re:Algae and new filter

To: Aquatic-Plants <Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com>
Subject: re:Algae and new filter
From: dwebb at ti_com (David Webb)
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 95 17:16:01 CST

>I'm about to set up a 30g planted community tank and
>intend putting a biowheel filter on it.  Having read most of
>the posts concerning algae control I have decided to
>try to eliminate algae from this new tank from the start by
>bleaching the plants.  So my question is if I cycle my new
>filter on my old tank, which has loads of algae, will I just
>be transferring algal spores to my new tank?

Depending on the fish/plant ratio in the tank, you may be able to skip the 
nitrification process completely.  This means that you add your plants and a 
few fish immediately.  When the plants finish recovering from the bleach 
treatment (shouldn't be very long if they were healthy to start with) you add 
more fish.  If your fish load is low enough and your plant load is high enough, 
your tank won't ever 'cycle' because the plants consume ammonium as fast as 
it's produced.  I've been running this way for over 4 months now on my 55g and 
haven't cycled any of my new tanks, just planted them heavily.

Your second question:  If you don't want to transfer algae to your new tank, 
you probably need to sterilize your water pumps.

David W. Webb
Enterprise Computing Provisioning
Texas Instruments Inc. Dallas, TX USA
(214) 575-3443 (voice)  MSGID:       DAWB
(214) 575-4853 (fax)    Internet:    dwebb at ti_com
(214) 581-2380 (pager)  Text Pager:  pgr at ti_com Subj:PAGE:David Webb