Feral Boy wrote:
I'm not sure why, but I have never been able to completely solve the algae
problem in my aquarium. I think its due to the 2.5ppm phosphate levels in my
tap water.

That's gotta suck. I had 2 ppm phosphate in my pond for a while but
didn't get algae. I think it was from the lily fertilizer tablets.
There was hardly any nitrate from the water hyacinth, though. I also go
light on iron ferts in outdoor setups. Have you read Tom Barr's
estimative index dosing? It's at http://www.barrreport.com. He says
you can control algae by limiting trace ammonia and iron rather than
phosphate. You limit trace ammonia with really good biofiltration.

Boiling water is what I use to clean driftwood and anything else I can
remove from my tank for cleaning. I haven't risked using bleach or peroxide
on my plants, and have instead changed them to fast growing stemmed, and a
few fast growing leaf type plants, which outgrow the thin layer of algae
that starts to cover slower growing plants.

I've never bleached plants either, although I've read that it can be
done. I have bleached and scrubbed heaters, filter intakes, airline
tubing, plastic plants, ceramic decorations, and rocks to get brush
algae off. Once I took a sharp knife to my driftwood and whittled the
darned stuff off. In another tank, it only grew on the driftwood so I
left it alone. It actually looked kinda cool.

Thank heavens for Excel and SAEs. Now I hardly have any. All I have is
a couple of tiny specs of it on the leaves of a few plants. (Touch wood)

I did get the phosphate level down to 1ppm when I was cleaning the gravel
once a week , so if that, or excess nitrate is what is causing the problem
cleaning could help.

Seems like cleaning helps everything in fish tanks. :-)

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