I put some rams-horn snails, pond snails and mystery snails in a clear plastic container in a sunlit window. Gorgeous green water within several weeks. I do feed the snails some raw spinach and fish food. When summer comes, I will make sure they do not get too hot in the window. Thanks for a helpful video!! USA
I am a true believer in greenwater and have been so for decades. I have never used scuds though. I use mystery snails and light. I find my healthiest most productive tanks are my greenwater tanks. It is so satisfying to see little fat bellied fry darting around and knowing they are well fed. Thanks for putting the word out. One thing to get rid of greenwater is daphnia. They quickly make short work of greenwater and provide a good source of food in and of themselves for fry and adult fish alike. Love your videos and your quest to do the hobby justice. Keep up the great work. I wish you good luck in your fish warehouse endeavors.
Awesome How to Greenwater, Dan, Thanks. I have a 3 foot tank outside with very healthy Golden Comets, some Ramshorn snails, and Vallisneria and AFTERNOON SUN. This Tank has also developed a Blackworm Farm in it's substrate. Green water and blackworms have been fed to all my fry for years. Such an Underappreciated Resource. Today I will celebrate this tank......might even make a video of it, haha.
Scuds for green water is still my favorite method for a few years now. Works like a charm on a small scale: 2 no-plant scud vases on my windowsill with old tank water gives me green water all year to feed my small daphnia cultures.
I threw some Dalmatian Mollies into a back porch swimming pool filled with dwarf water lettuce this summer. After a few weeks it went green. By the end of the summer the survivors (dang dragonfly larva...) were three times larger than the tank raised ones from the same batch. Green water for the win!
I just realized the best way to understanding how to stop green water is to understand how its made, and your video was perfectly Made in help me with that. Thank you
I dont have scuds. I had a tank make itself green water. A ten gallon with Rich Fish from Pam, Shrimp from Chattanooga Ed, and IFGA Guppy fry from Rick with BamAquatics. I do 50% water changes weekly and the water stays dark green. I started with some plants from Rachel O'Leary, and Ed, so I've left them in. This has been going maybe two months and all are growing and multiplying. Great Green Water Vid. Thanks Dan.
Tehehe the last 30 seconds of that were priceless something to the tone of “make a comment and lets geek out” 😜 hahahaha. this was great and packed with good information as per usual !! Thanks so much. The more I watch you the more I’m convinced You’re my spirit animal #danYouAreAwesome #letsgeekOut ☺️☺️
Nice! I just started my scud culture for my pea puffer and the starter culture I got have green water already. I poured it to my 10 gallon bare bottom tank and has made the whole tank stay green. I guess I got lucky making instant green water lol. Now I'm trying to figure out how to clean the mulm without sucking my scuds out. Any ideas are welcome. Oh, forgot to mention its only been about a week.
One week and you already have the green stuff...that's great! When I siphon out the mulm in the scud tank, I run the water through a net with mesh large enough to catch the adult scuds, but not the mulm. Then, I swirl the water in the bucket with the mulm until the mulm is concentrated in the center. Then, I take a piece of repashy or other food and put it in the bucket towards the sides where there is the least amount of mulm. When the repashy is covered with the baby scuds that made it through the net, I scoop the chunk or repashy and the scuds out with a brine shrimp net and put them back in the culture. I don't save all the scuds this way, but I get a lot of them.
Not sure where you can get scuds in AU. I got mine on Ebay a long time ago. If you can't purchase any, you may be able to find some under the rocks in your local creek and go from there.
I don't know of any commonly kept aquarium fish that would eat green water at an adult size. It would be great for filter feeders like clams and bamboo shrimp, but probably not so much for fish once they get a bit of size on them.
It is my first time trying to culture green water. What I found out is, I can get green water in 24-30 hours with white light on all the time and it need air bubbles.
How much light is needed? How many watts/lumens and please specify the light type, CFL or LED. I'm soo frustrated with trying to grow algae. I can only guess, I need more light for algae.
I have a tank that I growout CPDs in. If love to use green water for then, but the tank also has a bunch of blue dreams shrimp. Would that be an issue?
I get green water very easily. All I do is to put a tank outside under sunlight and the water would turn green in a few days, it would be faster if you have fish and feed the fish.
