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the important fact is that the algae is not dependent on NO3, PO4 Fe etc as previously assumed
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In the short time, 8-9 months really, I have been into planted aquariums(or aquariain general fo rthat matter) I have seen the blame for algae go from to much of something (Fe causing thread algae, P causing BBA, ect), to to little of something (0 N causes BGA low CO2 cause BBA. CO2 levels usually the culprit), improper ratios esp. regarding N:P and now to this. I know that everyday we learn more, understand more...
Can you explain your statement Tom. I assume you don't mean that algae is not effected by nutrients but rather that they are not he entire cause of our problems. What is? Do we know yet? Will we ever?
To my thinking, algae spores are everywhere. They are in the air to settle on or tanks surface, they are in our tap water and onthe plants we buy, in the digestive tracks of the fish/invers.... The only way to eliminate them is through the use of something like UV steralizers.
So for most of us we have algae, the only ? is whether it is very prevelant or just in "remission". What causes it to come out of remission is really all we care about here. So what does cause this? I definately agree that we need to look more to our CO2 setups, if we have high light. We need to look there first, in high light tanks. I have almost no problems with algae in low light tanks, as long as there are fish in it. 25% WC every 3-4 weeks, no dosing, ever. Ocasionally i dump in a little Excel, maybe 5ml per 10gal a month. I am sure it does not do anything at that level, I just forget to do it.
Whenever my CO2 drops below 25ppm in high light tank (over 2.5 wpg) it all goes to hell, fast. things are bad in 1-2 days. Algae everywhere. Things get bad faster if more than one nutrient is out of balance. Low CO2 for a couple days is not to bad as long as there is enough (nothing at 0ppm) of the other main nutrents. NO3, PO4, K, Fe. Low Co2 and 0ppm N. owww. Bad. Over the weekend I was gone for 3 days. I made sure there was enough NPK, trace to last for sat and sun and my roommate dosed for me Monday. C02 levels were low but everything was still pretty clean. Glass was clean and most of the plants were clean 9nothing new at leat), all I noticed was a slight increase of weak BBA (or somehting similar but not quite the same) on the anubias. All new growth on the plants looked better and the entire tank looked a little less "grungy" This is a pretty new tank setup though. Only 2.5 weeks now (but all old plants, filter material, fisha dn hardscape. Only eco complete substrate is new) so I am sure it is style settling in still.
Now exactly sure what/why I was typing that, just wanted to share my experiences and limited... something.