Of all the facets (to put it nicely) of marine aquarium keeping that turn off hobbyists, likely none surpasses dealing with pest algae. Normal maintenance of our systems can be a breeze; not taking much time or physical exercise, given that time in investigation and proper set-up has been accomplished. However, run-away algal problems can be proverbial plagues... not only ugly to even smelly messes, but a root cause of livestock malingering and loss. The purpose of this book is to share with you how to avoid pest algae problems; and if they do occur, how to identify the source/s, the algae themselves and effectively solve (reduce to eliminate) noisome, unwelcome algae from your tanks. Avoiding Algae Problems: From the start, I want to impress upon you that while algae presence to some degree is entirely natural; to be expected in all systems suitable to support aquatic life; and the situations where there is an overabundance of undesirable species biomass is not! To put this another way; DO expect some appreciable algae presence/growth in any/all viable aquatic biological systems; and DO be aware, observant concerning their over-proliferation in your aquariums... pro-active in limiting their over-abundance; for several good reasons: Pest algaes penchant for overgrowing/crowding out other desired life, using up too much of nutrients and minerals you may want/need for other chemosynthetic, photosynthetic life; and importantly; to limit the amount/concentration of metabolites these algae produce that may mal-affect your livestock; sometimes profoundly.
About the Author: The diversity of life has always fascinated me; but the systematics of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians was blown away by the expansiveness and degree of unknown of the fishes. Few people had "companion animals" overseas, but many friends had bowls and aquariums with goldfish, guppies and other tropicals. I was born in Rhode Island, the smallest State of the U.S. but grew up in the orient as my father was career military. We had very few jobs "on base" for the "dependents" but I was fortunate to secure employment at a fish store that was associated with a restaurant in downtown Sasebo. Other vainglorious work overseas includes two years working for a Betta culture business, collecting and processing marines in Manila. Back to the U.S. in the late sixties I stuck to the trade as a retail clerk, a livestock wholesale worker (for Pratt's in San Diego), and eventually formed an aquarium service business with a school friend. This business cycled larger and smaller, and supported me all through college and beyond. It eventually became an employee-owned corporation with aquaristic retail outlets, fabrication (principally large acrylic systems), water feature construction, manufacturing and distribution divisions. Subsequent to the tax law changes, water-shortage "scare", and general decline in the California and U.S. economy in the late eighties these businesses were sold and liquidated. I worked for three years as a consultant and buyer for the mass-merchandiser PetCo in their bid to upgrade their stores, incorporating livestock. Is there a difference between what you do for money and for a living? Not me. Nowadays I write articles and books for the diving/underwater natural history and ornamental aquatics interests, and manage my rentals and securities. I browse the electronic bulletin boards to "chat" with others daily, and often travel, to go "hashing" (sort of running), writing and photographing with friends around the world.