# How to increase biofilm?



## mheat (Apr 24, 2013)

I have 3 of female CRS berried for 3.5 weeks, and expect to have some baby shrimps shortly. My tank is a small 5G tank with a lot of moss, and a big piece driftwood. I see my 10 CRS graze on the DW and moss all the time. But I find the tank glass is very clean even after a week. It seems there is no algae forming on the glass, rock (small one), and substrate (ADA decorative sand). I do not add fert. Plants look green, Nitrate is at 0. I know baby shrimp need to feed on algae and biofilm. How can I make more biofilm in my tank?


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

I believe moss is enough to grow biofilm, but you might want to add some leaves, they're great for growing some biofilm. Actually any clean leaves will do.


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## mheat (Apr 24, 2013)

Do you mean Indian Almond Leaf? I have some. I used to put a piece into the shrimp tank, but my shrimps were not interested to it at all even it was in the tank for 4-5 weeks. Then I remove the leaf.


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## Turningdizzy (Apr 5, 2014)

Yes, Indian Almond leaf will work.


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## cininohio (Jan 13, 2016)

Oak leaves are free and work also.


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

Keep in mind that algae and biofilm are different. Even if your glass looks clean, you most likely have plenty of biofilm unless you are just constantly razor blading all your glass, lol.

For leaves, they will go to town on them once they break down enough. I often have Indian Almond Leaves that take three to four weeks to break down enough. There are other benefits to the leaves as well, so I'd recommend leaving them in there 

Other than that, something like Bacter AE will do well, but it's way too expensive for me to justify. Maybe a breeder who absolutely needs higher success rates, but I almost can't sell them fast enough to keep up already... 

Sent from my Nexus+6 using Tapatalk


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

For me biofilm occurs when I don't have much surface agitation.


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## GrampsGrunge (Jun 18, 2012)

You need to leave the almond leaf in the tank, the bio-film on it's surface isn't always visible. If you have access to Alder leaves they're both good for tannins and bio-film.

Do you have another tank that grows film algae on it's glass? You can always use an old credit card to scrape off some sheets to feed both the adults and babies.


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## mheat (Apr 24, 2013)

I have another 5G tank (same size) next to it with about 80-100 PFR shrimps. In that tank, there are lot of shrimp poop. Bio load is high. A lot of algae too. There is always a thin layer or surface screen in the tank. It breaks to small pieces if I pop it with my finger. I screen it out, and it forms again next day. Shrimps like to hang on the floating plant to eat the surface screen. Is the surface screen consider biofilm?


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