(no subject)

Reading Material:	The Ecology of...
	+ asst. romance novels and children's books

Went over my allowance by $12 yesterday, had fun with my aquarium today. The plants are growing and are very cool, but the algae is doing about as well. On my bazillionth perusal of The Ecology of the Planted Aquarium I soak in another tidbit. I noticed that the algae often did well after water changes, during which I was still using my old water conditioner w/ EDTA. I thought, well, that can't be bad 'cause EDTA fixes free iron; that keeps the algae from using it right? More careful reading reveals that free iron added to the water column (my tap water contains some iron) is either taken up by plants or becomes oxidized i.e. becomes unavailable for algae IF it is not bound up by a chelator like EDTA or dissolved organic compounds in the water, in which case, it can be liberated over time in a reaction with certain wavelengths of light. In other words, my water conditioner was creating a time-release reservoir of free iron in my water. Not good. No more water conditioner w/ water changes. I removed as much of the algae as I could by hand, taped wax paper across the back of the tank to filter the light, and added carbon to my filter to remove dissolved organic compounds, per the book's algae control suggestions. I also cut a strip of used filter floss and rubber-banded it to my filter intake. Viola, free sponge filter on my intake. The algae not only looks ugly, but knocking it off the plants clogs up my cannister filter which is a pain to unhook and clean. Further, reduced water flow seemed to make the algae rather happier, and the fish rather unhappier. Now I can just clean the pre-filter. I want another aquarium! I've got a whole south facing window that is just crying out for another 55. Maybe someday. :)