On Dec 25, 5:26*pm, "Reel McKoi" wrote:
"Larry Blanchard" wrote in message

news
* Which is the right bulb in preventing red and green algae? *And are
they
guaranteed to work? *If one doesn't work do I have to keep buying and
throwing out one bulb after another? *I honestly never heard of a bulb
that
allowed aquarium plants to thrive but not algae.

There is no easy solution to algae. *If it's the flat type that grows on
the glass, I just scrape it off the front and leave it on the sides and
back. *If it's the hairy type that grows on the plants and the gravel, the
only solution I've found is manual removal. *As soon as you see algae on a
leaf, cut off that leaf. *I've sometimes removed as much as half of a
plant at one time. *They always grow back :-).

===============================
It's the velvety red (black) algae that covers and smothers the plants. *It
doesn't grow on one leaf or a few leaves but covers everything including the
glass and gravel. *I scrape it off the glass but can't get it off plants..
They'd be leafless. *Then there's the short soft green algae. *But there's
not too much of the green stuff. *It hit like gangbusters when I changed the
old cool and warm bulbs a few weeks back. They were over a year old. *It
could have been a coincidence though. *I had something like this happen
about 2 years ago and it disappeared, on it's own, as quickly as it
appeared.
--

RM....
Zone 6. *Middle TN USA
~~~~ *}((((* *~~~ * }{{{{(ö

The so called devils algae or black algae normally only covers plant
leaves or filter media..........it is usually a very dark green or
black in color algae. HP method I described in other pst wil kill this
stuff but the key is keeping it gone and thats gonna take good water
parameters, proper lights and sufficieint current flow.

If its a cyano type algae often called red slime or black slime then
an anti-biotic dose will knock this stuff out as its just like ther
blue green algae that is often seen with a new tank when it gets
cloudy looking. Maracin (sp?) will work as will Red Slime Remover,
which is normally sold for sal****er tanks but works well in
freshwater tanks too.............but the process of using an
antibiotic to knock it out will also affect yur bio filtration as well
so pull your media and place in another tank until your treatment is
over with........

Hair algae can be good up to a point anyhow, but control how much and
what you feed and that usually handles HA pretty well.........along
with proper lightin g scheduels etc. You may not be able to Eliminate"
algae, but its certainly possible to keep it under control and managed
so its not a problem, even if a bit of it is there. Not much overall
that can be done for the light algae that will grow on the glass
except routine clenaing of glass with a MAG float etc, as just room
lights can kick that stuff into growing........