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