seafan
Aquarium Advice FINatic
This is a story of a tank, fluorescent lights, and lots and lots of algae. Well It started out normal enough, I was studying tidepool ecology in Maine two summers ago. As part of the course we would collect samples (i.e urchins, seastars, crabs e.t.c) and put them in a tank with a sponge filter. It could have been because the fluorescent lights they used in the room had full spectrum capabilities, it could have been caused by other reasons I just don't know. The next day I came in and there's algae everywhere. Not just macro algae but phyto and zoo-plankton. I tried cleaning, replacing the water, everything, but I couldn't save the bivalves and more fragile animals. This happened to most of the tanks in the room. When we refilled our water and got new specimens, it didn't happen again, so I don't think it was the lights. If you could offer an explanation that would be appreciated. P.S that summer was unusually hot, the water temp was in the 70's. Maybe there were alot of plankton already in the water.
