[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[APD] Re: Aquatic-Plants Digest, Vol 19, Issue 8

Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2005 08:59:18 +0100
From: "Daniel Larsson" <defdac at hotmail_com>
Subject: [APD] BGA/Cyanobacteria
To: <aquatic-plants at actwin_com>

The single most effecive sellingpoint, to me, for using KNO3
against Cyanobacteria/BGA is "heterocysts":
http://www.answers.com/topic/heterocyst

These specialized cells extract nitrogen ...
*drum roll*
... from the air.

If you can't get rid of Cyanobacteria/BGA, you will have nil
growth on plants and probably on other algae too.
Fishfood/fishpoop will not get you far if you have nitrogen
starving plants, as most of you with persistent Cyanobacteria
have already seen.

KNO3 will.


// Daniel.


Right on, you'al need to give the stuff some respect. Its been around longer than most other obvious organisms and has lived through a whole lot of unpleasantness and grows in some pretty unpleasant places. Being a geologist, I've seen evidence it in some of the oldest rocks around. Wonderful stuff, easier to live with than try to eradicate it completely. It will take over the place if you give it a chance.

I've got it in my tank ... I'm a bit lazy and haven't done a really deep vac, it is along the front edge of my tank between the substrate and the glass. Oddly, not in my tank with fluorite. As I'm lazy and never could get decent readings with tests, I became a follower of Tom Barr. A sad state I must admit, good grief, its embarrassing even, I've got kids older than he is and once had a planted fish tank when he was still in diapers... but what the hell... the gospel according to Tom works. Any time I feel particularly murderous, I pump up some energy and scrape the front edge of the tank and then forget it till my wife complains, but usually it is live and let live.

The same routine works for BBA. At one point by tank was bushier than my chin, which is pretty bushy. Upping nitrates and CO2 cured that, slowly. I still find BBA occasionally hidden deep in the underbrush when it gets too thick. So it is still around. Nitrates, CO2, K and traces (and a couple SAEs) fixed the green filamentous algae that moved in after the BBA left. The green stuff still can be found hidding here and there, but you have to hunt for it. Life has been so much easier since I took the easy way out. Now I have time to start trying to tame my jungle and try to hide enough loose change from the remodeler to go pressurized CO2. But then I'll have to up the lights too;-)

On top of that, I've not seen ich which seemed to show up with every new fish since the plants started looking healthy. I've not had to add potentially toxic materials to my tank to try to cure some disaster in a couple of years. One of these days I have to pull out some Java moss and put it under a microscope to check out the micro flora and fauna. My fish ate all the planaria & ostacods that have shown up.

Doing DIY, CO@ is my critical problem, 48 hours with a dead bottle and green pea soup, string algae will be showing up everywhere. Balance is the key.
Better over dosing than under dosing. Listen to Tom. You can see that when he has to repeat himself too many times he can get grumpy :-)

Bob







_______________________________________________
Aquatic-Plants mailing list
Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo/aquatic-plants