salex@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Scott Alexander) (05/10/88)
About two months ago, I finally went ahead and got an aquarium. The guy at the fish store suggested that goldfish were the most difficult to kill, so I started off with 2 choclate orgamis and a 10 gallon setup. I have the tank, a fluorescent light/hood, one of the little bubbler/filters that sits in the corner, and some gravel. About 3 weeks after I set up the aquarium, I suddently got a thick growth of algae on the sides of the tank in about 1 week. I then added a snail. The snail made some inroads, but certainly showed no signs of cleaning the tank. I then talked to a (different) aquarium store. They suggested that I start checking the pH and that I scrape the sides. The pH was a bit high, but using the stuff they suggested, I brought it back down and it's been steady since. I also scraped the algae off the sides. Two days after scraping, the water turned very green. It's green enough that I cannot see all the way through the tank even on the short dimension. Their next suggestion was to change 1/3 of the water. This had no noticeable effect. At the suggestion that the aquarium was asserting that it needed more plant growth I added the plants with no effect. What have I done wrong and what should I do next? Thanks, Scott Alexander salex@linc.cis.upenn.edu
jason@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Jason Rosenberg) (05/11/88)
In article <4576@super.upenn.edu> salex@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Scott Alexander) writes: > >About 3 weeks after I set up the aquarium, I suddently got a thick growth >of algae on the sides of the tank in about 1 week. >What have I done wrong and what should I do next? > Your first mistake is assuming that algae growth is a sign of a problem in your tank. Green algae is expected and needs to be dealt with in any healthy tank. Algae is caused by ultraviolet light (sunlight). If the algae is extraordinary active, it could be that you have your tank in a place receiving a lot of light. The only danger with allowing excessive amounts of algae to grow unharvested is that your tank could be vulnerable to a massive die-off of algae, causing a major disaster to your tank (polluted water, etc.). The green stuff in the water is simply algae spores free-floating in your water after having been dislodged by your scraping the sides. Most filters will clear the water within an hour. Do you have a filter? Jason Rosenberg Mira Hershey Hall 801 Hilgard Avenue jason@cs.ucla.edu Los Angeles, CA 90024 {ihnp4,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!jason (213) 209-1806