Promoting algae growth

[chinnp]

You can have some of mine. I swear I can grow algae in the dark. It's amazing what kind of mad skills I have.

 

[NeonFlux]

How about algaeballs

 

[sosgal721]

But back on point - the spectrum of your lighting can play a factor. If I recall correctly, a lot of blue wavelengths in your lighting will assist the algae. There are many reports of people placing actinic or 50/50 lights on their tanks and getting an algae bloom.

Any particular bulbs that you might recommend? I look at a list like this http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/pet_supplies.cfm?c=3578+3733+8066 and get lost, although I did see one that said "50/50" in the title. The only thing that I could do is pick out the ones that say "plant" in the title and hope they would produce algae.

Phosphates are one of the culprits often cited in algae blooms. Pick up some Flourish Phosphorous and dose it a bit too much. But only a bit too much.

Don't add Excel, and maybe if you're running CO2 cut it down a bit.

Thanks for the tip. I don't have any plants in there, so no CO2 either.

what do you normally feed the pleco? bulky veggies like zucchini will fill him up more than the seaweed does, and take longer to be eaten.

Zucchini, cucumber, peas, also trying other vegetables. I don't mean for the algae to substitute veggies, just give him something else to eat durring the day.

You can have some of mine. I swear I can grow algae in the dark. It's amazing what kind of mad skills I have.

Then tell me how you do it.

How about algaeballs

Never heard of them. What are they?

 

[jpappy789]

Zucchini, cucumber, peas, also trying other vegetables. I don't mean for the algae to substitute veggies, just give him something else to eat durring the day.

Plecos dont need to constantly be grazing. A slice of cucumber every couple days should be enough I would think...

 

[DLV082]

Plecos dont need to constantly be grazing. A slice of cucumber every couple days should be enough I would think...

They might not need to graze constantly but I found that my gibbiceps pleco was alot happier when given veges daily. Now he lives in the outside pond where he has as much alge as he can eat.

 

[rrkss]

Phosphates are one of the culprits often cited in algae blooms. Pick up some Flourish Phosphorous and dose it a bit too much. But only a bit too much.

Don't add Excel, and maybe if you're running CO2 cut it down a bit.

That is a myth that keeps getting bounced around and around. The two factors that induce algae is free ammonium in the water and unstable CO2. Certain algaes like Green Spot Algae are induced by too little phosphates in the water column. Adding phosphates is not going to do anything. In your case adding more fish and increasing the photoperiod should do the trick.

 

[247Plants]

For surface algae..

Place rocks outdoors in the sun in a bucket. Cover with water. Run a powerhead or something to circulate the water(the faster the better).

Give it a few days and you have algae rocks.....

 

[sosgal721]

That is a myth that keeps getting bounced around and around. The two factors that induce algae is free ammonium in the water and unstable CO2. Certain algaes like Green Spot Algae are induced by too little phosphates in the water column. Adding phosphates is not going to do anything. In your case adding more fish and increasing the photoperiod should do the trick.

I can't really add any more fish. I lost count a couple months ago and last time I estimated it was somewhere around 120. Only about 30 of them are adults though, so I have to continuously remove fish to keep it under control.

How long can I leave the lights on without upsetting the day/night balance of the fish

For surface algae..
Place rocks outdoors in the sun in a bucket. Cover with water. Run a powerhead or something to circulate the water(the faster the better).
Give it a few days and you have algae rocks.....

Last I looked at the thermometer it was in the single digits so I can't do that for a while.:headshake2:

 

[echoofformless]

That is a myth that keeps getting bounced around and around. The two factors that induce algae is free ammonium in the water and unstable CO2. Certain algaes like Green Spot Algae are induced by too little phosphates in the water column. Adding phosphates is not going to do anything. In your case adding more fish and increasing the photoperiod should do the trick.

It's not a myth so long as no one has ever fully and truly determined anything conclusive on most of the algae debate. There are simply so many factors at work, so many different kinds of algae, so many different light sources, food sources, inhabitant fish, types of plants, etc etc etc etc that no one thing ever seems to hold any serious water in the debate. ergo I feel it unnecessary here to attempt to refute anything as a myth, and I find it equally unnecessary to attempt to promote something as any hard truth.

Therefore I do not believe that the phosphate thing is a myth. And I'll tell you what - I am just as prepared to believe basically any other possibility relating to the location of a tank, the lighting, the chemistry of the water, the inhabitants, ad nauseum can all be potential culprits in the appearance of algae.

Over fertilize. Leave the lights on too long. Have fun.

On the day that someone can look into a tank, see a type of algae, test some water and then describe exactly what steps to take in order to get rid of the algae - AND - have that treatment regimen show a distinctive and measurable success rate, I will start to believe that we actually do know how to fix algae. Until that day, everything is just an attempt at a ballpark hypothesis with a hope it will prove to work. And it is just too hit and miss to get any better than that.

 

[rrkss]

It's not a myth so long as no one has ever fully and truly determined anything conclusive on most of the algae debate. There are simply so many factors at work, so many different kinds of algae, so many different light sources, food sources, inhabitant fish, types of plants, etc etc etc etc that no one thing ever seems to hold any serious water in the debate. ergo I feel it unnecessary here to attempt to refute anything as a myth, and I find it equally unnecessary to attempt to promote something as any hard truth.

First of all run a controlled experiment. Set up two tanks with the same environment, lighting, temperatures, water source... In one tank, don't add phosphates and the other tank dose it with a controlled and measurable amount of phosphates. Other than that, treat both tanks exactly the same. What you will notice, is your rate of algae growth is similar in both tanks with a reduction in green spot algae in the phosphate rich tank.

This refutes the theory that phosphates induce algae. The only macronutrient that I am 100% sure can induce algae is ammonium since that has been tested in a controlled setting and has proven itself time and time again to do so.

I did this controlled experiment as part of a university thesis in aquatic biology and I am more than confortable saying that adding phosphates to a tank induces algae is a myth. Heck, my planted tanks get weekly doses of potassium phosphate at double the reccommended dose that most of the so called plant experts would reccommend. I target 8 ppm phosphates in my water column. If phosphates were really the major cause of algae, certain ph buffering products used to keep pH around 7 would fail miserably since they use phosphate buffers for that job.