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Re: Olsen's Shakespareian Trad-Algae! :-D ... To be or not to be!

Bob wrote:

>My new 9 day old tank is overgrown with this brownish threadlike algae. I 
>probably should have done the Kromholtz bleach treatment on the wild
plants I 
>foolishly enlisted into the algae war. The traitors! I have Hygo poly, 
>Ludwigia repens, and Cabomba from the wild at about 50% of the tank's plant 
>mass. They didn't look real algae ridden when I collected them, but there
was 
>no doubt some attached - as per usual and they must have found conditions 
>entirely to their satisfaction from the look of things now. My wife and 
>daughter are like, "Will it always look like this? Yuk"!  I bravely assure 
>them all will be well (eventually) but I'm wondering if I really screwed up 
>myself...
>
>Here's the specifics: 75gal All Glass with 220 watts of 5300K power compact 
>from A & H. 75% Flourite, 25% Turface substrate. Trickle filter (which is 
>quite noisy BTW) powered by 2100 Rio. Gomberg high pressure CO2. 
>
>Water from the tap: pH 9.0-9.3 which falls to the mid 7 range within 24 
>hours. Choloramine present and treated for with Amquel. Total Hardness 75.00 
>mg/L, Total dissolved solids 198.0 mg/L, Total Alkalinity 24.00 mg/L.  I add 
>baking soda to adjust dKH to 3 and inject CO2 to lower pH to 6.7 - 6.8 for a 
>dissolved CO2 of 14-20ml/L as per chart(s). PMDD minus trace elements added 
>at usual daily dose of 2 drops per 10 gal and either TMG or Aquarium Pharm. 
>Aquatic Plant Stimulant for the trace elements and iron added daily on a 
>rotating basis. I've done two 30 - 50% water changes in the last 9 days. As 
>this brown threadlike algae increases, I've added 2 otos, 1 large black 
>mollie and seven of the babies she had plus two ghost shrimp. They nibble 
>away but...

Bob!  Stop dosing the water column.  I use  Aquarium Pharm. 
Aquatic Plant Stimulant too but mixed w/ the substrate bottom layer not as
a REGULAR water doser.  This is a classic example as to why dosing the
water is inherently unstable IMHO and downright disasterous to a new tank!
I think the wild plants to break in the tank ARE doing the job, but you are
overwhelming their efforts w/ repeated dosing.  

Too many of us still advocate this water dosing/change idea w/o the serious
caveats.  If you have a balanced aquarium and several fast growing stem
plants, a little dosing once in a while works.
But IMHO if we think about it,  regular water changes and dosing the water
column are inherently contradictory.  

We, of the "substrate spiker" camp don't need to go bonkers over regular
water changes like the "water dosers" do.  Join us!  As an Aquarium
phylosphy, its much less "Calvinist" and more forgiving of errors and we
can even add a little phosphate too w/o a trip to the confessional!  This
is the ultimate weapon of the substrate spiker:
http://www.mindspring.com/~boukmn/plantguildproducts.html  It will solve
your problem too.  




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