I thought scud will devour java moss (any type of moss)? Or did you mean that you use the scud to clean the algae off your java moss, then remove the moss from your scud/green water tank? Also, you said there will be plenty of nutrients in the tank to make green water - are these nutrients just what's produced as waste from the scuds, or are you adding from another source like fertilizer? Thanks, Dan!
I wonder how well it would work to do a sort of succession system where you add successively larger live foods that also eat the green water. We know that the fry should be so large after so long, right? So we add a moina culture into the green water shortly before the fry are large enough to eat them, so that the moina are booming just as the fry need them. A week before they're big enough, we add magna. We supplement with more green water if the tank water starts going clear from all the filter feeding action. Is this making sense? Has anyone tried this?
Is green water thick? I have a large vase with a couple shrimp and a nerite snail. There is a dense cloud of green... when I drop in sinking food, I have to push it through the cloud. I’ve noticed my shrimp grazing on the bottom of the cloud. Is this green water or some other type of algae? I have a tank with endlers that are expecting. Just trying to be ready with healthy food for the little ones. Thanks. Very interesting video.
Greenwater is not typically thick. What is probably happening is an infestation of some kind of thick surface growing algae. It is fine for a while but, if it gets too thick, it could hamper O2 exchange at the surface.
Hmmm very interesting.. not sure I want a whole tank dedicated to this culture tho... I guess it would be more for those that have an excess of 10+ tanks etc and could spare another tank just for this...
My green water attempts have changed from obviously green to more of a yellow with a hint of green. Any idea what this is indicative of? I've kept a jar of this yellow-green water for months with scuds hoping it would go back to green, but no luck.
My guess is that perhaps you are getting so much infusoria, that the green water is getting eaten by them. Infusoria, however, are also great fry food, so not really a problem.
can you have daphnia and scuds in the green water tank? Also one you get it how can you maintain it? Is green water the same thing as infusoria? Sorry if I misspelled that! Do you have a video on how to set up an ongoing supply of California black worms? Ok I'm just trying to stick with a few fish channels that are easy to understand for a laymen like me.
You can keep scuds in green water, but daphnia will eat all the green water in short order. In fact, daphnia is a great way to get rid of green water if you have it and don't want it. To maintain it, I just feed the tank and keep the light on. I change the water in the aquarium like I would in a normal fish tank and I run a sponge filter like I would in a normal fish tank. One nice thing about scuds is they keep the sponge filter very clean, so it does not get clogged up with particulates from the green water. I don't have a vid up on culturing blackworms yet...it is on the list to do. Hope that helps!
I just keep the tank at my normal fish room temps....mid 70s to low 80s. I've never tried to keep scuds with any shrimp. I think they would out compete the shrimp.
Hey Dan, Would love to see you actually drink that green water.Lol🤣 How long does it take to get green water? How many hours do you keep light on to get green water? If you can instead of dumping the green water from the tank in you automatically wc system i would keep a daphnia cultures and feed them the green water daily. This way you win win scenario as you can sustain green water and also get daphnia cultures to feed fishes. Maybe you can give it a try in a few 5 gallon buckets. Thanks for sharing your experience. 👍
Thanks for asking all the questions I should have covered in the vid, but didn't. 1. Once the plants are removed, the water gets green in a week or two 2. I keep the lights on roughly 14 hours a day If you drink it, I'll think about drinking it :)
Green water cells alone are too small for fish to see and eat. It is actually the infusoria and paramecium that there eating. When eating the infusoria, the fry will take in some green water. That's how that works.
Dans Fish can you give any advice for doing this on a quick lil green water culture instead of a whole tank? I’ve heard u can do it by leaving a jar of tank water in the sun with grass clippings?
Bro, i also make a green water that use a fertilizer urea n npk, rice brain and em4.. so if green water are ready and matured, can i use it also to fry 45days after free swim? I just scared that if green water i produced from that ingredients will make the baby fish die
I used to think I loved green water until it appeared in my aquascaped bowl and won't go away. I've floated guppy grass, watersprite, and duckweed to try to get rid of it and have cut way back on photoperiod. The next thing I'm going to try is daphnia. I guess there are worse problems but I'm not used to dealing with algae anymore since I've got my methods figured out for the most part, and this is annoying. I don't even have any fry right now that are small enough to phytoplankton.
