Brown Algae and Bubbles

[aquabillpers]

Three weeks ago I set up a 10 gallon tank with a substrate of a half inch of well-soaked topsoil topped with 2mm-3mm gravel. I planted E. tenellus and two species of hygrophila. Fauna consisted of a few hitchhiking snails and some daphnia.

For the first 10 days the tank looked great and the plants did well. Then a brown algae began to appear on the substrate and on the hygrophila leaves. Their growth slowed and they didn't look happy.

I know that brown algae commonly occurs in new tanks and eventually dies off, and I'm not worried about it, although I wish it would go away pretty soon. But this algae "pearls" or at least produces tiny bubbles that rise to the surface, sometimes with one of the daphnia attached! I'd guess that at least 50 bubbles were rising to the top at any point in time.

I'm sure that the bubbles don't originate in the substrate; in the part of the tank that gets extra light there is no algae and no bubbles.

Are the bubbles composed of oxygen? That seems to be the only possibility, but I thought that oxygen was produced only by green plants, not brown ones.

BTW, I get BGA in about half the soil-based tanks that I set up, and this doesn't look like it.

Thanks,

Bill

 

[Tom Barr]

Yes, algae does pearl like mad at times.

Diatoms...........likely Melosira.
Shrimp, Otto cats take care of it effectively.

BGA can be nuked with EM, or you can go the Blackout route.
Most ADA tanks also get a fair amount of BGA, and it's common in well run tanks also below the gravel line where there is enough light.

 

[mike]

BGA can be nuked with EM, or you can go the Blackout route.

Does anyone know if BGA can be eliminated and subsequently controlled using a UV sterilizer?

Mike
[/quote]

No, it cannot be killed with a UV at all.

 

[aquabillpers]

I'm not sure that my problem is BGA - it doesn't look like any I've seen, and it seems to be dying out now, by itself.

Are those little bubbles oxygen?

I'd think that ultra-violet light would kill BGA - it kills just about everything else - but it's a question of how much light energy reaches the target. Maybe we need an underwater ultra-violet light?

Bill