Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V5 #111

[Zach Villers <zvillers at columbus_rr.com>]

on 5/23/02 3:48 PM, Aquatic Plants Digest at Aquatic-Plants-Owner at actwin_com
wrote:

> Subject: Bacopa and Allopathy
> 
> 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

I personally have had algae problems in tanks with Bacopa caroliniana and B.
monnieri. Those plants werent the most populous in the tank, but Ive had BBA
hanging onto the B. caroliniana.

just my experience as an amateur algae grower.

-Z-