Somewhere, someone put out a great explanation about how to feed your fish,
I wish I had the link still. The gist of it is that you should feed in tiny
amounts, and watch the fish and the food. If you are properly feeding the
fish, you shouldn't see any food make it down to the bottom of the tank.
You should feed in these tiny doses until the fish stop chasing the food so
actively and food starts hitting the bottom (or, my method, until you think
they have had enough, and you're tired.) I'll feed my fish about 7 or 8
times over the course of an evening. Not even a pea sized wad of food.
Maybe bb sized.

I can't guess whether no nitrates = proper fish feeding, and even the
assumption of high nitrates = overfeeding is not always accurate, but I
would say that they are both good enough assumptions.

Bruce.


"pete" wrote in message
.. .
I see. Would it be a safe assumption to make then that if one's nitrates
and
phosphates are nearly undetectable (nitrates *are* undetectable, actually,
at
least according to my AP test kit - I have a very low fish load which I
plan to
gradually increase), then overfeeding is probably not happening? My algae
is
the long thin green threads that tend to get attached to and bunch around
and
between my plants. I hesitate to name it since even after perusing
various
algae description webpages I don't seem to be able to fit all of it into a
single category. I probably have a couple types; green threads and hair
are the
common elements. Long ago I used to have massive amts of BBA (and had
extremely
high nitrates and low water quality), but I don't have any BBA at all
anymore.
Fish load is lower, and water quality is much higher. Now I actually do
water
changes. :-) Back then - couple years ago when I was a complete novice -
I
didn't understand the great good that they are.

I couldn't get plants to grow to save my life back then, but now I have
more
success. Easy plants to be sure - vals, anacharis, 1 red melon sword, 1
crypt,
but the tall ones perl O2 and grow well enough that I have to continue to
prune
them.

55gal, 80W

pete

Bruce wrote:

Its possible that he's over feeding the fish, and that he could have
excess
phosphates and nitrates from that. A lot of people over feed their fish
without knowing it.

As for my algae, I've decide to keep it in check, with the hope that
eventually the plants will out compete it and it will not be too
noticable
(I'm not the original poster of this thread.)

Bruce.
"pete" wrote in message
. ..
What function does cutting back on feeding serve? Just curious.
pete

Bruce wrote:

Good suggestions so far. I have had hair algae in my tank for 2
years,
and
its a real pain, and never really goes away, just slows down. I
pinch
it
out here and there, and keep it looking ok.

The best offense against algae is to get the plants growing like
mad.
Add
some fast growing plants. My favorite weed is hygrophilia. You
don't
have
to plant it if you don't want to, just throw it in, and don't pull
any
off
it out for a while. Stop adding phosphate removers (do you have
high
phosphates in the water? If you have phosphates in your tap water,
stop
doing water changes for a while. This is my major problem,
phosphates
out
of the tap are off the scale of my test kit.) Stop the algae
chemicals --
they typically kill anything green. Cut your fish feeding in
half --
maybe
even stop for a few days.

PMDD: What are you basing your dosage on? You have two options
with
fertilizer either add more or add less. More may enable the plants
to
grow
better, but might boost the algae too. Less could allow the algae
grow
better too. If the plants don't have a 'balanced diet', they will
run
out
of some nutrients and leave an excess of others. Algae has fewer
needs,
and
can take advantage of an excess of one or two nutrients.

"jgreene" wrote in message
om...
I have been battling what has been diagnosed as hair algae from my
local fish store, for several months now. I have a 55gal with
2X55W
compact fluorescent on 7hr a day. I dose daily with PMDD, but I
am
careful not to dose too much, only about 7-10 drops. I have tried
algaefix for several weeks making sure all of the activated carbon
was
out of the filter. I have used phosphate remover several times
and
nothing works. I am spending over an hour a week removing the
algae
from my frill and a few other plant species but it just keeps
growing
back. My local store always suggests turning on the lights less,
but
I have never heard that anywhere on the internet and I am afraid
that
my plants might not be getting enough light if I turn them down
any
more. For some reason the algae has only invaded certain species
of
plants, so I am about ready to rip up all of the infected plants
and
get more plants to replace them. Is there anything else I can
try?

Jason