Re: Brush Algae

• To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
• Subject: Re: Brush Algae
• From: Jack D OLeary <jdo at world_std.com>
• Date: Wed, 7 Jun 1995 07:03:30 +0059 (EDT)
• In-Reply-To: <199505300739.DAA08392 at looney_actwin.com>

Adam,

I have had brush algae in the past and have been as frustrated as you
are.  The good news is that it can be stopped.  There are three ways
that I have experience with:

1. Siamese Algae Eaters will eat it.  They are hard to get but well
worth it, to see them eating away at the brush algae.  You may have
to remove some fish from your tank in order to accomodate a sufficient
number, however.

2.  Using a phosphate remover, such as Phos-Zorb.  I tried this and
it stopped all brush algae growth within 2 days.  Phosphates apparently
encourage it's growth.  Of course, a better approach is keeping the
phosphate level down in the first place, which brings us to ...

3.  Avoid all fertilizers except the Dupla products.  The one common
characteristic of my infested tanks (both CO2 and non-CO2) is that
I was using Plant-tabs and Mike T's fertilizer.  When I switched to
the Dupla fertilizers, the brush algae growth dropped considerably.
I recently tried sticking the old fertilizer in the substrate in one
tank (after all, I have bags of the stuff to use up!) and BOOM!,
the brush algae came right back.

I wish you luck in removing this persistent algae.  Let us know how
it goes.

- Jack

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