I wonder if green water is what empire gudgeon fry need...I know many sources say they need sea water, but there are landlocked populations that exist, obviously not ever experiencing brackish or marine environments. Their larva are so tiny that people don't know what to feed them.
I put some rams-horn snails, pond snails and mystery snails in a clear plastic container in a sunlit window. Gorgeous green water within several weeks. I do feed the snails some raw spinach and fish food. When summer comes, I will make sure they do not get too hot in the window. Thanks for a helpful video!! USA
I am a true believer in greenwater and have been so for decades. I have never used scuds though. I use mystery snails and light. I find my healthiest most productive tanks are my greenwater tanks. It is so satisfying to see little fat bellied fry darting around and knowing they are well fed. Thanks for putting the word out. One thing to get rid of greenwater is daphnia. They quickly make short work of greenwater and provide a good source of food in and of themselves for fry and adult fish alike. Love your videos and your quest to do the hobby justice. Keep up the great work. I wish you good luck in your fish warehouse endeavors.
Great point about daphnia clearing up green water!
Awesome How to Greenwater, Dan, Thanks. I have a 3 foot tank outside with very healthy Golden Comets, some Ramshorn snails, and Vallisneria and AFTERNOON SUN. This Tank has also developed a Blackworm Farm in it's substrate. Green water and blackworms have been fed to all my fry for years. Such an Underappreciated Resource. Today I will celebrate this tank......might even make a video of it, haha.
Everyone needs one of those "gross" tanks...lots of great critters in the soup!
Scuds for green water is still my favorite method for a few years now. Works like a charm on a small scale: 2 no-plant scud vases on my windowsill with old tank water gives me green water all year to feed my small daphnia cultures.
I must be one of those fish geeks cause I WANT GREEN WATER!
The geekiness is strong in this one!
I threw some Dalmatian Mollies into a back porch swimming pool filled with dwarf water lettuce this summer. After a few weeks it went green. By the end of the summer the survivors (dang dragonfly larva...) were three times larger than the tank raised ones from the same batch. Green water for the win!
I just realized the best way to understanding how to stop green water is to understand how its made, and your video was perfectly Made in help me with that. Thank you
I have heard that CPD's love green water to really go at it!
I did this on accident but i think ill keep it now
I fertilize aquarium or pond water with macro and micro ferts. Add snail and feed the snails whatever veg.
I just got a tub in the yard filled with lots of plants, cherry shrimp, and red ramshorns, and it's green as can be
I dont have scuds. I had a tank make itself green water. A ten gallon with Rich Fish from Pam, Shrimp from Chattanooga Ed, and IFGA Guppy fry from Rick with BamAquatics. I do 50% water changes weekly and the water stays dark green. I started with some plants from Rachel O'Leary, and Ed, so I've left them in. This has been going maybe two months and all are growing and multiplying. Great Green Water Vid. Thanks Dan.
Sounds like a great fry food tank!
Very awesome video! Do you use a heater in your greenwater tanks? If so, what temperature do you keep them at?
Tehehe the last 30 seconds of that were priceless something to the tone of “make a comment and lets geek out” 😜 hahahaha. this was great and packed with good information as per usual !! Thanks so much. The more I watch you the more I’m convinced You’re my spirit animal #danYouAreAwesome #letsgeekOut ☺️☺️
LOL! Geeks rule the world :)
So interesting....
Great tutorial Dan, I'll be working on a new culture here soon, so I'll try out your steps and see how I like it - cheers my friend!
I look forward to seeing your green water vintage!
How did this work out for you Bentley?
@@vb2377 haven't had space
that was interesting in so many levels!
We don't like the looks of it, but fish and fry love green water.
👍💕👍
Yes, indeed!
Absolutely fascinating Dan. What an ingenious idea. Great video, enjoyed this one, even though it's something I would never want ! 😀
I hear you...it ain't pretty.
Thanks for this. Very helpful. where did the infusoria come from? How did you introduce them ?
