Bacopa and Allopathy

[Burke Harris <bah7303 at yahoo_com>]

Hello Listers,

I have been lurking for quite some time now and have
seen soooo many post about algae problem that I
thought I might share a recent discovery. I have
searched the archive and have not found this
particular subject. I have a 29 gallon tank that has
never had any algae problems in the three years it has
been set up. I also used to have a 55 gallon under
similar water and fertilizer conditions that had algae
problems (mostly green furry algae). I had always
wondered why one had problems and the other did not.
One day while taking some bacopa carolinia and
micranthenum(sp?) from the 29 to the LFS for sale the
guy behind the counter remarked how he loved the smell
of bacopa. His theory was that the smell was related
to Bacopas ability to kill algae (allopathy). That
made it click for me as that was one of the only
differences between the two tanks was that the larger
algae prone tanks did not have bacopa while the other
smaller algae free tanks was loaded with bacopa. I
realize that this is hardly scientific much less
conclusive but figured it might help someone with
algae problems. Has anyone had similar experiences
with this plant? If so, did it adversely affect other
plants in the tank? 

Burke

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