it to my CRS. They didnt climb all over it in masses like they do Boss Crack or Snow, but they did eat it.

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I haven't investigated the nutritional profile of chlorella so you are probably right.

Yeah, it's got 65% protein, found that out while investigating the nutritional values of the ingredients of my foods, Spirulina has less than 10%. :thumbsu:

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Yeah, you can get a 500g tub on fleaBay for about $50-$60. :thumbsu:

I get kilos wholesale, give me a yo if you want me to pick one up for you. :D

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Thanks mate. May give you a yell at some point. Got plenty of the rotifer mix for the moment.

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Gotta agree with Squigs.

Chlorella is way more nutritious pound for pound (for shrimp that is).

 

The ultimate mix would be 50:50 mix of Chlorella and Astaxanthin.

 

I'm in for some Chlorella if we are doing a group buy.  :mail:

Please let me know.

Edited by jayc
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  • 3 months later...

I realize this thread is rather old, but has anyone tested this further?

 

Is this a viable alternative to the cubes I make with agar-agar? I am bio-film challenged and looking for supplements.

 

Also.... Would the shrimp care if it was "broken cell" Chlorella vs whole cell?

Edited by Michael Petro
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Im geting a product hopefully soon from glasgarten called bacter ae. I watched a YouTube review on it and he talks about how it rapidly created a biofilm

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I ordered it from a shop in the states, along with glasgartens shrimplet food and some knettle stix :D

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Yeah, hopefully the place that sent it declared it properly! Im sure its labels are all German too haha

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The Bacter AE will be the main problem, bacterial content in any products are a no no & technically you can't ship foods in either. I looked at getting the Glasgarten range in a while ago & hit red lights at every turn. :sad:

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