green water

[BLACKBAR]

i left a tub of water from my six foot out in the sun to try an get some msquito larvae for my fry and i thought while im at it i'll thrown in a rock or two to get some more algae (it just looked odd when every rock in my tank was cover in algae except these two) went out and checked the bucket last night and i have a nice layer of algae growing on the rocks and the java mss i through in there has grown a lot too but my water is green it has a lot of these thin green strnds floating through it i heard that i could feed this to fry is this true will it be safe??? dont wanna lose fry just coz i wanted free food

[Anthony Osmos]

some african fry (Mbuna no doubt) will eat alge so should be okay

HTH

[PHL]

is green it has a lot of these thin green strnds floating through it i heard that i could feed this to fry is this true will it be safe??? dont wanna lose fry just coz i wanted free food

I hope your fry eats all of it, as the green thread algae is otherwise not easy to get rid of. I have some in a display tank, and it's a real PITA, as no algae eater I have (Ottos, BN, SAE) will eat it.

[Exiledonmainstreet]

Hi. If I were you, i'd drain the tank, put the fish in buckets, and give the tank a good cleaning. Save the water though, as you want to have the "aged" water to put back in the tank.

[YeW]

Hi -

I really depends on 1. the type of alga you have growing and 2. the size of the fry.

Very small fry will eat green water (which is mainly single celled alga and other small organisms associated with this). Large african fry (ie: mouthbrooder fry) will probably not eat it.

[Magica DiSpell]

The type of algae PHE is referring to is also called "bearded alga" and is actually not green but a red alga (although it looks brown). It does not normally grow in "green water". I would guess that you have a green alga called Spirogyra growing in your tank, which your fishies should love to eat - provided they can somehow "chew" the long strands. This alga (if it is the one I am thinking of) is relatively seasonal and judging from my tanks, it is definitely around at the moment. You can always chop it up. Your fish will love it.

[Guest big bad burundi]

Mosi's love manure in the water will infest like theres no tommorrow.

Without all you will get is algae, well is the case in drums i have going anyways.

[PHL]

The type of algae PHE is referring to is also called "bearded alga" and is actually not green but a red alga (although it looks brown). It does not normally grow in "green water". I

The algae you are thinking of the the red brush algae, and SAE's (or at least mine) clean them out in no time, but they flatly refuse the touch the long stranded stuff. Can you suggest something that will reliably eat it, that would not breed like mad?

[Magica DiSpell]

Sorry,

Nothing else will touch it. Reducing nitrate levels is the only way. If you already have plants in your tank, try fertilising with iron and minerals to give the plants the extra boost.

[PHL]

Nothing else will touch it. Reducing nitrate levels is the only way. If you already have plants in your tank, try fertilising with iron and minerals to give the plants the extra boost.

I don't think nitrate is the problem, as unless I add Potassium Nitrate, my nitrate reading is 0 (control is potassium nitirate), and the algae is worse when I don't add Potassium Nitrate. This tank does get Flourish and Flourish Fe (besides Potassium Nitrate), and CO2 injection via a Dupla Reaktor S; never had algae problems until I was away for two weeks, and the tank wasn't fertilised.

[Magica DiSpell]

Interesting. You say that your tank was taken over by that algae only after it wasn't fertilised for a while. This is exactly what I was suspecting. At that time, the plants weren't able to "soak" up all the nitrate, so nitrate increased - if only for a limited period of time - and the algae started to grow. Now, your nitrates are down again, I bet your algae will disappear after a while because it is less efficient than the higher plants in your tank in the uptake of nutrients.

[Link2Hell]

Phosphates in the fertilzer perhaps?

adding products that include phosphate will usually induce

an algae bloom like that

L2H

[PHL]

Interesting. You say that your tank was taken over by that algae only after it wasn't fertilised for a while. This is exactly what I was suspecting. At that time, the plants weren't able to "soak" up all the nitrate, so nitrate increased - if only for a limited period of time - and the algae started to grow. Now, your nitrates are down again, I bet your algae will disappear after a while because it is less efficient than the higher plants in your tank in the uptake of nutrients.

You might have missed the part where I actually add nitrate as part of my fertiliser mix, in fact as the largest component of my fertiliser mix (otherwise my plants yellow). If you follow Sear-Conlin arguement, you do not want to limit nitrates, but to limit phosphates.

[PHL]

Phosphates in the fertilzer perhaps?

adding products that include phosphate will usually induce

an algae bloom like that

I don't add phosphate in my fertiliser, but you got me thinking; it was after some replanting, and I do have fertiliser spikes for my Echinodorus Rubin. I wonder if some of that got disturbed...

[23Skidoo]

I read somewhere that certainplants can retard or encourage the growth of different types of algae, maybe you could try to diversify your plants some more, you might find if you introduce the right competitor the algae problem will fix itself, the more chems you add the more things that go wrong down the track.

I got a copy of 'Ecology of the Planted Aquarium' by Diana Walstad, it has heaps about algae growth and allelopathy. It's a must have IMO.

[PHL]

I got a copy of 'Ecology of the Planted Aquarium' by Diana Walstad, it has heaps about algae growth and allelopathy. It's a must have IMO.

It's a good book, and I do have a copy of it (and have had it for some time). Some of the reasoning is good, but they way she supports them is pretty suspect, such as the anti-algae bit you referred to, the plants were basically liquidised; don't know about you, but I don't often do that do my plants.

I had (I've just re-established my tanks due to increased accommodation requirements of my fish) two tanks set up according to her ideas, and they worked well.