Wow great topic on green water love it with scuds lol
i got a 3g black bucket outside w java moss and snails. the water is green!!! i didnt even know it was a food source hahaha
Freeeee fooooood!!!!
Looks cool!
Thanks Dan, I’ve been trying to feed some pseudomugil gertrudae fry that I bred on accident and this helped a lot.
Great info. Thank you for sharing! - Little Bobby
Always a pleasure, Little Bobby
Nice! I just started my scud culture for my pea puffer and the starter culture I got have green water already. I poured it to my 10 gallon bare bottom tank and has made the whole tank stay green. I guess I got lucky making instant green water lol. Now I'm trying to figure out how to clean the mulm without sucking my scuds out. Any ideas are welcome. Oh, forgot to mention its only been about a week.
One week and you already have the green stuff...that's great!
When I siphon out the mulm in the scud tank, I run the water through a net with mesh large enough to catch the adult scuds, but not the mulm. Then, I swirl the water in the bucket with the mulm until the mulm is concentrated in the center. Then, I take a piece of repashy or other food and put it in the bucket towards the sides where there is the least amount of mulm. When the repashy is covered with the baby scuds that made it through the net, I scoop the chunk or repashy and the scuds out with a brine shrimp net and put them back in the culture. I don't save all the scuds this way, but I get a lot of them.
Hi mate, great topic, where or how do I start a scud culture to go in green water?
Regards Duzzy from 🇦🇺
Not sure where you can get scuds in AU. I got mine on Ebay a long time ago. If you can't purchase any, you may be able to find some under the rocks in your local creek and go from there.
Excellent video. Love ur explanation on green water content
Can we revisit the cultures dans fish keeps now in the warehouse?
Great video! Where do you get a scud culture?
Ebay is where I got mine.
I already keep a green water culture. I think I should probably add scuds! 😀
Nice tanks Dan!
Very good video and great information. Wish you luck, my friend.
Brantov, thanks so much!
good video
Hi my friend
I need green water!!!!
We all do, Marit!
Great tutorial. Thanks for sharing 👍
Happy to finally make this vid!
Oh that is a very helpful video! thanks!
Good video and great information.
Do adult fish also benefit from green water, or would it be negligible once they can take larger foods?
I don't know of any commonly kept aquarium fish that would eat green water at an adult size. It would be great for filter feeders like clams and bamboo shrimp, but probably not so much for fish once they get a bit of size on them.
this green water good for feeding daphnia?
Another great piece of content.
My goldfish pond has gone green - can I use that to feed my fry? is that the same stuff?
It is
How well will green water work for Angel fish? I know brine shrimp are great for fry but green water seems like a more stable solution.
Hey Dan, do you have recommendation on a specific light brand for your greenwater? Do you use Beamswork, Finnex? Thanks!
It is my first time trying to culture green water. What I found out is, I can get green water in 24-30 hours with white light on all the time and it need air bubbles.
Great info. Thanks for sharing.
Always a pleasure, Tom!
My endler female/fry tank is an accidental green water tank. They grow so fast in there. Constantly cleaning the bottom of that tank tho!
Would this work for Angelfish fry?
How much light is needed? How many watts/lumens and please specify the light type, CFL or LED.
I'm soo frustrated with trying to grow algae.
I can only guess, I need more light for algae.
I have a tank that I growout CPDs in. If love to use green water for then, but the tank also has a bunch of blue dreams shrimp. Would that be an issue?
Great video. Super informative.
Glad you liked it...thanks for watching.
Freaken awesome explanation.
That was super cool!!!!
And tasty, too :)
@@DansFish That's funny I exactly drank a bunch of duck weed today.
Cool! Are you doing 24 hour light or ?
1:38 what are the scuds in or on when you first see them in the video?
I get green water very easily. All I do is to put a tank outside under sunlight and the water would turn green in a few days, it would be faster if you have fish and feed the fish.
I thought scud will devour java moss (any type of moss)? Or did you mean that you use the scud to clean the algae off your java moss, then remove the moss from your scud/green water tank?
Also, you said there will be plenty of nutrients in the tank to make green water - are these nutrients just what's produced as waste from the scuds, or are you adding from another source like fertilizer?
Thanks, Dan!
