GSA and PO4

[Philosophos]

Hi there, just wondering if anyone knows the reason behind PO4 and GSA (Coleochaete orbicularis). Ever since increasing my PO4 I certainly find its growth reduced, but I'm wondering if there's any science behind how it works yet. Nothing seems to be turning up good sources or even bad conjecture for me so far.

Thanks,

-Philosophos

 

[Biollante]

Bad Conjecture A Speciallity!

Hi Philosophos,

Bad conjecture is my strong suit.

I actually thought Tom Barr gave a pretty good piece on PO4 and algae recently.

I think I also have something on it I will post this evening.

Biollante

 

[Philosophos]

I must've missed the post then, and the news letter on PO4 back in January 2006 didn't seem to have any info. The past few days have been busy for me; I ended up overhauling a LFS's planted tank to get them on track.

-Philosophos

 

[Tom Barr]

I must've missed the post then, and the news letter on PO4 back in January 2006 didn't seem to have any info. The past few days have been busy for me; I ended up overhauling a LFS's planted tank to get them on track.

-Philosophos

Which is much more important!

I just know it works, and it is a very wide spread observation.
The closest I found was some observations in the Evergaldes that showed some species declined with increasing P. They did not state why.

I do not know why myself, other than to suggest that GSA is targeting a niche that requires good clean water with low PO4/low CO2. Few other algal species grow under those conditions, so these slower growing crustous forms are not covered by other faster growing species.

You need good specific germination signals so you can compete algae to algae.
I do not know the molecular biochemical cascade to say why the alga stops growing, goes to spores etc.

We cannot say too much about it and the research is not easy.
All we can say is when and where it appears, and the observations, not use hypothesis that suggest excess PO4 = algae in general.

We just know there's less of it, I hate it, and it's not an issue if the PO4 is high and the CO2 good.


Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Philosophos]

Thanks for the clarification

It's nice to know where principles in the hobby sit. Just trying to avoid the usual, "repeat until known as unquestionable fact" thing.

The hobby has been speeding up for me. Thanks to the knowledge of this site and your work, I've got both major LFS's starting to grow plants rather than just watch them die. The same goes for my plants for that matter. I hope to get a club for FW tanks with a planted focus going eventually, but that's going to be a bit of a slower process.

Thanks for setting up this site, Tom and Greg.

-Philosophos

 

[Philosophos]

Double post... I love my ISP in all its blazing glory. It's like I never really got to know 28.8 modems until now.

 

[Tom Barr]

Still, we do not know why most algae really are induced in all the details.

We only know some correlations, have ruled out many so called "causes" through falsification, but we are a very long way off from knowing "why", it'll be a few decades I'd say, maybe longer.

Heck there's plenty of basic plant growth issues they do not know "why".
You'll note, I'll jump and say what it is not, but rarely claim to know why algae is really caused by. Even then, it's just a correlation that has broad observation.

CO2 and NH4 can induce algae in some cases, but not all as well.
So those are just partial causes/correlations and light and % biomass of plants play a big role as well.



Regards,
Tom Barr