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Re: Algae/bio/bleach/Cladophora
Sylvia wrote:
>....Maybe this is why algae doesn't get algae. So maybe it would be easier to
>just grow a green hair algae tank. One wouldn't have to worry about getting
>other algae. It doesn't look half bad either--but would be rather monotonous.
>Maybe the black thread algae and the green fur algae for color variation,
>though I didn't try to see if these worked out together, as I'd already
>eliminated the black thread plague.
>
>Sylvia
>Sick of bba
>
Ohe horror that I can imagine is a tank infected with both Cladophora and
Oedogonium. The Kind of Cladophora I have fought is not the kind that
stays in balls, but grows all over the place. Oegogonium covers everything
with tough, 1/4 inch hairs. Probably black beard algae wouldn't have much
of a chance in that tank, but, neither would the plants.
Let me try to correct a few misconceptions about the bleach treatment.
(1) you shouldn't use the bleach treatment to get the hair algae off of the
plants and then put the treated plants back in a tank where the hair algae
still lurks. It will just climb back on your plants. You should only use
the treatment when you want to eliminate the hair algae from the tank.
(2) You do not have to worry about spores of hair algae. All the kinds of
bad hair algae I know of do not produce resistant spores. If you get rid
of it, it does not come back except through introduction of new plants that
havn't been bleached or through new fish as fragments in the water you pour
in along with the new fish, or through new snails carrying the hair algae
attached to their shells. Once you get a tank of plants free of hair
algae, it is very little effort to keep that tank free.
(3) The bleach treatment is not as much work as people think. It only adds
a small amount to the time of setting up a new tank.
(4) Rinsing the bleach away is relatively easy. You don't have to worry
about residual bleach on plants or gravel. Three or four thorough rinses
is all you need. Any residual bleach after this much rinsing will quickly
be consumed by just a little bit of organiic matter.
Paul Krombholz, in dry central Mississippi