Can algae go away if you correct the tank conditions?

**rocketshrimp** · 7th Jun 2005, 14:25

Just wondering.

If you have a bout of aglae attack...can you just leave it and correct the tank conditions (eg. change water, up co2, reduce light etc..) Will the aglae go away after a while? I see some drastic measures like hydrogen peroxide and what not...it that necessary?

**vinz** · 7th Jun 2005, 16:13

Not really. You should manually remove it or get fishes/shrimps that will eat the stuff. They are plants and whats good for plants is good for them too. It's just that when plants are growing well, they have a harder time starting or spreading.

**StanChung** · 7th Jun 2005, 16:25

Originally Posted by rocketshrimp

Just wondering.

If you have a bout of aglae attack...can you just leave it and correct the tank conditions (eg. change water, up co2, reduce light etc..) Will the aglae go away after a while? I see some drastic measures like hydrogen peroxide and what not...it that necessary?

try algae inhibiting lighting. in my recent look around, there's dennerle trocal[fl] and amano.

dennerle is yellowish and amano is white. your choice.
mine is amano.

will be posting thread regarding algae problems...

stan

**|squee|** · 7th Jun 2005, 18:34

All I know is that, when plants are growing well, algae will not bother you. How plants do this is not certain.

From this, I can assume that you can have everything in excess, but no algae.

So yes, I'd say that correct your tank conditions till your plants grow well.

**StanChung** · 7th Jun 2005, 19:09

Originally Posted by |squee|

All I know is that, when plants are growing well, algae will not bother you. How plants do this is not certain.

From this, I can assume that you can have everything in excess, but no algae.

So yes, I'd say that correct your tank conditions till your plants grow well.

i totally agree, but some annoying plants do collect algae as their hobby. eg anubias, bolbitis... all the slow growing ones

i found this amano algae buster-phyton-git. if you have anubias etc that grow spots, take them out of the water and brush some of this liquid on. takes out the spots without killing the plant.

for me, fish come first, then plants. i get bored looking at plants very quickly if the growth is too slow. too fast and i'm not around, they kill the low lying ones. so planning is very important from the beginning.[i hate riccia]

Another point is most of us don't have budget or time to maintain more than three tanks.

i have 5 discus tanks[got babies], one altum tank. three of them are planted. so i'm pretty broke but happy...

i also have cases where i get long thin green brush algae from infected plant bought shop. it is quite a chore to manually remove. especially when it's tangled among the mosses and riccias. when come home and bad mood, i just throw it all out and start over.

sometimes when we're away we depend on others to maintain the tank. they normally are ignorant[old folks or housemates]. so we try to minimize the factors that will results in heartbreak.
prized discus and altums are hard to come by.

so, plan, read, save, execute. i read somewhere- buy the biggest tank you can afford. time and money. tis love really...

**stcyrwm** · 7th Jun 2005, 20:08

Originally Posted by standoyo

try algae inhibiting lighting. in my recent look around, there's dennerle trocal[fl] and amano.

dennerle is yellowish and amano is white. your choice.
mine is amano.

stan

What makes the algae inhibiting lights work? Do you have to buy the specific brands or can you buy them based on the Kelvin range or some other factor?
This is something that I have never read about on any of the plant sites in the US. It is intersting to get a different angle on things.

Thanks, Bill

**stcyrwm** · 7th Jun 2005, 20:14

[QUOTE=standoyo]i totally agree, but some annoying plants do collect algae as their hobby. eg anubias, bolbitis...

I have had chronic algae problems with my anubias even after everything else being almost completely cleared out. I have read that increasing the dosing of PO4 can resolve this issue. I have just started this a couple of days ago and I can see a benefit already. I'll post again if it continues to clear.

Bill

**rocketshrimp** · 7th Jun 2005, 20:29

My theory is that if the plants are growing well...they will overtake the algae and the algae will cease to be a problem.

But for slow growing ones...the aglae never seem to go away. I have this banana plant...now coated with this brownish looking algae. And it has been like this for the longest time, even though the plant itself is fine. (growing shoots and all).

Never heard of the growth inhibiting light..isn't that like contrary to the purpose of having a light? I suppose that algae and all plants uses the same spectrum...it is a matter of having the correct dose of co2 and nutrients.

**StanChung** · 7th Jun 2005, 21:50

Never heard of the growth inhibiting light..isn't that like contrary to the purpose of having a light? I suppose that algae and all plants uses the same spectrum...it is a matter of having the correct dose of co2 and nutrients.

[/QUOTE]

Actually it's algae inhibiting lighting. doesn't affect plant growth. goto dennerle website. search for trocal.

on general terms[because there are always exceptions]
algae-earliest form of plant life-needs bright sunlight, has never changed much, never needed to[imagine sunlight at it's strongest - uv-] evolved to plants and trees on land. [still needing similar lighting] and evolved back to water plants deep in forests and jungles.[the ones we like to keep] these plants survive off reflected light off the tall trees, a blue green spectrum low in uv.

dennerle researchers have found that some/most algae thrive on a narrow band of light spectrum. so they have produced lights that blackout this spectrum from their trocal light range. this is not to say algae cannot grow but these bulbs do not promote algae growth.

the blackout of this light spectrum does not affect the plants we keep as the plants we keep do not need that particular spectrum.

more...

algae has many forms and you can't stop them all but inhibiting them thru this way can help you in many ways, you can keep the nasty ones at bay and more importantly, not worry so much about algae and concentrate on your award winning layout!

recently found out the ADA ones do this as well. they are whiter as well[dennerle trocal has yellow tinge]

on another note...
Mr Amano really has to get somebody to translate all his magazines and books AND product descriptions.

spent about $s1000 on his stuff...

,

must be the packaging! sucker for packaging!