Re: Green water

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

> Sounds like you may have Chlamydomonas.  Does that seem right?

No. They are not kidney shaped and are larger. These are extremely small, no
eye spot would be possible to see  with a light microscope etc.
I'm not saying what they are yet. I would be guessing if I did.
 
> I have my own green water fun to deal with.  Unfortunately I don't
> want it (as opposed to your trying to create it).  Mine is more of a
> light broth (rather than pea soup) at the moment.  When I put my
> sample under the scope it looked like 2 species of Desmids (a thin,
> needle-like one and a species shaped like a "Z", both were tiny even
> under 400x).  Desmids are my favorite green algae, but these guys
> have worn out their welcome!

Send me a sample. Many Desmids tend to be larger. I have a good 1000X and a
1200X light scope.

It's difficult to tell what many are. A fair amount is involved and
sometimes you have to grow the algae and watch it's development to assess
what it is and you might be an order off. That's a job.
 
> For the past 4 months I though I was battling a bacterial bloom from
> hell (I borrowed a diatom filter a couple times to keep it under
> control).  Now that I finally figured out its algae I get to have the
> joy of trying to pinpoint the source of the problem (I'm suspicious
> the filter may be at least partially to blame).

NH4. Even a little is all it takes. Healthy plants with enough "food" do
great at removal, but if they are stopped from growing by low CO2, NO3, PO4
etc, this uptake will also stop, O2 production will decrease, less O2 to the
substrate etc.
Regards, 
Tom Barr

> - -Kyle