After reading through a lot of the message boards, it appears nuisance algae is the biggest problem facing aquarists today.

So what are the causes?

It all comes down to water quality. Either too many phosphates, too many organics, too much of this, too much of that, etc etc.

Thus, why are we not pro-active instead of re-active in the controlling of algae?

Not being proactive is like setting a reef tank up without lights, then after all your corals die, you think it is time for lights so you can get them to live.

I have never came right out and said this before but it is time to say it.

Water is the most important thing in our aquariums. The first thing a lot of people mention when responding to an algae thread is, "are you using RO/DI water." OK, so that is step one, clean water. What is the next step? Mixing the water with a salt mix.

At this years IMAC I was educated in salt mixes. We actually took a handful of salt and examined it. One could see all the different sized particles and see the exact make up of the raw ingredients that comprised the salt mix. This lead to a very lengthy discussion with MDP, and the guys at SeaChem, additionally two years ago I had a very long talk with Instant Ocean's chemist in charge of their formula at the very first IMAC ever.

Thus, I have talked to three different salt manufacturers. Did you know they use the material in gypsum board as one of the components of some salt mixes?

Anyhow, I do not understand why if one goes to all the expense of getting ro/di water, they just mix it with the cheapest salt they can get?

So the second most important thing for algae control is salt mix.

So now we have appropriate water . . . . . .

Do you change it enough?

Do you overfeed?

How is your maintainence?

Guys, lets start our tanks off right instead of wrong, and maybe we can reduce they amount of nuisance algae!