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Originally Posted by banderbe He said that excess nutrients (NPK and traces) don't cause algae but excess ammonia (NH4) does, and he's right. |
There are plenty of river and oceanic algal blooms due to nitrate and phosphate pollution that would contradict a blanket statement like this.
Although algae (like aquatic plants) prefer ammonia to nitrogen, algae can grow very well with nitrates alone.
Some of the cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) can actually use atmospheric nitrogen for
all their nitrogen needs.
In aquariums due to the fishfood input, there's generally an excess of all nutrients. Iron being much less soluble than other nutrients can, in this situtation, limit algal (see my book, pages 169-170).
What stimulates algae depends upon the situation.