Thinking of hormone,I remember that when I cultivated carpet algae,I used hormone for orkid plant..green colour salt like.I mixed with water and pour in a clear water.Then the carpet grow very hairy.Our buddy ,'Yeemiau' told me that don't let the babies ranchu lost in the jungle...LoL..
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Later I found out that the hairy algae is not good for the babies.So the fresh carpet algae suited for babies is around 4 days.The algae need to re-grow again so the onli ways is to rub gently every water change.The new re-grow algae is easily consume and digest.