Blooming awful

[LYNDYLOO]

Only have 4 Big Swords in my Discus Tank, maybe I need to think about adding some more plants to the Background.

Had Hygrophilia, but it goes all scraggly after awhile so pulled it all out and chucked it away.

Would Indian Fern be better??

[phoenix44]

yes it looks all matty like.

is your algae all flowy in the water current?

http://www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae.htm#types

http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_fre ... _algae.php

is it any of them on these links?

PS- try the hydrogen peroxide method. remove it from the tank just in case.

If you want indian fern im sure i can get you some, i usually have it lying around the place.

[Dixon1990]

I think the algae is from the Audouinella genus

[LYNDYLOO]

I'm thinking it's more like the Beard Algae

It's not at all matty.

[raewyna]

I asked my father if he could remember more about the Tauranga bore water. The brown sludge I was remembering was organic iron, and he thought the silica came from sand from higher up the bore - and therefore likely to be present for anyone with a shallow bore. He doesn't remember it having any effect on algae, except that we did have an algae problem with what sounds like cyanobacteria or similar. He couldn't remember exactly what it was.

Re what I was saying about plants v. algae competition, the advice I remember from the book was basically that any plants that either have roots growing free in the water, and/or are at the surface or even above it are best. Also that the most important thing is that the plants are growing actively. One of my tanks that was very green for quite a while has now been good for several months and all the plants are growing beautifully. I use the prunings in the other tanks, two of which have also now cleared of green water and the plants grow well. The fourth (and newest) tank struggles to grow plants and is pea soup green within a couple of days of a water change. A partial change makes no difference at all - just feeds the algae more I think - and a complete change of water starts greening again straight away.