Mister Gardener wrote:
On Thu, 27 Apr 2006 19:01:03 GMT, Altum
wrote:


Frank wrote:

Mister Gardener and Altum,

Must be my water - comes out of the tap with nitrAtes between 10 and
20ppm depending on the time of year. Any direct sunlite at all = green
water. Funny though, lights are on a timer and at peak light, I'm
putting 4 watts per gal. in the tank (4 hours). Late afternoon sunlite
would hit the tank if the drapes were open - every once in a great
while one of us will forget and leave them open - by the next morning
we have the start of an algae bloom. Hmmm - mabe it's just that little
bit of extra light that does it (?)
.................. Frank

How odd. You wouldn't think that one afternoon of sunlight would make
such a difference. If I were talking to anyone less experienced, I'd
suspect a touch of ammonia in the tank. Nothing like ammonia to get a
green water bloom. I'm sure your tanks are ammonia-free, though.

I noticed that Mr. G and I both have water sprite in our algae free
sunlit tanks. Makes you wonder about allelopathy. Water lettuce has
been demonstrated to inhibit the growth of chlorella (green water) in a
couple of different scientific studies.

I don't have nitrate in my tap water, but I spike nitrates up to about
10ppm after each water change. The water sprite loses its healthy green
color otherwise.


Water sprite and allelopathy - interesting concept. Might make sense.
I simply assumed it was sucking up all the extra nutrients floating
around. And as for losing color, yes, that is happening in that
particular tank. I've never though of feeding water sprite until just
a few days ago when I shot it a squirt of Excel and Flourish.

-- Mister Gardener
-- Pull the WEED to email me

I get different types of algae depending on where the tank is and how
heavily planted....I treat all the tanks the same as per water change
routine (although probably having said that do the smaller tanks more
frequently but doesn't impact anything) IME the algae is down to just
two things...the planting and the light....

Gill