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Re: Algae story (fairy tale???)

>>>>> Wim Hanssens <Wim.Hanssens at village_uunet.be> (here: "WH"),
>>>>> on Sat, 3 Oct 1998 17:08:26 +0200,
>>>>> pondered the meaning of life, then wrote down:

    WH> Hi All,

    WH> I find this VERY hard to believe. This is the third or the fourth time 
    WH> I've posted something Black Brush Algae related and up to now I haven't
    WH> got a satisfying answer yet for the question below.

    WH> If the story below were true , can somebody please explain to me why 
    WH> I've got BBA on ons side of my 30 gallon tank and not on the other(not
    [...]

Wim, 

The light shading's different, the water current's different...could be so
many things.  Reading from the archives, your first post says that you've
got between 55 and 65 fish in a 30 gal.  Your nitrates are 20-30ppm and your
phosphates have to be high also.  Until those two go down, you're not going to 
have any luck with the brush algae.  You've also said that your tapwater's 
nitrates are at 30-40ppm, so unless you use treated water, you're not going to 
have any luck doing more frequent water changes.  You might be one of those 
special cases that *do* need RO or DI water.  Some RO setups aren't too 
expensive (~$100), and if you only have your 30 gal tank, the filter will last 
a long time.

    [...]
    WH> the covered side). I've got the tank for about 2 years now, and have 
    WH> tried with and without CO2, frequent water changes/less frequent, 
    WH> fertiizing heavily/not at all. All this leaves the BBA unimpressed.My 
    WH> platys tug at the stuff all the time, but this does not help either.
    [...]

If you use an off-the-shelf fertilizer, you may actually increase your algae 
problems.  You've got Anubias, Microsorium, Bacopa and Echinodorus.  Your 
Bacopa's okay, I guess...Hygrophilas are faster-growing, and your Echinodorus 
would do fantastic if it had better light and you kept pruning it.  You have 
36 watts of light on your 30 gal tank, so your plants are going to be okay, 
but not at their full growing potential.  With these light, phosphate, and 
nitrate levels, I think CO2 injection would actually *increase* algae growth.
I think you noted this in a previous post. This would be fine, since in the 
long run the plants will out-compete the algae for nitrates and phosphates, 
killing your algae.  They probably can't do that in your tank, however.

If you don't want to increase your lighting or spend the money on an RO water 
treatment unit (I wouldn't blame you), the only thing I can think of is to 
pack more fast-growing plants in the tank and try a variation on PMDD 
fertilization, leaving out KNO3 dosing and only dosing K2SO4 and micronutrients
(avoid iron if you can help it at first).  Tapwater nitrate levels of 30-40ppm
(and possibly high phosphate) really handcuffs you in fighting algae.

Carlos E. Munoz 
<cmunoz at crystal_cirrus.com>