With egeria Densa you would not even have that small amount of algae. But I have heard that Egeria Densa is forbidden in some states...
Great culture Dan! Love the scud use
They are wonderful creatures...unless you are trying to raise shrimp. Then they are a pain. But, in general, such great fish food.
@@DansFish I've only ever kept them with cherry shrimp, but have had no trouble keeping them together
Do scuds eat heat algae? I'm doing this ASAP
So helpful thanks!!
And DELICIOUS !
as unsightly as it is having a constant source of food should accelerate growth
Sure...small fish raised in green water often grow very quickly.
Maybe I missed it but Where Do you get the scuds??
Nice.
Groovy!
I wonder how well it would work to do a sort of succession system where you add successively larger live foods that also eat the green water. We know that the fry should be so large after so long, right? So we add a moina culture into the green water shortly before the fry are large enough to eat them, so that the moina are booming just as the fry need them. A week before they're big enough, we add magna. We supplement with more green water if the tank water starts going clear from all the filter feeding action.
Is this making sense? Has anyone tried this?
Can I use for corydoras fry? thanks great video
Sure, as a supplement. But, green water is free floating in the water column and cory fry need food on the substrate to get in a good feed.
Is green water Phytoplankton and can u feed it to corals
I’m not sure if coral woud eat it
I got scuds already. I might try this. I want to start a fairy shrimp tank so I need a lot of green water.
Hope it goes well for you. I've never tried fairy shrimp...one day!
How many hours a day is the light on?
Is green water thick? I have a large vase with a couple shrimp and a nerite snail. There is a dense cloud of green... when I drop in sinking food, I have to push it through the cloud. I’ve noticed my shrimp grazing on the bottom of the cloud. Is this green water or some other type of algae? I have a tank with endlers that are expecting. Just trying to be ready with healthy food for the little ones.
Thanks. Very interesting video.
Greenwater is not typically thick. What is probably happening is an infestation of some kind of thick surface growing algae. It is fine for a while but, if it gets too thick, it could hamper O2 exchange at the surface.
Funny thumbnail! 😆
I like your Ebay store. Bought a few of your fish already.
Ambist, thanks for noticing the thumbnail. Took a while to get it right. #pinkyup
excellent
Thanks, Dave!
Alright alright
Mr. McConaughey has spoken!
I kick start my greenwater with a spoon full of spirulina. My micro fry do tremendously on it.
Michelle Gibson do you add it when you remove the plants or just whenever you want?
Danzo I add it whenever I want to have green water if it needs a top up I add more.
@@michellegibson3899 gotcha, thanks!
Sounds like a great way to do it!
Luv the thumbnail!
I wanted to dress up like a Victorian Age aristocrat for the thumbnail...but this had to do!
Hmmm very interesting.. not sure I want a whole tank dedicated to this culture tho... I guess it would be more for those that have an excess of 10+ tanks etc and could spare another tank just for this...
If you have small fry and limited space, you can do an infusoria culture in a jar. Be warned, however, that those jar cultures can smell pretty bad!
@@DansFish Thanks but No. haha..
My green water attempts have changed from obviously green to more of a yellow with a hint of green. Any idea what this is indicative of? I've kept a jar of this yellow-green water for months with scuds hoping it would go back to green, but no luck.
My guess is that perhaps you are getting so much infusoria, that the green water is getting eaten by them. Infusoria, however, are also great fry food, so not really a problem.
Don't drink that Dan🥺🥺😂🤣😂🙈🙈👍👈💋💋
notNolajane FishRich 🤣😂🤣
*gulp* Oooops!!!!! :)
can you have daphnia and scuds in the green water tank? Also one you get it how can you maintain it? Is green water the same thing as infusoria? Sorry if I misspelled that! Do you have a video on how to set up an ongoing supply of California black worms? Ok I'm just trying to stick with a few fish channels that are easy to understand for a laymen like me.
You can keep scuds in green water, but daphnia will eat all the green water in short order. In fact, daphnia is a great way to get rid of green water if you have it and don't want it. To maintain it, I just feed the tank and keep the light on. I change the water in the aquarium like I would in a normal fish tank and I run a sponge filter like I would in a normal fish tank. One nice thing about scuds is they keep the sponge filter very clean, so it does not get clogged up with particulates from the green water. I don't have a vid up on culturing blackworms yet...it is on the list to do. Hope that helps!
