anti-Algae question

[Plantbrain]

I think what I approach the issue as is radically different than others before me, focus on the plant growth, then the algae do not grow, so I set about doing just that.

Most had focused solely on the algae's responses prior with bthe plant's being secondardy to the limitation of algae.

It's much less sophiscated and just plain common sense at least to me, you want to grow plants? Then focus on their needs, then the algae (which are in another ecological niche) don't grow!

Regards,
Tom Barr

[cakchew]

hmm...okok. i will see what i can do. FOCUS ON PLANT GROWTH! Thanks TOM.

[SmallFish]

are they (plants n algae) really mutually exclusive ??
that when one grows the other suffers ???

[Plantbrain]

Few things are black and white. They can both exists together.
But the focus should be on plants' needs, not algae.

That's a huge paradigm shift from many folk's ideas and notions.
I'm not sure why folks do not see the simplicity in it.

Both can and do exist but when plants dominate, their needs are being met and there is sufficent biomass that is actively growing. Then algae is really not an issue by default.

What happens is folks louse up the growth of their plants, get algae, then blame nutrients.

It's not the nutrient's fault, it's the aquarist.

Most of the algae related issues are due to a lack of nutrients, not excess (other than NH4 perhaps).

Such test are easy to devise and implement if the aquarist has some degree of control with CO2, and dosing.

I think some rather poor assumptions have been made over the years about algae and plants and natural systems.

These have been compounded by lesser folks testing and basing their ideas and assumptions on mere correlation rather than causation, falsification and verification.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[StanChung]

Lol. My plants are growing well, so's the hair algae[long stringy stuff that comes off with a toothbrush]. It's a malingerer that hangs on to the slow growers.

[eddyq]

According to Encarta Dictionary Uk, algae=a mainly aquatic photosynthetic organism that differs from plant in not having true leaves,roots or stem and includes the seaweeds.

So algae are aquatic plants whether we like it or not, our tank will have them. We just need to control them.

[cakchew]

wa u even checked up the dictionary~ pro la~!

[Quixotic]

According to Encarta Dictionary Uk, algae=a mainly aquatic photosynthetic organism that differs from plant in not having true leaves,roots or stem and includes the seaweeds.

So algae are aquatic plants whether we like it or not, our tank will have them. We just need to control them.

Algae actually spans more than one domain, including both Eukaryota and Bacteria, as well as more that one kingdom, including plants and protists, the latter being traditionally considered more animal-like. See article from Wikipedia.

[Anubiastic]

I think a bit of algae actually make the tank looks more natural. I have algae growing on some of my anubias but I have around 7 otocinclus, 1 peckoltia, 1 brittlenose, 1 sailfin, and a bunch of corydoras to vacuum up the food debris in my 65gal tank. Like others have said, it's impossible to have a tank with no algae unless there's no water in it. My otos love to graze on the algae growing on anubias leaves. In nature, algae is part of a complete diet for a wide variety of fishes. Too much isn't good but if you have healthy growing plants, they should out compete algae for nutrients and it doesn't hurt to get algae eating fishes like farowella, otocinclus, peckoltia, brittlenose, siamese algae eater (true,not the fake kind) and amano shrimp. You can cut back the sunlight from 10-12 hours to 6-8hrs or turn off the lights for a few days. Your plants will be fine without any light for 2-3days. Having the green algae is much better than the dreaded black brush algae, brown algea, ect....The only time when I have to manually remove algae is when I use a razor blade to scrape off tough algae growing on the front glass of tank. Don't waste your money buying algaecide unless you want to kill your plants or fishes. Try using natural algae enemies instead of a quick fix in a bottle.

[cakchew]

thanks man for ur advice~ after such a long time, i come to accept that algae is very common in tanks. i think the only way is to turn off the lights for a few days to get rid of excessive algae. i did that and i think it really helps. i turned the lights off for 3 days.