Evening star., 1937-03-03
"MIDDLEBURG. Va.

"M1DDLEBURG, Va.
Dear Sir: have been a reader and
an enjoyer-to make up my own word
Of your column for long time.
IT have especially liked what you
have written from time to time about
goldfish and indoor aquarium problems,
and have hoped that you would give a
simple and easy, especially easy. way to
rid and keep the tank free of green
algae, also brown, which is If possible,
worse.
Last Fall was determined to do
everything could think of to keep
algae from starting. I keep my fish in
the outdoor pool during the Summer.
So when I was ready to bring in the
ones I wanted to enjoy through the
Winter, washed the tank, even secured
it, got new sand and sent to California
for new plants.
"The result was lovely tank, clean
and clear enough to thrill any one.
"I kept a sharp lookout for the first
signs of algae-in fact I practically
dared it to start.
"All went well for two months, then
almost over night my tank was a pea
green soup.
THE fish, of course. enjoyed it i'm
mensely, as did some Of my friends who
think fish have very little personality,
and never pay for the work they cause.
II was disguised. Then I discovered
what fondly believe to be a way at
least to keep the algae from showing:
L took a rough rag, very carefully
reached down in the tank and secured
tl,n NH &I4 81 -f
When some thick places would not come
clean I gathered some sand up in the
rag and gently rubbed-and away it
went.
Naturally the water was stirred up
and cloudy with bits of plants, etc, but
in two hours it was as clear and clean
looking as if it had been put in fresh,
and had been saved the task OF taking
the fish out. renewing the water, re-
planting the plants, and having to keep
the fish out IL hours while the water got
right to put them back. I have done
this twice in the past month with perfect
results. Yours for bigger and better
goldfish with the work cut down to a
minimum.
Sincerely, DIXIE G."
This is an interesting letter to all per-
sons interested in the aquarium and to
some who are not-for all mankind likes
a letter, does it not?
Our correspondent evidently didn't
have green algae" at all, in the most
common usage Of the phrase.
The minute plants which make water
"pea-soupy," both in the indoors tank
and outdoor pool are a different species
from those which cluster on the inside
glass wall.
If the water "clears up" simply by
cleaning off these interior walls, either
with absorbent cotton or a razor-blade
scraper. the fact is shown that they were
not the so-called free living" forms,
which are constantly ION the swim"
No such simple procedure will do one
whit toward mitigating the real pea-soup
sorts. Often the two come in combina-
ton, so that a cleaning of the inner
glass walls will make the pea-soup seem
less thick. But then the free living"
forms must be combated, and that,
indeed, is horse Of another color"
Our correspondent was fortunate. She
didn't have pea soup" in her aquarium,
but merely thought she did.
So 1t was easy enough to get rid Of by
the simple method outlined. It just
wasn't therei
If it had been the real thing" 1t
wouldn't have been so easy to get rid
of. and that is the reason no one has
printed an easy, simple way to keep