dc88

Oh Yes ! The writing is indeed on the wall ! Didn't notice in the first read.
Quot "
Low O2, High NH4 => algae spore germination
"
(So there needs to be a threshold initial to kick start these thing ?)

The other staffs (NO3, Fe, P, etc) are perhaps "growth limiter/promoter"? but if there is no "spark initiator" liked signal of high NH4 and low O2, even high level of "growth promoters" may still not trigger algae to bloom ?

If to further the thought, could it be such that : if algae spore germination started (e.g. we see BBA in our tank) we reduce the level of NH4 but up the other nutrient it just speed up the algae life cycle which ended them into the spore generation waiting for the next NH4 signal hence we see algae actually disappear ? (Hence added NO3 or PO4 at this stage may actually "reduce" the algae ?) And then we learn the lession to limit NH4 so the next spore germination do not happen ?

Is my speculation any ground ?

defdac

Exactly, so now you only have to explain what in the algae makes NH4/jumpy CO2 a "spark initiator" 8 )

plantbrain

edit

Art_Giacosa

Unfortunately, Tom has decided to remove all his posts from this thread so we can't consider his opinions on this topic.

I, for one, find this topic interesting and feel that there isn't a true answer yet. I do hope that someone takes the time to study this topic in detail and post their experiment/findings so that we can get to a true answer.

For the time being, we will continue to treat this as a black box. We fertilize in a certain way and we end up with little or no algae. We are not sure exactly why no algae is the result.

The focus seems to be on NH4 as triggering algae spores to germinate. In my experience, I have seen algae blooms when something happens that interferes with my plants' steady growth. So, for example, one time I ran out of CO2 and didn't notice for a few days. This impacted my plants' growth. As a result, uptake of NH4 dropped presumably thereby increasing its presence in the water column. If the hypothesis is correct, this caused the algae spores to germinate. Hence, my algae bloom.

This is all conjecture, of course.

banderbe

Same here. My CO2 ran low a couple weeks back and bam! Plant growth came to a screeching halt and BGA was all over the glosso the next morning.

Bumping my CO2 back up and increasing NO3 didn't do anything to the algae, it merely got the plants humming along again, which _stopped_ the algae from growing any further. It didn't get rid of it until I cut the lighting and killed it off. Hasn't come back.

The happy plants have some magic something they secrete into the water column that makes algae very unhappy.

Robert Arnold

So what about a tank with some "happy plants" and some almost happy algae. That is my current situation. I have seen some tanks with prolific growth of both the plants simultaneous with an algae bloom. One will succeed eventually. In my case, I'm pretty sure some nutrients were limited which helped cause the bloom as well as too many organics. Its primarily a filimentous algae I am dealing with at the moment. I did notice a decline of some of my pearling and introduced some new Manzanita wood and replanted a few plants in the process. So the balance of the tank was changed. Do you think all these simultaneous changes might have been the trigger. Don't many believe a change in CO2 or other stable things will be one of the bloom "triggers"?

BTW, this is a very interesting thread.

marvelous

I feel we are all trying to achieve a common goal here - having a thriving, beautiful planted aquarium with little to no algae growth. The problem here is that each one of us may be using some of the same equipment and fertilization methods, or lighting intensity / duration, but there are several other factors like water chemistry and source, atmospheric differences, what we have on our arms when we stick them in the tank - etc, that can play a small (or large part) in how our gardens grow. These variables lead to a somewhat chaotic situation when trying to break down how or why our plants are growing or not growing. I am not a Chaotician nor am I a professional at any of this, but I do know we are trying to reproduce nature to some extent, and while at some fleeting moments we may feel as though we have achieved this glorious goal - we have in fact only managed to satisfy certain requirements at a certain moment that satisfy what our image of nature really is - but man is it fun! IMO

Jimbo205

Why would he do that?

And HOW did he do that?

Edward

Jimbo205

I tried to follow your link for allelochemicals but did not find what you were trying to link to.