Red Algae

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Red Algae
From: pstaeh at aplcomm_jhuapl.edu (Peter Staehling)
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 1995 08:08:40 -0400


>I tried using bleach on some of the worst affected plants. Although the 
>algae is easily killed and none of the plants seem to be hurt, the 
>algae comes back in a week or so. I guess I will have to up root all of 
>the plants and treat all of them. I probably also have to empty the tank 
>and bleach everything, including the filter and start all over to be sure 
>to get rid of all the red algae spores. This sounds like a drastic way to 
>solve the problem. Any comments?
John,
I would think that that was way too drastic.  I tried the bleach approach.
It kills the algae but it comes back.  I don't think that tearing down the
whole tank, treating it, and recycling is a very good answer.  Kind of like
treating poison ivy with nuclear weapons.  I got some SAEs (ordered the guy
in California, I forget the name).  I paid a premium price but it was better
than a teardown.  It took them a few weeks to do their work but they were
very through.  They seemed to do a specific plant at a time.  For the first
week all they ate was flake food.  Then they started grazing in a school.
They were pretty neat to watch.  If you can find a source they are the
answer.  There was a wholesaler in Florida mentioned a while back.  If
no one will ship to you in Canada, perhaps a local dealer could order from
them.   Good luck, Pete