Re: [APD] Algae Horror

["Bill Wichers" <billw at waveform_net>]

> > Just simply not doing water changes for a mere month shouldn't cause
a
>> Just simply not doing water changes for a mere month shouldn't cause
a
>> algae bloom surely?
> 
> One dead fish. Yes, the kids like to overfeed the animals.
> The other thing is water evaporation is very high, intensifying the
mix.
> They failed to keep the tank topped off as well.
> 
> I'm still cleaning out the algae.

Lack of water changes will result in a buildup of various wastes in the
tank, plus any extra nutrients that were excessive to begin with. Lack
of topping off the tank will also result in the water gradually
increasing in hardness over time as the water will evaporate but not the
mineral content so the hardness increases in a ppm sense. I have found
some plants are not particularly tolerant of large changes in water
hardness, although I've seen more trouble going from hard to soft water
than from soft to hard water which would be the case in your scenario.

I'd check ammonia levels as has previously mentioned. Ammonia is algae's
friend, and persistently high levels might indicate there is a dead fish
somewhere that you've missed. Water changes will help here.

I've also found that in my own tanks hornwort is very effective in
limiting/stopping algae growth in old tanks that have an algae bloom at
some point. It only works if you start with a LOT of hornwort (I have
one tank that produces hornwort in large quantities so I just move some
from that tank to any problem tank I have). I use enough to cover the
surface sufficiently to shade the entire bottom of the tank. The
hornwort adapts quickly (make sure you have sufficient nitrate and iron
levels to keep it happy), and once it does it seems to be a sponge for
many excess nutrients and between that and the light reduction it
greatly helps as an algae control aid.

FYI, I've sometimes gone 3-4+ months without water changes and 2+ months
without topping off on experimental tanks, and I don't normally have a
problem with algae in those IFF (note special two-f'ed "iff" for
if-and-only-iff :-) the tanks were doing OK (OK = happy fish, healthy
plants). The plant growth pretty much stops after that, but I don't
normally have a major algae bloom. If you had a serious algae problem
after only a month of neglect than your tank was probably on the edge
already and you are close to having too much of something in the tank.

  -Bill


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