Green Dust Algae ODYSSEY - Page 2 - Algae

hoppycalif · 05-01-2006, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plantbrain

I have a 100% success rate with controlling it in a total of 8 tanks that where inoculated.
Takes about 2-3 weeks.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Please, pretty please, tell us how you do it.

yildirim · 05-02-2006, 12:29 AM

Dosing ratios for NPK do not work the same at all tanks as there are some factors (plant types, mass, light, co2,...) in correlation for the uptaking of these nutrients. You may easily be on low side for one or more of them. What works as a charm for nutrients is always to be on the very high ends of the accepted target values esp for P and CO2 (this are the most neglected parameters as target values are usualy kept low, but in fact these are the main issues to promote better plant growth). This way you will always have a good plant growth, and also by having some current in the tank you will always overcome algal problems of any kind.

banderbe · 05-02-2006, 05:05 AM

Dosing ratios works wonderfully for me. On the other hand, the brute force EI approach of essentially over-dosing all nutrients resulted in lots of algae for me.

plantbrain · 05-02-2006, 06:41 AM

Bert H · 05-02-2006, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Try this, stop wiping the glass for 2 weeks.
Observe the film over this time peroid.

Once GDA goes through it's very tough resistant life stage, the adults are not an issue, it's just the zoospore stage that is an issue. We go after it with cleaning and it maintains the stage/life cycle.

You leave it alone, and the film will get thick, jelly like, matted, etc as the spores complete that stage. Once the film starts to look pretty patchy, typically at 10-18 days, you wipe it off.

Tom, I, for one, will try that. I just have to get past the stage where I can't stand to look at the green jelly 8-10 days down the road. I shall report back in two weeks time.

hoppycalif · 05-02-2006, 11:33 AM

While thinking about what to do about my current invasion of GDA I finally remembered my own experience from years ago. I had a 125 gallon tank then, and virtually no knowledge about fertilizing, CO2, or anything else concerning plants. (I was successful with plants anyway.) I had a routine of cleaning the tank weekly, scraping off the GDA, changing about 15% of the water and pruning. I finally got lazy and let the weekly routine drop. The GDA became solid mass on the glass, complete with little grass-like "plants" growing perpendicular to the glass. That finally looked so sickening I went back to my scraping routine. The GDA vanished, and didn't return! I never did scrape the back glass on that tank, so whatever grew there stayed there until the scavengers ate it. At that time I just assumed that the benevolent Gods of Aquaria had smiled on me and forgot about it.

This suggests to me that removing the disgusting mess that is the final growth stage of GDA may not be essential, but removing the early stage by scraping sure isn't the least bit effective. Tom is probably right that if we let it do its thing it will leave us alone later. I'm trying that now.

plantbrain · 05-02-2006, 02:26 PM

banderbe · 05-03-2006, 08:00 AM

I am not blaming EI, it did great for getting my tank started.. I am simply observing that using the method I did get lots of algae. There were no doubt other factors at play, like the fact that my tank wasn't heavily planted enough. Sorry if my comment was misleading. Also I was talking about algaes like BBA and BGA which I had plenty of in the first month of my tank's life. I think the GDA would exist regardless of what dosing method one uses.

plantbrain · 05-03-2006, 05:05 PM

nasfish · 05-15-2006, 10:49 PM

Hi,

I am doing absolutely nothing on the green dust algae in my 100 liters tank for 12 days now, as suggested.

Question is when to clean it off?. Now is ok?. I can't stand to look that green mess everyday!.

Best Regards