@#$%& Hair algae and Tahatian Blend (?)

[Rick O]

Last year I fought (and won) a hard battle with hair algae. Well, a few months ago I started feeding my tank heavily with DT's, Tahatian Blend, and Golden Pearls. Shortly afterwards I started getting a heavy layer of brown diatom algae on the rocks. This only occured on the rocks that didn't have any coraline algae on them. I quit using TB and the Golden Pearls and also quit using frozen food for the fish. Now the diatoms have turned to HA. Argghhh!

Has anyone else noticed any negative side effects from using TB or any of the other products mentioned above?

Rick

[bill-e]

RickO,

Of course! You cannot "feeding my tank heavily with DT's, Tahatian Blend, and Golden Pearls." and not expect to have problems.

Both Tahitian Blend and Golden Pearls add loads of nutrition to your tank. You have to start very slowly and build up the amount that your feed so that the tank critters have a chance to build up in population and eat the food you are adding. I'm suprised you didnt get cyano also. When I first started with TB, if I added it only once a week I was fine, but twice a week and I got cyano. Now I feed either DT's, TB, or GP clusters daily, feeding a different one each day.

Back off on the TB and GP's, clean up your algae problem, then start again slowly.

------------------
Bill Esposito
bespo@cereal.mv.com
JAqua for the AquaController 2
http://cereal.mv.com/jaqua.html
My Reef Page
http://cereal.mv.com/reef
The box said "Use Win 95 or better", I chose better so I run OS/2!

[This message has been edited by bill-e (edited 02-04-2001).]

[Rick O]

Oops. I should have mentioned I first started with TB only and followed the recommendations of many people on this and other boards about ramping up. I did get the cyano first (several months ago) but that was easy to get rid of. I just cut back on the lighting period and suspended feeding the TB and it went away in a few days.

The thing that has me puzzled now is that I quit using TB and GP about three weeks ago and the HA is still developing. I'm only using DT's once a week and doing weekly 10% water changes.

As much as I've read about HA in the past I know that it pretty much comes down to exporting as many nutrients as you import.

Just wondering Bill. Aside from the economics, do you think that TB is better than DT's? I thought I had read a post from Dr. Ron that he didn't like the idea of adding dead algae to his tank. I looked for the post but couldn't find it. Just trying to get a feeding discussion going here.

Rick

[bill-e]

Hmm, well, I don't think you can separate the economics as DT's is orders of magnitude more expensive, but I will for now

First off, TB isn't all dead. You can actually start your own culture from it.

Next, it depends on how fast you use it up. Dr Ron and others have stated that the nutritional value decrease fairly fast. Because of this I've gone to the 35ml viles. more costly, but still loads cheaper than DT's and I use it up faster.

As for the GP, again, lots of nutrition and lots of phosphates. you need to be careful feeding them.

I think it's safe to say that DT's being live is the best, it's just that we cant all always afford the best



------------------
Bill Esposito
bespo@cereal.mv.com
JAqua for the AquaController 2
http://cereal.mv.com/jaqua.html
My Reef Page
http://cereal.mv.com/reef
The box said "Use Win 95 or better", I chose better so I run OS/2!