Re: [APD] brown algae (diatoms)

[Bryan Nielsen <brynielsen at gmail_com>]

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 1:21 PM, Stuart Halliday <stuart at mytriops_com> wrote:
> I believe Robert T. Ricketts wrote this email section below:
>>
>> Stuart Halliday wrote, in part:
>>
>>> Diatoms like eating silicates, so using a Silicate remover in a filter
>>> may
>>
>> help.
>>
>> It would only help if the water were pretreated by the phosphate/silicate
>> remover before addition to the tank.  The use of such directly on planted
>> tanks will starve the plants of their require macronutrient, phosphate.
>> Pretreated water can be phosphate supplemented in the tank.  The same
>> treatments pull both.
>
> Yes that's true but you can add Phosphate manually easily enough.
>
> --
> Stuart Halliday
> http://mytriops.com/
> 200 Million years in the making...

What level of silicates would be considered high?  reactive Silica
levels in the local water supply were between 7-10 mg/L for the last
few years according to the city water report.  Total Hardness is less
than 30 mg/L.  It's very soft water so I keep a small bag of crushed
coral in the filter to buffer the water a little bit.  The last I
checked I could not detect any phosphates using a Hach colorimetric
test kit.

I have not looked at anything with a microscope to determine if it is
diatoms or bacteria.  It doesn't grow fast and is only on the oldest
leaves of my plants.

Thanks,

Bryan Nielsen
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