Organische Belastung und Algen

hi Nik,
I agree to most off this.
Well, if Ramshorns touch or not touch BBA - may perhaps also have something to do (like you mentionied) in which stage the algae are, if it is in softer or in any harder stage. There are also some other snails like Taia naticoides which are claimed to eat sometimes BBA or to filter at last their spores away, but same here - sometimes they may do, mostly perhaps not if they find much more interesting things to eat or filtrate. So snails are not a general algae cure, but an importand point for tank cycling and dirt removal.
Also the tiny species like Physidae can help a little too reduce layer scum and such things.
Shrimps are also very importand, but also here: Some eat algae - some not.
I had f.e. some male Amano shrimps that never touched any single hair algae - but, my big female Amano shrimp cleaned my nano tank in just 3weeks and was eating hair algaes like crazy.
I finally cant tell you why some shrimps or snails do the job and some not. Perhaps it is the same like with humans, some like soya - some not. :smile:

In reality there are better, easier ways to do that - by setting up the tank so the microorganisms help us. But very few people are interested in that.
Imo a lot off ppl. here are interested in learning more about such things.
The problem is still, that we usually as hobbiest dont have any access for proper testing methods.
German stores sale a lot off biological stuff (some companies like Femanga, Microbe Lift have a huge collection, bakterials for this, bakterials for that, stuff for sludge removal and so on) and all such things should help to get "clean, stable & sludgefree" tanks. Unfortunatly most off the stuff is just scam and dont work like advertised.
 
Kiko,

Honestly on American forums I can not discuss what I am discussing here. I am happy to hear that in Germany there are people that are interested in finding ways to setup stable tanks. But I myself do not really know where to even start. The first person that I've heard to do something interesting about finding more is Nik (in the post above with the pictures of his tank).

I hope that this discussion continues.

--Nik
 
Hi Nik,

there are two threads. The 1st is ongoing, the 2nd is forgotten, nevertheless interesting.

- Die "Pflege" der Mikroflora oder ...
- ## Beobachtungen und Diskussion zur Mikroflora ###

The "maintenance" of microbiology is the main objective of a concept to get a stable tank. Other parts are ground, preferring sand, filtersubstrate as less as possible, alternatively flow, light, fertilization. Particular in "least-filtering", down to avoid filtering, a time I thought I found the primary key to get a stable tank, but also sometimes it doesn't work. Nevertheless I'm assured from the worth of least filtering. The idea is to ensure nitrification to avoid nitrite, but in addition less filtersubstrate minimizes influences on fertilization and moves chemical and biological processes from the filter into the tank.

To be at least with one sentence on topic, the way I see it, organics primary impacts microorganisms, secondary algae. It may show a result, but in practice it is more reasonable to establish a well working microbiology which outcompetes algae.

Regards, Nik
 
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