Mega dosing the day before a water change

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

Anyone Mega dose a day or less before the 50+% water change?

I've been doing this for three weeks.
I add 2x the KNO3(20ppm) and KH2PO4(around 2ppm) I would normally.
I don't add a bunch of expensive Trace elements nor do I add K2SO2 since
there's already a fair amount from the KNO3 and residual K2SO4 that's added
after the last water change.

I figure less than day will not start up any algae issues and it will allow
the plants to soak up a bunch of N and P.

 Adding higher than normal(?) amounts of NO3 can cause your tank to have
some algae issues depending on a number of factors but let's just say NO3
and CO2 are two biggies. P perhaps when combined with NO3/NH4 etc.

 Here's the idea with the algae. Since algae can start sporulating after
some shock or change to the system like adding too much NO3, it starts
inducing gamete production. This takes about a day to send out and settle.
Some cells will spill out within a few hours if disturbed enough.

If you go in and do a water change a day after this, the algae are weakened
by this and cannot perform another sporulation event or only a very weakened
one. You also remove the spores floating in the water, you disturbed most
all the sites of attachment(light vacuuming, scrub/wipe the glass, prune
etc). Herbivores polish off what's left. You "fool" the algae into thinking
there's plenty of food around. Then you take it away before they have a
chance to feast and grow.

The plants get a nice spike of nutrients then a water change with the normal
amount of nutrients the next day. This does not harm the plants and seems to
make them grow faster. The plants will also remove the NH4 real good and
pump O2 a bit higher than normal which will also hurt algae settlement and
survival rates.

The algae seem not to like it(Every type I've tried so far).

Might be an effective nutrient fool ya trick to get rid of milder algae
nuisances. I'm running at 5 + watts/gal of PC or MH on two different systems
and there's less algae and very lush plant growth. If you are going to see a
crash, it will be faster and more intense at higher light values.

Some NO3 hungry plants also seem to like it.

Regards, 
Tom Barr