Algae and Nutrient Co-relation

[Growe]

Would like to poll and check whether is the followig belief true. Other than standard use of increasing light, add algae eater, increase CO2 etc, can the associating treatment be the first attempt to stamp root cause.

Appearing of Hair Algae - overdose of Iron? Treatment - first reduce iron
Appearing of brush Algae - excess of Phosphate? Treament change water, add a bit of nitrate


Any addtional advice?

[christopher.wtc]

Hi Growe,
You are right that iron and phosphate are causes of algae growth and they are the cause for plants to growas well. The magic word 'balance' is everthing which I think all aquar hobbiest are looking for. The catch is, we are never able to ratio everything perfectly. If you heard of the EI method, you will change your idea of your suggested treatment. Check this out http://www.barrreport.com/estimative...test-kits.html and you know what I mean.

Good luck bro.

[Growe]

THANKS BRO.

Think like an engineer and likely success be with you. a good article which I must slowly digest and experience. Thanks for link.

[Shadow]

not sure about iron most likely just a myth but phosphate causing algae is definitely a myth (we are talking about fresh water algae here). Read Tom Barr EI article you probably found the answer why it is a myth. If you can't take all the tech document, read the simple version below
http://www.barrreport.com/estimative...chy-folks.html

Probably difficult for people to believe in EI where 90% of the information about algae in the internet is the opposite. One think that you need to focus in planted tank is to make sure your plant grow and algae will stay away.

[Growe]

The toughest part of for any planted aquarist is really knowing what's the problem. Apart of scientific measurement, the only other way is by vision inspection (most problem when appear, too late liao). trying very hard to get it right but the fun is also the challenge. BALANCE in tank is same as Balance in Life - always a man's goal

[Plantbrain]

Balance, ahhh...often mentioned, rarely understood.

Light drives => CO2 demand which drives => nutrient demand.
More light, more CO2, more nutrients , more growth.
Less light, less CO2, less nutrients, less growth.

Light + CO2 and water = sugars.

Remember this from school on plants?

Same thing here.
Very basic.

Alage look for changes in their "seasons", much like annual weeds might in a farmer's field. Unlike most aquatic plants we keep, algae have sexual stages in aquariums.

So when times are tough, they produce tough spores.
When conditions change suddenly, they bloom.

This is generally independent of good stable high nutrients.

Mess with CO2 a lot, or NH4, or light intesity, you'll get some algae.

However, no matter what else is occurring, if you have high PO4, Fe, NO3, Ca, Mg, etc etc.............and good CO2.........and high light, and cannot induce algae in many tanks over many years, then those tanks are independent of any other possible factors that might induce algae.

So they are a control aquarium basically.

If we want to test PO4 and algae we add say 5ppm of PO4 and see what happens , if no algae blooms, then we have to conclude that PO4 is also independent of algae blooms and thus cannot cause algae in and of itself.

This is logic and common sense.

This is not something anyone can debate, these are the tested facts and can be demonstrated time and time again. It is what it is.
It does not say what causes algae, only what it cannot be.

You rule out each cause you suspect step wise, oneby one.