Help

[lowndsie]

Ive just come back from being away for a week and my tank is over run with some kind of algae i think. I have a val plant up the bank of my 2 foot and its covered in this long (about 3cm) thin algae sort of stuff. It's a grey colour and its grown so much on the val plant that its blocking out all the light to the other plants. I'm thinking the easiest thing to do atm is take the whole plant out???

I seem to be having alot of trouble trying to get the plants (except the val) to grow in this tank. I'm using a 20 watt globe and a diy co2 reactor. I've been using liquid fertilizer and I do a once a week water change. Is there something that I'm doing wrong to get all this algae and how do I get rid of it???

[LYNDYLOO]

Hi lowndsie,

It's all about getting the right balance of Light, fFrts and CO2, if you go thru some of the posts in the plant section you will find some very helpful advice on keeping the right balance .

Quite often if something is not right, this will result in Algae growing.

You could use the FNZAS Search, not the Google Search at the top of the page, this will bring up all the posts related to plants.

Good Luck

Lynda

[Plantman]

doing a regular water change once a week will keep the algae low (algae will never go away) BUT.

feeding it with DIY CO2 (you have little cntrol) and fertiliser with low light, you are feeding the algae more than you are feeding the plant.

if your plant is completely swamp by the algae, i suggest a complete clamp down; pull out the plant, take out the gravel and boil it in the water and later sun it in the sun light. better still, get a new gravel.

otherwise, double dose Excel Seachem to kill the algae.

once all is revamp, made sure, you have a strong light, have 50% of the ground of gravel cover with plant stems and pump in your Co2 and fertiliser.

otherwise, do not follow the recommended dosage on the label but lower your dose by half depending on the area of plant coverage.

[lowndsie]

Thanx for the info. I ended up trimming the val rite back to get rid of the bulk of the algae. I'm using a 20watt globe for a standard 2 foot tank, not sure if thats too little or too much. Theres still a fair bit of the algae in there but i'll have to see how it goes over this week. I only just got it all setup, so Im not too keen of starting from scratch again.