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Re: [APD] How to get rid of Alage on glass walls



Hi,
You now have the opportunity to observe an algae throughout its life  
cycle!  This is green dust algae, which is exactly as you describe.   
You can get rid of it by just leaving it totally alone for 2 to 3  
weeks, without touching it at all.  No accidental touches, no  
scraping, no wiping.  It is a form of algae that starts as zoospores,  
which are free swimming algae spores.  When you wipe the glass now,  
you just spread them into the water, where they swim around looking  
for a well lighted hard flat place - the glass.  There it once again  
settles in and tries to live out it's life cycle.  But, if you leave  
it totally alone, it changes to the non-swimming stage, where it is  
possible to get rid of it.  After 2 to 3 weeks it looks different,  
blotchy brownish with circles of lighter material, with bubbles in  
it.  If you did nothing at all now it would just die and fall off,  
but you can now wipe it off, and it isn't likely to come back.

I have gone thru this three times now - it took two tries for my 29  
gallon tank, because I accidentally scraped some off changing water  
after about ten days, which reset it, then I didn't wait another 2 to  
3 weeks before wiping it off.  The second time I did it right and it  
didn't come back.   Today I just finished wiping and scraping off  
another such growth on my 45 gallon tank.  This one really turned  
brown before I removed it, and it looked almost like tar as I wiped  
it off.

My light fixture doesn't light the front glass except about half way  
down and down to the substrate, so the algae didn't grow in the  
unlighted area of the glass.   Maybe we run into this from too much  
light?

The above treatment method is one developed by Tom Barr - one more of  
his contributions to our hobby.

Vaughn H.

On Oct 14, 2006, at 12:21 PM, Saugata Banerjee wrote:

> Hi! All,
>
> I have a 6 month old 90g planted tank. The tank is heavily planted.  
> Since
> the past 2 months I am facing this problem of alage growth on the  
> glass
> walls. This alage can be easily wiped with a soft cloth & in fact I  
> was
> doing the same thing during every w/c. However, after the w/c  
> withing a 3-4
> days the wall will again get covered with this alage. Some of the  
> important
> dtls. of my tank is as follow:-
>
> Light - 36w x 8 nos Philips T8 lights (6500k) @ 12 hrs
> CO2- Pressurised - 24X7 mixed through a reactor
> An additional Powerhead for better circulation of water (this I have
> installed today)
> Dosing:On the day of w/c - 15 mls of KNO3 (stock sol. of 8 tb  
> spoons in 400
> mls of Distillled water), 2.5 mls of KH2PO4 (stock sol. of 2 tb  
> spoons in
> 400 mls of distilled water, 2.5 mls of Trace elements). on the 4th  
> days 10
> mls of KNO3, 2.5 mls of KH2PO4 & 2.5 mls of Traces
>
> Where am I going wrong? What else do I need to do in order to get  
> rid of
> this alage issue?
>
> Regards,
>
> Saugata
> _______________________________________________
> Aquatic-Plants mailing list
> Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
> http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo/aquatic-plants

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