Anti Algae chemical?

[Waterbat]

Hi

I'm planting lotuses in a big open air watertank in the backyard and there's alot of sunlight. I need to keep away algae and mosquitos. Is there a good chemical I can use? (Dun have fish in the tank). SInce lotus is a semi aquatic plant, can I use something strong?

[StanChung]

i assume you want clear water...because you won't be able to keep the algae off the rocks because of open air setup. trees and trellis will help.
chemically there are some brands out there. friend uses diluted bleach. siao don't recommend this as it's not environment friendly.

i suggest you google it. sera makes decent ones for pond use ...

[wong1979]

Why don't you get some platy. IMO, they are very hardy and will thrive on any algae, mosquito larvae available as long as you starve them

[Waterbat]

wat is a platy

[|squee|]

Platies are very common fish sold in LFSes.

I don't reccomend chemicals, I'd go for guppies or platies instead. They eat up algae and mosquito larvae as well. Just have alot of them.

[Plantbrain]

Add lots of lotus, then the algae will not have any sun below and the all the plants will dominate.

Small fish are good for the other issues as mentioned.

Pond and lagae issues are simple to solve, add more plants.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[k3nni]

hi....errrm...seems like u got the same hobby like my mum's ,the thing is it is hard to keep algae growth low when the sunlight is strong ,from my experience is that u need to keep certain amount of fish inside to prevent the mosquito from breeding .dun have to be guppys just any lokang fish will do .just put a small number of fish will do .algae growth is hard to control .u can try putting anti agale solution .(my mum doesn't care about the agale as long as the lotus is beautiful ,LOL )

[k3nni]

if u wan i can take a picture of my lotus and show it to u

[bclee]

hi....errrm...seems like u got the same hobby like my mum's ,the thing is it is hard to keep algae growth low when the sunlight is strong ,from my experience is that u need to keep certain amount of fish inside to prevent the mosquito from breeding .dun have to be guppys just any lokang fish will do .just put a small number of fish will do .algae growth is hard to control .u can try putting anti agale solution .(my mum doesn't care about the agale as long as the lotus is beautiful ,LOL )

Anti-algae stuff is bad for plants. IMO, it is better try the chemical-free method.

BC

[CEL]

not all fish will eat larva.... like for me, i put anti mosquito solution once a week.....

[barmby]

Hmm.. I read from AFH magazine. It is about more plants and less fish.

[benny]

Anti-algae stuff is bad for plants. IMO, it is better try the chemical-free method.

Agreed. What is bad for algae is usually bad for plants. But since algae is a lower level lifeform, the plants have an advantage to recover from the dosage. Still, I would avoid it if possible.

For stronger chemical solution, it usually contains Simazine which should be used with absolute caution.

Cheers,