[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: disinfection/beard algae
> From: Chuck Gadd <cgadd at cfxc_com>
> Cavan wrote:
> > What I mean to say is, if you introduced a sample of
> > every type of algae known to be a problem in planted
> > tanks before you get things going, all but beard algae
> > will disappear.
> Well, beard algae might not disappear as quickly, but it won't spread
> unless conditions in the tank encourage it. If you have a plant
> that has lots of beard algae on the leaves, then manual removal of
> the algae, or simply clipping the heavily covered leaves is often
> a good solution.
I have only had aquarium in 10 months, and I have had a large black
beard algae (BBA) outbreak two times. The first time I tried some of the
remedies I was told at the LFS, read in some books, etc: light on
in fewer hours, stopped fertilizing, light off in several days, and
finally added an algae-killer. The last thing killed most of the
remaining plants and the fish took several weeks to fully recover.
I ended op redoing the whole thing. Four weeks ago I had a new BBA
outbreak. This thing don't grow very fast, but it has a scary
determinism, and it is impossibly to remove it from leaves etc.
I almost gave up, but I did feel I was a little wiser now. I changed
the tubes to new full-spectrum ones (looks a lot nicer too), kept
the light on 11 hours a day, added a lot of fast growing plants (more
of the ones that was already growing fast in my aquarium), and
increased the amount of fertilizing (Tropica Mastergrow). After 1-2
weeks the BBA stopped spreading. 10 days ago I finally found some SAE's,
and now only a little algae is left. I feels almost magical! Even
leaves that was nearly covered in BBA are now almost free of algae.
A few days ago I finally got the phosphate and ion test-kit that
I mail ordered. Phosphate is still a little high, so I will keep the
extra plants a little longer, although the aquarium now looks most
like an impenetrable jungle. When phosphate is lower I will slowly
start trimming and removing. Ion was zero, so I have added fertilizer
that is high in ion. Nitrate was 5-15 through the whole thing.
Read some more and be wiser. A good start is Chuck's page
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_algae.htm.
--Jesper