Small Pebble Farm

[JamesFish]

Hi All,

Now and again people say about these and explain what they are. I did a very small one to try it out. Sadly daylight has gone away for winter pretty much now but its pretty cheap to do and works.

Items used
1) cheap small air pump (£5-£10 ones that come with air line etc on ebay if you look and don't mind noise, remember to add a non return valve as not many ship with for some reason)
2)Old plastic box cleaned out
3)Bag of small pebbles £1.26 from local fish store

Placed pebbles and spare air stone in on window ledge (inside) filled with tank water and turned the air pump on. Tried without the air pump nothing happened with it arrived a few days later in small amounts.

One picture showing everything but the air stone in. I did this to try it out that's why its not very large or very green in this shot but it did work. Remember to top it up as mine did lose water for normal reasons.

[yayfish24]

How long till the algae grows? Its a pretty cool idea to farm algae which is what im assuming your doing correct?

[Jools]

Great post. It's good to have a picture to better explain this. Have you tried using rainwater or anything to seed the farm to get algal growth more quickly?

Cheers

Jools

[yayfish24]

I think this weekend im gonna find something to fit on my window ledge and try this out.

[JamesFish]

Hi Jools / Yayfish24,

I live near the M25, new homes being built and some industrial units so rain water for me would be suspect at best.

For that reason I chose tank water and changed it daily. 3-4 paper cups of water make little if any impact on my 2ft tank.

Algae grew best with a small air stone attached but the pump is in need of TLC / replacement so noise drove me nuts. If I had only a couple of algae eaters it would have been enough but sadly I have 56 fry ancistrus so they strip the pebbles far faster than the algae can be grown.

Time to cover something is about a week I have found slate to be quicker than the pebbles attached is a picture added a week or 2 ago and a pebble that's never been out. The slate has a better covering. I am tempted to sink the box since it has the best covering of all.

Average time for anything to appear a week.

Note to the wise if you use an air stone you get allot of splash out watch where you put it or your Mrs may kill you.

[JamesFish]

Took my hungry little guys less then 10 minutes to strip these clean today. Plonked some pebbles in and a low powered stone so I don't have to change so much water in it frequently.