Not clear on that, Chuck... ammonium nitrite nitrate, right? Assuming a
fully cycled tank, whatever ammonia isn't being used, ends up as nitrite,
then nitrate. Or am I putzing up the chemistry thing again?

The presence of nitrates is symptomatic of an algae bloom but not the cause
of it. If there is more ammonium present than the plants can use, the
excess will be available to be converted by the bacteria to nitrite
nitrate. Algae are opportunistic and will use the ammoium or nitrate
indiscriminately whereas higher plants will exhaust available ammonium
before using nitrate.

kush

Chuck Gadd wrote in message
...
On Thu, 02 Jan 2003 12:18:22 GMT, Moose
wrote:

check your nitrAtes. that's where my algae bloom comes from. Adding
plants will get rid of it.

Nitrates will usually not cause an algae bloom. What several people
have found is that if the ammonia being produced isn't being used up
quickly enough (by either the bacteria or the plants) then it will
cause algae problems. The ammonia might not be measurable, but it's
still the most likely cause.

My 75g tank was running for 4-6 months with nitrate level of 50ppm+
with zero algae problems.

Chuck Gadd
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua