Just had a nice visit with Justin at Ocean Aquarium, which along with Aquaforest Aquarium is one of San Francisco's best freshwater fish stores. He maintains over 100 beautiful, heavily planted tanks that are completely algae free without the use of filtration. Here are some of his ideas:
-He relies solely upon root tabs for macro fertilization, maintaining that adding K, N, and P to the water column contributes to algae. He adds only traces to the water.
-In the few tanks where he does use HOB filtration, surface agitation is minimized, not because of concerns with CO2 loss, but rather because it contributes to high oxygen content in the tank, which in turn is thought to encourage algae.
-This next idea is particularly interesting: algae does not like sudden changes in conditions, therefore it is a good idea to have a few hours of lights out in the middle of the photoperiod.
-Finally, if I understood correctly, he says 300 K lighting will further discourage algae. Having over 100 tanks to maintain, he simply uses household low energy bulbs of the spiral type together with a high reflective surface.
Hope this is of interest. Justin has been doing this for over 20 years and enjoys talking at length with anyone and everyone who stops by. He is very generous with his time and has never tried to sell me anything. If you are every in San Francisco, it would be well worth your time to stop by.
-He relies solely upon root tabs for macro fertilization, maintaining that adding K, N, and P to the water column contributes to algae. He adds only traces to the water.
-In the few tanks where he does use HOB filtration, surface agitation is minimized, not because of concerns with CO2 loss, but rather because it contributes to high oxygen content in the tank, which in turn is thought to encourage algae.
-This next idea is particularly interesting: algae does not like sudden changes in conditions, therefore it is a good idea to have a few hours of lights out in the middle of the photoperiod.
-Finally, if I understood correctly, he says 300 K lighting will further discourage algae. Having over 100 tanks to maintain, he simply uses household low energy bulbs of the spiral type together with a high reflective surface.
Hope this is of interest. Justin has been doing this for over 20 years and enjoys talking at length with anyone and everyone who stops by. He is very generous with his time and has never tried to sell me anything. If you are every in San Francisco, it would be well worth your time to stop by.
