I've recently been able to induce Green dust for more than a week or two.
I did this by using newly redone tanks without some small little critters and by removing some killi fish that appear to be eating the critters.
These are small aquatic herbivorous insects or perhaps the herbivores are smaller and these are eating the actual herbivores, I have not identified the insects or the possible microscopic insects.
But......after leaving the GDA alone for about a week, the population appeared to grow rapidly, then the green dust went away and is only in high current locations.
There are cherry shrimp in the tank and they appear not to eat the insects.
I wondered why I never had GD for long, I've tried to induce it many times.
When we wipe off the GD algae, it'll swim around and attach again. we keep repeating this cycle, it'll never go away easily.
But........if we just let nature take it's course, and let the GD go to the sexual spore stage and die off or be eaten by these critters, then it'll go away on it's own and not return.
By continuing to disturb the algae and the cleaning the glass, we perpetuate the the problem actually.
I've noticed this same pattern after leaving it alone for week or two back in 2000 and here recently.
I thought it was the shrimp maybe, some nutrient, maybe higher plant biomass etc, but just allowing it some time and in 2 weeks of good growth, decent plant biomass, some shrimp, it's gone away on it's own.
I think GD is a very poor competitor.
So it will colonice glass very fast and recolonize.
But you'll notice since we keep glass clean by cleaning frequently, we also provide a good place for the GD to grow without competitors.
After the GD dies back for 2-5 days, then you go in and scrub off the harder algae, then the GD does not return and you have low glass algae issues from then on.
The GD seems to need to go through this cycle and once done, should not bother you again.
Weeds will populate a newly tilled disturbed soil, but as time passes, these early succession weeds will die off and be outcompeted by more combative species or by herbivores, I believe this is true for the GD algae as well.
GDA will do well, as many early succession weeds do, with good non limiting nutrients and high light.
But as light decreases, so does GDA, likewise, as competitors move in, the GDa dies back also. As herbivore populations increase it appears that the GDA also backs off.
If you scrub GDA off, you'll notice where it resettles again.
Generally the lower flow areas and high light.
If you allow the GDA to stay awhile, allow the herbivores and other algae grow on the glass, the GDA will go away in the low flow areas and only a small amount will be left in the high flow areas(the flow blast the other herbivores away, but some algae can live there, eg green spot algae.
I do not have the whole process of other possible processes figured out, but I have enough information and observations to make some testable approaches. It'll take time, but GDA will go down like all the algae before it.
This ecological approach rather than herbicide/algicide approach is much better at solving the issues and understanding their causes.
By understanding the ecology and dymanics there, we can be much better at dealing with the control with or without the algicides approach also.
When dealing with weeds, simply killing a weed and then allowing the seeds to live will not be smart..........it's much more intregative that this and interwoven.
This packs a one two punch but the natural method should be used first, seems to work where algicides fail and it also addresses the plant health better.
All algicides affect plant growth to some degree, just like all herbicides will affact and lower crop yields also, the trade off makes it worth while for the crops though.
Regards,
Tom Barr
I did this by using newly redone tanks without some small little critters and by removing some killi fish that appear to be eating the critters.
These are small aquatic herbivorous insects or perhaps the herbivores are smaller and these are eating the actual herbivores, I have not identified the insects or the possible microscopic insects.
But......after leaving the GDA alone for about a week, the population appeared to grow rapidly, then the green dust went away and is only in high current locations.
There are cherry shrimp in the tank and they appear not to eat the insects.
I wondered why I never had GD for long, I've tried to induce it many times.
When we wipe off the GD algae, it'll swim around and attach again. we keep repeating this cycle, it'll never go away easily.
But........if we just let nature take it's course, and let the GD go to the sexual spore stage and die off or be eaten by these critters, then it'll go away on it's own and not return.
By continuing to disturb the algae and the cleaning the glass, we perpetuate the the problem actually.
I've noticed this same pattern after leaving it alone for week or two back in 2000 and here recently.
I thought it was the shrimp maybe, some nutrient, maybe higher plant biomass etc, but just allowing it some time and in 2 weeks of good growth, decent plant biomass, some shrimp, it's gone away on it's own.
I think GD is a very poor competitor.
So it will colonice glass very fast and recolonize.
But you'll notice since we keep glass clean by cleaning frequently, we also provide a good place for the GD to grow without competitors.
After the GD dies back for 2-5 days, then you go in and scrub off the harder algae, then the GD does not return and you have low glass algae issues from then on.
The GD seems to need to go through this cycle and once done, should not bother you again.
Weeds will populate a newly tilled disturbed soil, but as time passes, these early succession weeds will die off and be outcompeted by more combative species or by herbivores, I believe this is true for the GD algae as well.
GDA will do well, as many early succession weeds do, with good non limiting nutrients and high light.
But as light decreases, so does GDA, likewise, as competitors move in, the GDa dies back also. As herbivore populations increase it appears that the GDA also backs off.
If you scrub GDA off, you'll notice where it resettles again.
Generally the lower flow areas and high light.
If you allow the GDA to stay awhile, allow the herbivores and other algae grow on the glass, the GDA will go away in the low flow areas and only a small amount will be left in the high flow areas(the flow blast the other herbivores away, but some algae can live there, eg green spot algae.
I do not have the whole process of other possible processes figured out, but I have enough information and observations to make some testable approaches. It'll take time, but GDA will go down like all the algae before it.
This ecological approach rather than herbicide/algicide approach is much better at solving the issues and understanding their causes.
By understanding the ecology and dymanics there, we can be much better at dealing with the control with or without the algicides approach also.
When dealing with weeds, simply killing a weed and then allowing the seeds to live will not be smart..........it's much more intregative that this and interwoven.
This packs a one two punch but the natural method should be used first, seems to work where algicides fail and it also addresses the plant health better.
All algicides affect plant growth to some degree, just like all herbicides will affact and lower crop yields also, the trade off makes it worth while for the crops though.
Regards,
Tom Barr
I never had GDA in the past, until recently when I swiched to higher lighting and had trouble with plant growth. Then it was like BAM! green glass all the time, I tried to wipe and scrub, and water change it away but that only worked to slow it and by the end of the week it was always back. 
