Green Carpet, Wall Algae, Carpet Algae Options

[infocus]

Yo infocus,

How's the water perimeters now? Has the algae done any good to your fishes?

Hee...... didn't measure for some time already. Too lazy but my goldfish doing fine. Will update you probably this weekend as I just did wc two days ago.

[infocus]

Yo infocus,

How's the water perimeters now? Has the algae done any good to your fishes?

Wee uei...... My water chemistry as follows:

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrate: between 5 to 10ppm

7 days when I last did wc.

[toejam]

Will my bio-media keep my tank from growing string algea? Do i need some type of fertilizer to get it started?
Iam having no luck.
I do 50 percent water changes weekly to keep nitrates at 30ppm.

[bekko]

It's a funny world. On the koi boards I read one of the most frequent questions is how to get rid of string algae.

When both are available, string algae will use ammonia in preference to nitrate as a nitrogen source. The nitrogen-hydrogen bond in ammonia is easier to break than the nitrogen-oxygen bond in nitrate. However, it can still grow fine using nitrate. Green water (single-cell algae) will often out-compete string algae for the available nutrients.

String algae also needs a source of phosphate. In the old days, fish food had lots of phosphate. Now, some fish foods are made to have very little phosphate to help reduce algae "problems" and make the effluent cleaner.

-steve

[toejam]

Will string algea come from wall or carpet algea, or is carpet a whole other plant?

[bekko]

I think "string algae", "carpet algae" and "blanket weed" are generic terms. There are many species and it takes a professional with a microscope to identify them for certain. Some species can assume different growth habits and look like string algae in some situations and blanket weed in others. To make matters even worse, goldfish will eat some species and not others - even though the different species look very similar to our eyes. The ones that feel sort of coarse like horse hair do not seem to be favored as much as the ones that feel softer. Also, goldfish seem to like the ones that are bright green better than the ones that are olive green - but that could just be my imagination.

-steve

http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/seagrant/GLWL/Al...rmFilament.html
http://www.virtualviz.com/algae.htm
http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/algae/f...ntous_algae.htm

[namrfigk]

How does one grow carpet algae, the long stringey ones that goldfish can feed on?

[bekko]

How does one grow carpet algae

With light, fish waste, luck and patience. Keep changing water and keep removing mulm from the bottom, but do not scrub the bottom and walls. Eventually, the green water will crash and the carpet algae will take over. Changing more water often helps - but not always. A biofilter often helps - but not always. Continually pumping the water through a UV unit usually works. Once the carpet algae takes over, it can out-compete the green water and will usually remain dominant without the help of the UV.

-steve

This post has been edited by bekko: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 2:11 pm

[namrfigk]

though i have tried doing that, i usually end up with wall algae, not carpet algae which goldfish can feed on

This post has been edited by namrfigk: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 3:21 pm

[bekko]

There are many different types of algae so it is dangerous to speak in general terms about it. Would wall algae be carpet algae if the goldfish were not eating it?

-steve

[namrfigk]

to my knowledge, carpet algae differs from wall algae in terms of appearance.

Carpet algae is a lush thick layer of greens on the fish tank wall that can be plucked by chunks, hence allowing fish to feed on them.

Wall algae, on the other hand, is a fine thin taint of brownish green matter that only disfigures your tank, and cannot be grabbed in terms of physical clutching, thus fish cannot feed on them, only plecos can.

[johnism]

how is this setup different than a Green water tank and how is it done?

Can people post updated pics of there tanks set up like this ... allot of the posting on here about it have dead links.
As always thank you ,
John

This post has been edited by johnism: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:15 am

[CP]

how is this setup different than a Green water tank and how is it done?

Can people post updated pics of there tanks set up like this ... allot of the posting on here about it have dead links.
As always thank you ,
John

Unfortunately, the pics are lost.This is the only thread that carries a nice carpet algae tank as far as I know.

green water tank does not have carpet algae.The former consists of free floating algae which utilises ammonia as nutrient and the latter (what you see here) consists on algaes which utilises nitrates.To achieve a setup like this, your tank needs to be cycled with nitrates as end product, and lots of patience as explained by Steve (bekko) a few posts earlier.

[Kinder]

I'm not sure what are the rite requirements of growing Wall Algae...but few weeks back when my water temp was around 24-25C ....i noticed fine wall algae started growing just below the water line....i was excited, but it was time to do WC and after water change the algae didnt grow back....

Now the water temp has gone up around 29C (summer here) and now no wall algae ....so guess water temp might have also got to do with wall algae growth.

This post has been edited by Kinder: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 5:09 pm