breakaway Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 This stuff is growing all over the Power head / UV Filter (lol, ironic isn't it?) Photos: (water is kinda murky since I just did a water change in the last pic) How do I get rid of it? pH at 6.3 Ammonia at 0 ppm Nitrate at 1 ppm Tank uses DIY CO2 system. Light only 11w. Filtration is by 400lph trickle filer above tank (AR380 standard), and Blue Planet UView UV Filter. Tank has been up for a month and a half. It's not growing on the plants just yet but I don't want to hang around and find out if it will. For the time being I've stopped the CO2 - is this the right thing to do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 I don't know how long the plants have been established, but if they are relatively new to the tank they will not be growing rapidly yet so there will be excess nutrients in the water which fuel nuisance algae growth. In the mean time I would slightly decrease the photoperiod and increase the airation (both can be helpful against brown algae). Don't muck around with the plants so they have a chance to settle in. I would begin adding flurish excel to help the plants get established and drive off some algae growth (the airation will make the DIY CO2 hardly effective but keep it up if you already have it set up). In a couple of weeks you should see a vast decrease in algae growth and hopefully the plants will begin to start growing better. At this stage you can increase the photo period gradully up to 12 hours. Keep up the DIY CO2 and Flourish excel and begin to add fertiliser so the plants can outcompete the algae. All of that may not work for you, but it always works for me. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breakaway Posted January 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 Nevermind - problem solved :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 Is that some sort of whiptail? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 otocinclus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 Is it? Haha, I guess I've never seen them from that angle before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 I bought 2 otos to eat the diatom algae when my tank was newer and they ate and ate and ate, they had serious pot bellies. I really like those little guys, they have quite a bit of character too. If I put an algae wafer in one of them will lay on the top of it even when not eating so no one else can get near. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breakaway Posted January 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 Yeah... these fish are awesome. Look at what a fantastic job they did on the heater and the filter intake! (This is actaully a few days after the completely cleaned off the stuff, so its re-grown a bit) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 CO2 will probably help as most algaes don't like acid conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.