Fish Food = Green Dust

Re: Fish Food = Green Dust

GD will grow with good EI levels and dosing.
I could not keepo it alive for more than 3 weeks.

It could be if you simply leave it and don't wipe it off, it'll do it's cycle and then never come back.

They are zoospores, they will swim around after you wipe them off and reattach.

You can see this occur without a scope also. Wipe and then watch the film reappear in about 1 hour.

When you wipe, make sure there is no current and vacuum upo any of the dust.

The other method, preferred method, is to do a large water change, like 80-90% and remove it with a paper towel and toss the towels out after each wipe. Do this wiping when the water is drained, like wiping well, you know, like when your pants are down..........you don;t wipe them when they are on, well... most folks don't.

This will remove them.

Do this 2-3x as needed(either that same day later after what's left has reattched or wait 2 days etc).

Normal nutrients.

You can run a UV or a diatom right after as well to get any floaters.
You can also reduce the light and pull the lights away from the front of the glass etc or where it's growing.

Only in very bad cases does it ever attach to plants.
Blackout will hurt it also but is not needed.

This is a very simple thing that will help rid you of the algae, cost you next to nothing(paper towel cost) and greatly improve plant health(large water changes).

I suppose some folks might try H2O2 and Excel, but I think the peper towel trick has those beat hands down and is perfect for targeting only the algae, rather than worrying about the plants and critters.

You need to remove the algae that's there as best you can, then add nutrients back.

There is no correlation between fish food and GD, I had it in tanks with no fish and with fish from what could gather.

Same results.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

Re: Fish Food = Green Dust

Why can't I reproduce that theory/observation?

Why don't I have it in tanks with lots of fish and cans till get in tanks with no fish at all?

The other issue, I don't know if the paratmeters are the same as my own in your tank, I don't know if the CO2, KNO3 dosing, water changes etc are an issue or not.

When I deal with folks in person, I can see the mistakes in 2-3 minutes.
Fish feeding unless you have a loaded tank, I mean like a Discus per 10 gal or more, are not causing issues for folks.

If they are not having trouble and I'm not able to reproduce things you say are true, there's something else occurring with your tank.

That's the evidence and observations I'm looking at.
It's like the old PO4 arguement, someone once said it causes algae, okay then....where is my algae?

I cannot reproduce the same things you are seeing.

I feed, so do many folks, they don't have it.
You can inoculate the stuff to a tank, I still don't have it.
I can't keep it alive for long.
I feed fish food.

I think that's a fair statement, that might not be what you want to hear, but that's what my observations about this algae are. Yours are different, you need to figure out why. What might you be doing that I am not?

We both feed fish......I know I have the spores present, the test tank had it about a few months ago. I can go dump a bunch of food in there and not get it.

Do you have a filter on the tank? Small or large? Fish food has NH4, other than that, there's not much that would induce the algae vs any other nutrient.

You can dose NH4 to see.(you need a UV for GW).

Some of the Evidence is good but does not always disprove nor support theory. Especially if you misapply the evidence.
But what is the evidence really telling you? What can you really say about it and be sure?

Misapplication occured/s with PO4, K+, NO3 and trace dosing quite often.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

Re: Fish Food = Green Dust

Let's get down to it!

Do you want to figure why or just get rid of it?
That's the first question......

Then go to step 2.

I like "why" a lot. Most don't, they want to kill it and not deal with it and feed their fish.

I think you can add a little more bio materials in the filter, water changes routines, paper towel wiping, pull the lighting or bend the reflectors away from the glass.

I know that pesky algae bugs folks.
Seems to occur in higher light PC systems, 2-5 w/gal.
Old or new tanks.
It's a zoospore former(they can swim around and reattach), it's genus is Akinosendemsus, does well at good nutrients levels for plants.
Seldom grows on plants.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

Re: Fish Food = Green Dust

These RFUG's work quite well.
They never really caught on that much but many Floruite, EC, FB and other substrate came out about the time I was suggesting them.

I gave up on this after seeing that the lfourite wasd doing a better job and did not have to add anything like piping, tunes going down there, powerheads etc.Flourite was simpler and more effective.

If you use plain sand I'd suggest doing these though and dosing the water column.

I had a pic from way way back, before digital cameras I took of one.
I might have it somewhere,

It's CPVC, smaller than the PVC, cost about 10$ to make almost any size you want. I maded a simple grid pattern all the way around like a big loop and then added Tees to add the middle pipes.

I also always made the grid about 1-1/.5 " less so it'll never show against the glass.

Works very well.

Regards,
Tom Barr


Regards,
Tom Barr

 

Re: Fish Food = Green Dust

I'd lower the PO4/up the traces.
50% weekly water changes and get some warm water!!
But if not possible, certainly maintain the biomass, keep it the same or as close as you can.

I do not think the CO2 reactor vs this method will make any significant changes.

It's not an alga that seems to be able to repress with good plant nutrient levels for many people. I wish it would grow for long peroids.
Perhaps I can change a few things and try it again.

You can use NH4 in place of the fish food also.
See how it responds to that, do not add much!!!
Tiny bit every day. Then you can remove the food issue and make it a NH4 issue.

Regards,
Tom Barr