Green Dust Algae ODYSSEY - Page 5 - Algae

JimM · 05-31-2006, 09:00 AM

I also have a constant battle with this GDA. Each waterchange I turn off my filter then scrape about the lower 20% of glass before removing any water, lower my water lvl to that 20% mark and wipe the glass with clean paper towels to remove the upper 80% being careful not to let any drip back into the water.. this only serves to make its reappearance a bit slower, It always comes back.. also it seems to come back faster with more nitrate. I really dont see how letting it grow out before cleaning it can do anything besides make the tank look bad, in a life cycle wont there always be young zoospores?

anyway, I think the best solution is.. bushy nose pleco!.. I never had this problem before I removed one from this tank.

hoppycalif · 05-31-2006, 01:46 PM

It is hard to believe that letting GDA live out it's life cycle can permanently remove it from our tanks. But, if it does, it is a really great idea! So, I am willing to take the chance. All I lose is three weeks or less of the ability to enjoy looking at my tank.

I'm in the second week of letting mine grow out now. The GDA is thinner this time than it was the first time I tried this, and it is now getting still thinner - approximately day 11 of the grow out.

Zapins · 05-31-2006, 01:53 PM

I got rid of it in my tanks by lowering the light down to 2 wpg and just keeping up with my normal fert doses - no WC for about a month. I think its still there, but its nearly undetectable.

I would like to add that i had this stuff for months and every cleaning i tried failed horribly and it came back with a vengeance. I tried changing the nutrients, leaving it for days without doing anything at all. But i really believe that reducing the light as well as not doing any WC/scraping kills this stuff off.

I can't tell you how happy i am that it is gone now, i was on the brink of torching my tank...

hoppycalif · 06-03-2006, 08:01 PM

The title of this thread is GDA Odyssey - and an odyssey is a long trying journey. So......to continue the journey:
I have just reached the end of my second week of trying to let the GDA live out its cycle. It is now much thinner, in that I can see a lot more thru the front glass, but it is thicker where it is on the glass. I think this must be the final adult stage where I should be able to clean it off the glass and say Sayonara to it. But, I have a failure of nerve! So, I'm going to let it go a full three weeks or until 90% of it falls off the glass by itself. Meanwhile, I am growing the biggest pond snails I have yet seen in a planted tank! This stuff is like continuous steak dinners to the snails. And, my oto only has to eat a few minutes a day to fill up his gas tank. See - didn't your mother always say there is a good side to everything?

**IUnknown** · 06-09-2006, 06:49 AM

Ran into this problem (around post #29),
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...ight=20+gallon

Be patient, at least this is one algae that you actually do something about and never see it again.

hoppycalif · 06-09-2006, 07:59 AM

To continue my odyssey: I am now on day 19 of the life cycle of my GDA, and it has almost all vanished from the glass. The pond snails continue to feast on what's left, and the oto joins them when it gets hungry, which isn't often. If all goes as planned today, I will do a clean up and water change today. According to the theory I will never again in this lifetime have to look at a green rectangle instead of an aquascape! My fingers are so crossed they are cramping.

Bert H · 06-09-2006, 08:03 AM

Hoppy, does it grow throughout the glass? I ask, because on mine, which is now starting its second week again, I don't have any on the upper half of the tank, which co-incides with where I draw the water down to when I do my water changes. It's only on the bottom half.

**IUnknown** · 06-09-2006, 02:22 PM

Quote:

According to the theory I will never again in this lifetime have to look at a green rectangle instead of an aquascape! My fingers are so crossed they are cramping.

That is until you get some plants from a friend and reintroduce it to your tank.

hoppycalif · 06-09-2006, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bert H

Hoppy, does it grow throughout the glass? I ask, because on mine, which is now starting its second week again, I don't have any on the upper half of the tank, which co-incides with where I draw the water down to when I do my water changes. It's only on the bottom half.

My episodes have all begun with a slight green haze on the middle part of the glass, which spreads and gets thicker on all of the glass, both ends, the front and the back. This time was no different. The thickness isn't uniform by any means. Where the Kleiner Bar sword shades the front glass it remained pretty thin. Where the powerhead blows out CO2 bubbles and water against the glass it got thickest of all, even waving in the "breeze".

This was my second attempt to wait thru the life cycle. The first time I accidentally scraped some off during a water change, and it came back when I ran thru the cycle and cleaned it off. But, this episode hasn't been as thick as the last one. It is on all of the glass, but some areas I could slightly see thru, where the last one was such that I couldn't see anything at all inside.

I didn't get around to cleaning the tank today, so tomorrow is now scheduled to be the big day.

**IUnknown** · 06-09-2006, 08:13 PM

When I cleaned my glass I emptied the tank so there was no water and then used paper towels to get the algae off without spreading it.