How to prevent algae growth on Drosera media

[David]

I use one part sand and one part sphagnum peat. Hmm... I think most of the time it's 2 parts sand and 1 part sphagnum peat. I find that making the media more airy, algae problems do not accur. Also, I place a layer of sand on top of the media. Algae seem to like growing more on wet peat than dry sand.

Seem to work for me, but my plants are kept under grow lights. I am not sure that if they are place outside where they receive rain, algae will not grow. I figure if sand is always wet, algae will also grow. but if the layer of sand is thick enough and the sand grandules are also bigger, making the sand topping drier, it might just work.

Another way i found is to have a layer of sphagnum peat on top of the media and grow terrestrial utricularia on it. Once the utric grows over the media, it seems to prevent algae from growing and it looks beautiful.

Lately I found black silica sand. Not sure if it is truely black silica sand or not. The shop staff told me so, but it looks like finely broken black glass. My Drosera seem to like it and when I mix this with sphagnum peat I get a nice black media that looks great as a backdrop for the drosera. It brings out the bright colours of the plant. When I use river sand and mix it with sphagnum peat, I get a media with black, white and yeallow colours from the sand and peat. Not so nice.