algae info from chuck's

[agitato]

http://www.csd.net/%7Ecgadd/aqua/art_plant_algae.htm

read that bba is caused by high phosphates, low nitrates, and the suggested solution doesn't include upping co2 levels....

[PeterGwee]

I heard Tom Barr mentioned it somewhere that the nutrient regardless of N, P, K, GH or traces has nothing to do with BBA. He use good kits from Lamotte to test those parameters while playing around with BBA and found that they are not the cause of it. I'm not sure what kind of test kits Chuck uses but unless he uses some good kits or ion-meters, I would not trust what he is saying.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[barmby]

Peter,

Has been hearing this advice all the time. CO2 @ 20-35 ppm & 90% cases of BBA is caused by the lack of CO2 in water column

[Plantbrain]

The Germans also mirrored my advice in a few books. But I don't trust what I read that much so I tried it myself and with a few other folks(it's not just Tom doing all this work!).

Folks with Gas CO2 and good levels seldom have issues with BBA, it might niot die from high CO2 levels, but it'll stop growing rapidly and infecting new parts of the plants.

Once the new growth stops, you can beat any algae.

Some of the stuff on the sites are often old, outdated, hell freezes over before some things get changed, Chuck and I know our positions on BBA.
He does not tell folks it's high PO4 when dealing with folks otherwise I get all riled

Regards,
Tom Barr

[budak]

My own experience has been that sustained high CO2 levels works against BBA (of course, if your outbreak is heavy, you need to wait for 2-3 weeks to see the effect), while weekly NPK + trace addition has kept green spot algae away.