@@DansFish Yes and thank you!😊
One more question where did you get your freshwater scuds? googling it doesn't give much options
I got my original culture on Ebay. I hope to have some to sell soon, but those puffers eat a LOT!!!
Dans Fish pee puffers?
You also forgot to mention that the babies get to eat scuds too if you leave them in there long enough :)
That is true!
Can we make green water in indoor
Good! What about the temperature?
Can you keep the scuds with the Amano shrimp?
Cheers :)
I just keep the tank at my normal fish room temps....mid 70s to low 80s.
I've never tried to keep scuds with any shrimp. I think they would out compete the shrimp.
@@DansFish Thanks :)
Hey Dan,
Would love to see you actually drink that green water.Lol🤣
How long does it take to get green water?
How many hours do you keep light on to get green water?
If you can instead of dumping the green water from the tank in you automatically wc system i would keep a daphnia cultures and feed them the green water daily. This way you win win scenario as you can sustain green water and also get daphnia cultures to feed fishes.
Maybe you can give it a try in a few 5 gallon buckets.
Thanks for sharing your experience. 👍
Thanks for asking all the questions I should have covered in the vid, but didn't.
1. Once the plants are removed, the water gets green in a week or two
2. I keep the lights on roughly 14 hours a day
If you drink it, I'll think about drinking it :)
I moght be a year late to the party, but ill go shot for shot on algae water, lets geek out.
hahaha! great thumbnail
It was DELICIOUS!
I have never had it, not even buy accident in 8 ponds outside.
when you say scuds do you mean gammarus pule , or
Mexican Gammarus (Hyalella azteca)
No idea which species I have. Whatever was on Ebay when I purchased them years ago.
Aha, ....9:30...the bettas or any fish are saying hello . By chasing each other
They say hello a lot then!
Thanks for the upload. Just starting to get exposed to this and you were very informative.
But how does green water start? Yeast? Spirulina?
Where do I get skuds from? Can they be ordered?
Hello Dovine,
I got my original colony of scuds off of Ebay.
Do the scuds make good live food??
Absolutely.
does the scud not eating/harm the fish fry?
I've never seen scuds hurt fish or fry.
🙏😎
Green water cells alone are too small for fish to see and eat. It is actually the infusoria and paramecium that there eating. When eating the infusoria, the fry will take in some green water. That's how that works.
Can it be used for severum fry?
Sure. Most any fry from aquarium sized fish will eat green water or the organisms within the green water.
Dans Fish can you give any advice for doing this on a quick lil green water culture instead of a whole tank? I’ve heard u can do it by leaving a jar of tank water in the sun with grass clippings?
Bro, i also make a green water that use a fertilizer urea n npk, rice brain and em4.. so if green water are ready and matured, can i use it also to fry 45days after free swim? I just scared that if green water i produced from that ingredients will make the baby fish die
I'm curious if you could somehow filter the algae out of the possibly toxic water medium.
I used to think I loved green water until it appeared in my aquascaped bowl and won't go away. I've floated guppy grass, watersprite, and duckweed to try to get rid of it and have cut way back on photoperiod. The next thing I'm going to try is daphnia. I guess there are worse problems but I'm not used to dealing with algae anymore since I've got my methods figured out for the most part, and this is annoying. I don't even have any fry right now that are small enough to phytoplankton.
Try using uv sterilizer filters, works everytime :D
Can I use green water zebra danios fry.
Absolutely. That is a perfect food for that fish.
@@DansFish THANKS
Fun fact. Glo fish can been seen in green water
I drink enough green water, and all the fish start to glow :)
I wonder if green water is what empire gudgeon fry need...I know many sources say they need sea water, but there are landlocked populations that exist, obviously not ever experiencing brackish or marine environments. Their larva are so tiny that people don't know what to feed them.
Yes! This is exactly how I would go about raising empire gudgeon fry once they were free swimming.
@@DansFish hmmm, coupled with some farms having success with breeding them in outdoor ponds (or so I hear), this seems plausible.