[APD] RE: urea/NH4, fishload and algae

["Pete" <peteal at sympatico_ca>]

> > If I understand what I've learned so far, if you are doing big water 
> > changes you shouldn't be getting a build up of Urea unless you've really 
> > gone crazy with the >>fish.  How often/how big are you water changes?

I do the TB method of weekly 50-60% water changes with dosing at the change 
and twice more inbetween.

Oh I don't think it's a buildup, from what I've read the problem is just any 
amount of  urea/NH4 that is created gets taken quickly by algae and thus you 
get more algae growth.  The fact I have algae would actually keep urea/NH4 
levels down as they use it up.  My idea was that the fluidized filter which 
has massive oxidizing potential due to it's bacteria load, could help 
convert it before the algae gets it.

All the posts I've seen with having lots of plants,  good CO2, and fert to 
keep algae down also involve a small amount of fish.  As algae is 
better(faster?) than plants at using the urea/NH4 I was thinking maybe even 
with lots of plants, there's a point where the fish load is too much for the 
plants to deal with it quickly enough to stop algae from growing.

Pete.



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