I think a lot of you guys here on Barrreport had these situations , when you are caught in discutions with certain people on your local forums that still belive that nutrients cause algae..
PO4 is on the top of the list here folloved by NO3 , Fe etc.
Fertilizing a newly started tank gets in a crossfire quite often..
Whenever someone comes with some algae problem you can hear a whole bunch of ''advices'' like ; stop fertilizing , use phosphate remover , nitrate remover , algacide , increase the lights etc.
Very few times you hear stuff like; increase co2 , lower the lights...
Never any hard evidence behind those ''advices''.
Some more experienced aquarists give their ''years spent in the hoby'' as evidence..
It's actualy pretty disturbing to get into such arguments , specially when there's ''nutrients cause algae'' atmosphere.
I saw a lot of spicy discussions on the subject from Tom Barr and am amazed the way he handles the attacks from ''non belivers'' out there.
On the other hand he (Tom) is filled with experience , knowledge and a whole bunch of scientific tests behind him that prove his statements.
For me and others what's left as an argument is experience with 1 or 2 tank and presenting Barr's scientific tests that prove this and that.
I have a 30 lit tank with 1x14w t8 that i use to put the extra plants that's left after trimming , i also use it as a quarantine tank when i get some new fish.
Don't have co2 system for it but i dose EC (Excell) , no algae issues.
I was thinking of using that tank to make some tests that would prove that those notorious nutrients don't cause algae , i would document the tests etc..
..but i could use some guidelines for those tests..
..ya know, how long should a test last , what dosages of ferts to use and so on..
PO4 is on the top of the list here folloved by NO3 , Fe etc.
Fertilizing a newly started tank gets in a crossfire quite often..
Whenever someone comes with some algae problem you can hear a whole bunch of ''advices'' like ; stop fertilizing , use phosphate remover , nitrate remover , algacide , increase the lights etc.
Very few times you hear stuff like; increase co2 , lower the lights...
Never any hard evidence behind those ''advices''.
Some more experienced aquarists give their ''years spent in the hoby'' as evidence..
It's actualy pretty disturbing to get into such arguments , specially when there's ''nutrients cause algae'' atmosphere.
I saw a lot of spicy discussions on the subject from Tom Barr and am amazed the way he handles the attacks from ''non belivers'' out there.
On the other hand he (Tom) is filled with experience , knowledge and a whole bunch of scientific tests behind him that prove his statements.
For me and others what's left as an argument is experience with 1 or 2 tank and presenting Barr's scientific tests that prove this and that.
I have a 30 lit tank with 1x14w t8 that i use to put the extra plants that's left after trimming , i also use it as a quarantine tank when i get some new fish.
Don't have co2 system for it but i dose EC (Excell) , no algae issues.
I was thinking of using that tank to make some tests that would prove that those notorious nutrients don't cause algae , i would document the tests etc..
..but i could use some guidelines for those tests..
..ya know, how long should a test last , what dosages of ferts to use and so on..