Eradicating BBA

Go Alex, very sound advice IMO !!!
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**





"Alex R" wrote in message
news:m2z5c.23159$J05.163678@attbi_s01...
"Chris_S" wrote in message
...
Hi:

There was no phosphate in the water at all.

Well, there's your problem. Or at least one of them. There's a very simple
and frequently mentioned principle to getting rid of algae. FOCUS ON THE
PLANTS. Give them abundant nutrients, including NO3, PO4, & K, but most
importantly CO2. Forget about the algae for a while. When the plants are
at
their *optimal* health, the algae will go away automatically. If you still
have algae, then your plants not at their peak health. Don't ask me how
this
works, but it works for sure. It might have something to do with O2
levels,
I don't know. As you probably found out, it's impossible to kill BBA by
trying to starve it. Here are the nutrient levels you need to keep:

CO2: 25-35 ppm (at all times)
NO3: 5-15 ppm
PO4: at least 0.5 ppm
K: ~20 ppm estimated

For traces, you need to watch for iron deficiency and add as much of your
trace supplement as necessary to keep it from occuring. You have to obtain
some KNO3, K2SO4, KH2PO4, and either Seachem Flourish or Tropica
MasterGrow,
if you don't have these already. Check the archive of this newsgroup for
sources of these. You'd probably have to add around 3/4 tsp of each KNO3
and
K2SO4, and a few pinches of KH2PO4 per week, but search the archive for
more
thorough instructions.

Yet the BBA on the plants which
were put in the tank still grew. From what else I read, and from my
experience, any water that will grow plants will grow BBA.

Not true. How is it that so many planted tanks have flourishing plants, no
algae eaters, and no visible BBA? It's not because algae cells simply
don't
exist in those tanks.


So, I have come to the decision that killing it all in the entire tank
system is the only real solution. From what I read either Chlorine or
Copper will do it. Chlorine seems to work much faster. What I plan to
do
is:

Any other suggestions or advice?

Yes, don't even consider it. As far as I'm concerned, your method is
short-sighted and the complete OPPOSITE of what you should be doing. It
does
nothing beneficial for plants. It may kill your fish, and more likely than
not will lead you to more frustration because of this or other algae
issues.
Support for methods like this makes me kind of angry, because they
completely disregard the proper way of controlling algae, by caring for
the
plants. It's been established and is discussed frequently on this
newsgroup
and on the Aquatic Plants Digest by Tom Barr and others. First try feeding
your plants adequately, and *then* use poisonous substances to try to kill
algae if you want. But the only thing that will work for you is keeping
the
nutrient levels high, if you ask me.
__
Alex
pcalex (at) hotpop.com