Some reasons for algae

In biological systems, Ecology addresses organisms in both time and space.

Some things that change the populations sizes and their appearances:

1. Disturbance(us scrubbing it off, pruning, trimming, water changes, herbivores etc)
2. Succession (allowing the GDA to go to it's cycle completion, this seems to work, I'm still not comfy with it just yet)
3. Nutrients/organic type
4. Host specificity(some plants are more likely to get BBA, etc)
5. Competition with other algae
6. Changes/stochasticity
7. Substrate type (ADA, plain silica sand, Flourite, mud etc)
8. Tank age
9. Energy input into the system(light)
10. Establishment of bacteria and fungal communities over time.
11. Herbivores
12. Spore germenation(think weed seed banks, or for us, adding NH4, dead fish etc or adding too much light + not enough CO2)

One thing many aquarist miss, they test only one discrete time and think that is what the levels are for the entire time. This is never true.

If you test over a day(24hrs) for CO2, things will change.
If you test over the NO3 dosing over a 1 week, 3 weeks, or 2 months each day, they tend to vary widely.

The goal is to provide a good habitat for the plants and not for the algae.
Once this balance is achieved, the planted tank is quite stable.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

Re: Some reasons for algae

No need for seasonal changes, few plants ever get more than 10 hours of decent light, many close up after 8-9 hours.

Regards,
Tom Barr