So, I have heard of it and experienced it but never understood its relationship to the nitrogen cycle. So from my personal experience I have usually seena tank have cyano, followed by a hair type algae and then finally a greenish coralline followed by the purple and pink coralline algae. So I would like to be educated a bit please as to why and how this cycle occurs.
I'd like to talk about the Algae cycle.
- Thread starter akunochi
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baker89
Well-known member
I agree I would love to hear more about this subject. I'm in the middle of dealing with micro algae currently. Once my tank cycled I had brown diatoms show up and about a week and a half later green hair algae. I can also see a little bit of purple coraline showing up. My thoughts on its link to the nitrogen cycle was that once your bio filter starts creating Nitrates you have an excess amount all at once giving the micro algae something to feed off of and flourish. Then once your tank becomes established and you get your nitrates under control the algae begins to die off. That was my thought process anyway I am new though so please correct me lol.
Dennis
Dennis
Peppie
Well-known member
I have lots of thoughts. But right now they dont include algae. LOL
Its a good question I also am interested in the info
Its a good question I also am interested in the info
Krish
RF STAFF
I think it all boils down to finding that balance in an aquarium. An un-stable system cannot fend off nuisance algae's so it's through tank maturity that you will see less and less algae making its way in to your tank as it main food sources won't be as readily available. I have an article that is 95% complete on nuisance algae's that will be a part of a series of articles the RF Staff is putting together which will go up on the homepage from starting out a tank, cycling, testing, quarantining, etc and nuisance algae is one of them. We are going in a particular order so the algae one is a ways out but I think it will be a nice read. 
Right I understand that nuisance algae has a cause. However, I am curious is it the migration and growth of the bacteria cultures growing that make you see all the different algae's in such a short time frame? I notice that although each of these algaes make an appearance none of them last more than a week or so as long as your flow and lighting was designed correctly.
Krish
RF STAFF
I had hair algae that out lasted my fish :lol:. Some will stick around forever if you continute to meet their needs. Then sometimes what happens is you get another nuicance algae that will start to grow that is more hardy and more aggressive for nutrients that will then out-compete the other algae you had growing which is why one's "lifespan" may be short lived. This is where refugiums come in sometimes. Get a more agressive algae in there that will out-compete what's growing in the tank and then you don't have to look all the un-sightly algae growing in your display.
Sasquatch
Well-known member
"It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now present, which could ever have been present. But if (and oh! what a big if!) we could conceive in some warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity, &c., present, that a proteine (sic) compound was chemically formed ready to undergo still more complex changes, at the present day such matter would be instantly absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were found." DARWIN.
Krish
RF STAFF
Sasquatch
Well-known member
lo and there was wetness, then muck, eventually man crawled from the wet/muck and messed up everything, algae played no role in the current state of affairs and shall be held not responsible, algae is our friend. Krish stayed in the wet/muck a bit too long and gave up reading skills for sunshine and beaches
NC2WA
Well-known member
Seth,
If you haven't already read these two sections of this article, might be a good place to start.
Reef Frontiers - Cycling and recycling your tank
• How the Nitrogen process works
• What to looking after the cycle occurs
May not answer the why, but the how part.
If you haven't already read these two sections of this article, might be a good place to start.
Reef Frontiers - Cycling and recycling your tank
• How the Nitrogen process works
• What to looking after the cycle occurs
May not answer the why, but the how part.
Krish
RF STAFF
Haha!! I use babelfish translator to translate English to English. :lol:
So Seth, still baffled by algae?? I want to know where hair algae comes from. You can get a brand new fish tank, completely dried out base rock with NO LIFE and put it in the tank using ro/di water with a salt mix and "by golly" as that tank cycles, hair algae appears. Where do the spores come from if you started from scratch?
I'm starting to think algae is a type of bacteria LOL!
Sasquatch
Well-known member
that would be American English to Normal English?
Krish
RF STAFF
That will work! LOL!
Sasquatch
Well-known member
so getting back on track lol, I believe the algae answer your looking for is " where did this crap come from"? it lays low in the rock, its in the air and in your fishes guts, as there is little competition algae wise at tank start up the most prolific grow first, as the rest come into play its a seesaw of nutrient excess and balance between N and P, other factors also come into play like nutrient loaded rock, dead sponges and critters that some algae is more adept at feeding from. When the surplus nutrient are burned/used up things settle down until we mess up and let something get out of hand
Krish
RF STAFF
Never thought about the part of it being in the fish's gut. I can see how it can be transferred that way. That makes a lot of sense.
Sasquatch
Well-known member
Never thought about the part of it being in the fish's gut. I can see how it can be transferred that way. That makes a lot of sense.
Birds do it,bees do it, even you an me, the object is not to cure the disease... it is to spread it lol
