Path: utzoo!hoptoad!mejac!decwrl!labrea!husc6!bbn!oberon!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwind!nrcvax!elroy!cit-vax!ucla-cs!lanai!jason
From: jason@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Jason Rosenberg)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: green water
Message-ID: <12193@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 11 May 88 07:12:11 GMT
References: <4576@super.upenn.edu>
Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU
Reply-To: jason@lanai.UUCP (Jason Rosenberg)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 26

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