Cause of General Types of Algae? Po4 and NO3?

[joachimsim]

Hi,

Been a long time since I am back here with the other aquatic gardeners.

I am not an expert in identifying the different times of algae that occur in our tanks, but I have been getting an infestation of those spotted and tough to remove light green algae on my front glass panel.

I know that the recommended NO3 level for planted tanks is 10 ppm. I tested my Po4 and it read less than 0.1 Ppm hence I am wondering what constitutes to the algae growth when my NO3 levels are almost 0 to the the plants and Tetra Nitrate Minus.

are the micro/macro nutrients responsible for these? I fertilise w liquid fertilisers buy not regularly

[wks]

Irregular fertilisation is a sure-fire way of causing algae boom. Having said that myself, I'm also guilty of this "crime".

[budak]

green spot agle disappear when i dose 1-2 ppm phosphate

[Plantbrain]

Algae are better able to live on __less__ nutrients than plants.
If you take care of the plant's needs, then you have poor algae growth.

Plants and algae need N and P. But what forms work better? Inorganic PO4 is the perferred form, low PO4 measurements might be a test of the total PO4 in the water, that last little bit of PO4, the 0.1ppm of PO4 might be bounded organically and not available for growth.

NO3 is a good form of nitrogen for the plants, it will not induce algae. NH4 will but both plants and algae like NH4 and it triggers algae at fairly low levels.

When plant growth slows down for whatever reason, this NH4 removal backs uip and then the algae have this NH4 available for blooming.

If the algae only detect NO3, the adult algae will grow, but the new spores will not grow, in a sense, they know when someone else is there or conditions are not good enough to bloom yet.

So good plant growth= poor algae growth.

And poor plant growth = good algae growth.

Regards,
Tom Barr