My crypts were okay with it, but it didn't seem to help them a whole lot either. Totally wrecked my anacharis though.
Mean green machine, why do you plague me?
- Thread starter PPMN
- Start date
In a planted tank, algae becomes a problem when nutrients are limited. In most cases this results in one nutrient appearing to be too abundant. This nutrient (be it nitrate or phospate) remains in the system because the nutrient that is scarce is limiting the plants ability to use the excess. You can try starving algae, but you won't have any success. Algae can do quite well with nutrient levels so low your plants starve.
If you want to have success by limiting growth, limit the amount of light.
If you want to have success by limiting growth, limit the amount of light.
Yeah, well, I'm going to keep calling B.S. on the "limiting light" theory. Unless you do a total blackout for 3-4-more days (Plantbrain's last post recommended to blackout for a full week), you are going to slow your plant growth and oxygen production, but not kill the algae. Algae is better at using low levels of light than plants, so why would you want to give algae yet another advantage?
If you don't want to do an extended blackout, I would advise you to encourage growth by adding fast growing plants (floating, emergent), and try to increase your CO2 levels in the tank. So far I have had solid success getting my algae blooms under control with these techniques. If you don't dose ferts and think your plants' growth is limited by lack of nutrients, you will want to consider adding an extra little pinch of fish food (ala Walstad) or start dosing.
If you don't want to do an extended blackout, I would advise you to encourage growth by adding fast growing plants (floating, emergent), and try to increase your CO2 levels in the tank. So far I have had solid success getting my algae blooms under control with these techniques. If you don't dose ferts and think your plants' growth is limited by lack of nutrients, you will want to consider adding an extra little pinch of fish food (ala Walstad) or start dosing.
I feel so confused.
I completely cleaned the filter today (not the biowheel though, obviously) and had done a 40% water change two days ago. I also have added a capful of hydrogen peroxide every day (don't know if it's doing anything). I haven't dosed any ferts for about 3 days but will start again, sparingly, maybe tomorrow. The only algea that is still in there on some of the plants is the hair algea. We'll see how it goes.
Maybe I should stick to java fern. *sigh*
I completely cleaned the filter today (not the biowheel though, obviously) and had done a 40% water change two days ago. I also have added a capful of hydrogen peroxide every day (don't know if it's doing anything). I haven't dosed any ferts for about 3 days but will start again, sparingly, maybe tomorrow. The only algea that is still in there on some of the plants is the hair algea. We'll see how it goes.
Maybe I should stick to java fern. *sigh*
