Path: utzoo!hoptoad!mejac!decwrl!gringort From: gringort@decwrl.dec.com (Joel Gringorten) Newsgroups: alt.aquaria Subject: Re: Fresh water plants (and marine too!) Message-ID: <434@bacchus.DEC.COM> Date: 9 May 88 20:22:47 GMT References: <411@bacchus.DEC.COM> <5316@ihlpg.ATT.COM> <3037@leo.UUCP> Reply-To: gringort@decwrl.UUCP (Joel Gringorten) Organization: DEC Western Software Lab, Palo Alto, CA Lines: 22 In article <3037@leo.UUCP> harald@leo.UUCP ( Harald Milne) writes: > > Reduce nitrate levels to zero. You can't get rid of algea, but you can >slow the growth at the food source. If you have no light, you can't have >algea at all. Or caulerpa. Kinda a catch-22. > Actually there may be a way. There have been reports that maintaining high redox potential promotes macro algae, while diminishing the simple algaes. I've been experimenting with ozone to increase my redox potential. About all I can report so far is that too much ozone destroys caulerpa. I've cranked the ozone level down a bit, and my caulerpa is thriving, although it seems not to be propagating as fast. Micro algaes, including slime algaes still exist and thrive. These algaes in particular, so a report claimed, thrive in low redox conditions. This same report recommended an ozonizer for increasing the redox potential. I'm beginning to think the whole redox/algae connection is a bunch of bunk. The *right* way to experiment with redox is to use a redox meter and probe. However, these gadgets start at around $350.00 and are noted for being unstable. -- -joel