# Yes, Potassium and Micros DO Contribute to Algae Growth



## crypticmonk (Sep 6, 2012)

So the cool thing to say now in the aquarium world is that algae has nothing to do with excess nutrients and is just about an "imbalance." People say that if you just increase your CO2 and decrease your lights, the algae will just magically disappear. I also hear that Potassium and micronutrients do not contribute to algae growth. Well I disagree. Although this article is from 1968, I have found others too that say that all (or almost all) of the elements required for plants are also required by algae. In other words, whatever nutrient you're adding for plants is also going to be contributing to algae growth.
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.pp.19.060168.000513?journalCode=arplant.1


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Increasing CO2 while decreasing lighting often brings relief for many.
No magic will make algae disappear but rather help prevent new/more algae from appearing or re-appearing.
Yes ,algae uses same nutrients plants use but need way less to thrive.
Is why plants can never outcompete algae for food/nutrient's, for the algae need's so little.
Must fix issues that brought the algae or it will return in many cases .
Adding more plant's helps,increasing CO2/consistency,decreasing lighting. helps along with nutrient's.
If you believe your adding too much in the way of nutrient's,then you can quit this one or that one. or decrease all of em.
But if this don't work after a few weeks,then what?
I have seen no improvement's in my own tanks from practicing plant nutrient limitation's without clear idea what nutrient's I am limiting and why.


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## PerfectDepth (Dec 3, 2014)

crypticmonk said:


> People say that if you just increase your CO2 and decrease your lights, the algae will just magically disappear. I also hear that Potassium and micronutrients do not contribute to algae growth.


If people are saying these things, then they don't quite have the correct understanding. A sufficient amount of plants growing in full health is what prevents algae. Everything else you mention is just a means to achieve this goal. Guess what happens in absolutely perfect planted tank conditions, full fertilizer regimen, plenty of co2 and distribution, but without any plants, or just not enough healthy, growing, plant mass... yep, a giant algae farm. 

Yes, algae is similar to plants. It also photosynthesizes. However, plants are more complex organisms with much stricter demands than algae. If you attempt to "starve" algae, your plants will just starve first. Algae isn't bothered as much by low nutrient availability, and will scavenge and subsist on very minuscule amounts of nutrients. Plants are far more picky about nutrient concentrations.


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## ed.junior (Feb 2, 2017)

I think that a lot has been researched from 1968 till today, and might or might not invalidate the cited documentation, but regardless of that, these other researches deserve also attention.

People cite constantly Tom Barr's work not because it is cool or controversial, but actually because it is deep, well conducted/researched and mostly importantly: it works.

I will not explain it here, rather check the source: http://www.barrreport.com/forum/bar...tive-index-of-dosing-or-no-need-for-test-kits

If you would like to skip it, then consider the fact that I weekly dose 30ppm of NO3, 12ppm of PO4, 40ppm of K, 1ppm of Fe-EDTA, under 150+ PAR (8000 lumens on a 60l tank). Call it waste, toxic, etc, but please ponder: where is the algae?
When these levels accumulate, we could be talking, for example, of 60ppm of K

I do not want to contradict anyone, I would like to offer knowledge that can give you freedom. You can dose these things and not worry about it, and focus instead on growing plants


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Struggling plants cause algae. Excess nutrients does not.

It is literally impossible to run a tank lean enough to "starve" algae.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Hey @ed.junior very nice tank there. A really beautiful presentation.

You should start a journal. I would love to hear more about it, and I am sure others would too.


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## ed.junior (Feb 2, 2017)

Greggz said:


> Hey @ed.junior very nice tank there. A really beautiful presentation.
> 
> You should start a journal. I would love to hear more about it, and I am sure others would too.


I have one at BarrReport.com. I had to drink from the source. Also, lots of people helped, directly or indirectly.

I might create a journal here too, if you think it helps 

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk


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## nikohak (Oct 21, 2016)

You can grow same plants a bit faster or slower depending on how much nutrients, CO2 & light you give them. There is no exact right amount of say nutrients. It is always about the relation between those three.

So if you originally offer 20% too much light compared to CO2 and nutrients and then increase the nutrients by 20%, than yes increasing the nutrients will likely cause more algae. This is because the optimal "balance" for algae requires less CO2 than the "balance" for most plants so those extra nutrients will boost algae but not plants. So yes, you can rightfully say that increasing nutrients causes algae.

If you are Tom Barr and and base nutrient dosing to EI (=a bit too much), then yes, you can rightfully say that increasing the CO2 often solves the algae issues. But most likely one could have just as well decreased the lights a bit. And at the same time, since light levels are lowered, it would be wise to lessen the nutrients also. And here we are basically back into Tom's original proposition of adding more CO2 .

So it is always about aiming to the "balance" of what plants need and avoiding the "balance" what algae needs. 
And I believe it is widely accepted that the biggest difference in those "balances" is that algae needs less CO2 than plants. Or in other words algae needs more light and nutrients than plants.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

like burr and ed say... it is all about growing an abundance of healthy plants... there is no magic ratio of nutrients that must be achieved or else you will fail. as long as you are growing lots of healthy plants without too much light you will be fine.


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