Re: [APD] RE: Algae Bloom?? PLEASE READ! Thanks!!

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

--- Vic Di Cosola <clutch24 at adelphia_net> wrote:
> . . .  A very nice guy here mentioned in my
> earlier post on cloudy
> water, that this could be early bacteria/normal??  I'm
> not set to panic JUST
> yet, but...2 days after a 50% water change, it's more
> cloudy than before and
> seems to be getting worse. 

I haven't found water changes to be particularly helpful
with the clouldiness that comes from a cycling tank. It
comes right back. I've thought that this was because it's
more a matter of the good bacteria not yet outcompeting the
stuff that clouds the water. You pull out a bunch of the
bacteria with a water change and it just grows back rather
quickly. If you try to starve the bacteria, you can end up
starving your plants. Hoping I learned well from Tom, I try
to be sure my plants don't go hungry. And if I got
impatient, I'd throw on a UV. If it started to turn green
on me, then I might be even more inclined to use a UV, but
I've never actually had green water, knock on wood.

Avoiding the tank cycling is best but with any halfway
decent planted tank, the bacterial bloom clouding the water
is doomed. I can't say that's what you have, but it sounds
like it. 

> Could this be natural for this
> tank with the
> amount of plants, light and Co2?  Do I perform another
> water change and add
> some activated carbon??

I wouldn't use carbon. And I'd only use water changes to
control the nitrate and phosphate levels, dosing each
accrodingly to maintain nice levels and balance. I.e., I'd
try to feed the plants a balance diet. And I might throw in
more mulm into the filter. "Dirty" filters are good for new
tanks, imo.
> 
> I do think I have a good aquatic balance of light Co2 and
> plants.  Nutrients
> to follow soon, 

I would have thought that the nutrients should come right
along with the lighting. Without good feeding, the lights
are more likely to help algae than the plants we like.

good luck,
Scott H.

=====
S. Hieber

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