Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lucy on April 20, 2012 at 11:03pm

Forgot... Sub straight is 3 inch gravel and sand. I have lights on timer for 8 hours. I have plant food tabs in the gavel. I feed liquid food once a week. plants are yellow and not growing.

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Permalink Reply by Peter on April 20, 2012 at 11:18pm

I would recommend you dirt your tank   But the problems seems to be that you overstocked fish whih produces tons or waste plus little plants to use up all the nutrients so yea ur on a get algae   What you can do add alot of fast growin plants to use up more nutrients cut the light time to like 6 or 7 hrs till algae is under control I would recommend taking away the co2 cus it helps algae grow also if you don't have enOugh plants to use up the co2 b4 the algae does

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Permalink Reply by Lucy on April 21, 2012 at 12:08am

Thank you Pedro. I appreciate the time you took to repond. I understand. Too many fish. Not enough plants. No C02. Cut back light. I will do this. Also, I'll move some fish to another tank. I've been vacuuming the gravel very week. Your right, there is much waste. I have been trying to keep up with cleaning.

I'm not going to dirt the tank yet. This would require a complete tear down and I'll need more time than I have right now. I'll see if the other recommendations help first.

Thank you.

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Permalink Reply by Alex on April 21, 2012 at 11:04am

I have the exact set up less fish types as you with same problem. I would suggest up the co2 level using a drop checker to test when u start reaching the point where you are just below the point of having too much then back it off to get the drop checker back to green colour. Read about drop checker if you are not familiar. Reduce food. Light. Do not use carbon or any chem media. Remove as much algae as poss incuding leaves and plants too badly covered in it. 50% water change a week. Reduce or stop with liquid ferts for 2 weeks and see if it helps. Also you can read about seachem flourish excel direct dosig onto plants to kill algae off. Does work but read into this as it can kill fish too. Many people using this and writing about it. Good luck. 

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Permalink Reply by Lucy on April 22, 2012 at 6:50am

thanks, Alex.... Good stuff. I don't know what a drop checker is. I'll do some research.

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Permalink Reply by Ish Cruz on April 25, 2012 at 3:49pm

You should get a small 10 gallon or even a 5 gallon tank to try out dirt. The most you might spend is maybe around 25 with the tank, small filter and organic dirt 

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Permalink Reply by Fabrigas O'brian on April 22, 2012 at 7:27am

how have an ovestoked tank, your filter migt be able to kope with the extra ammonia and nitrite but the end result is the algeas food(nitrate) take the 4 of the angelfish out andd the pleco aswell, also drain the tank to the algea is exposd with air then with a cotton bud spot tread all the bba with liquid carbon then fill the tank up and continiue to do so for maybe 3-6 months then gradually reduce the dose(dont stop straight away!!! your prob will comeback) get something like easycarbo its the same stuff as seachem exel just a bit cheaper.also get 5 zebra nirite snails and maybe 2 or 3 siamensis algea eaters. before you try any of these turn your lights out for a for 4 days(plants can go up to 5 withought light) and compleatly cover your tank so no light gets in also do 2 40%water changes inbetween and dont feed you fish for this time and when you start feeding your fish only feed them half of what u usally feed them.

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Permalink Reply by Lucy on April 22, 2012 at 10:41am

Thanks! Very informative. I took the angels out and put them in my 10 gallon hospital tank. They are small and seem to be happy. They are not competing for food. I will keep lights off and begin cleaning plants as described.  Will let you know how it's coming along. Also, it was good to hear that my wet-dry filtration system might be able to handle the larger stock. It is sized for up to a 75 gallon tank.

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Permalink Reply by Fabrigas O'brian on April 22, 2012 at 1:19pm

Even if a filter can handle more fish, many people don't realise that the end result is a ton of nitrate, this can cause algea problems like bba, green spot algea, diatoms(if the nitate levles are not stable) and also the most frustrating is green water(what i am currently fighting). if you run into any of the other algea the liquid carbon should help unless you are fighting green algea. for this just turn the lghts of for 4 days. also you should rehome the angel fish,they need 10 gallons min for 1 angel, if you could get a 60 gallon you could keep all the angels alone. angels are also given a bad name, some people say they are horrible and kill the plants and fish, ive found they can be just as loving, i have 1 in my 33 gallon and it lives with small fish like cardinal tetra and otos, she has never layed a fin on them. also im lucky coz she only eats flakes and the rest of my fish only eat walfers. a wet dry filter is a bad choice for a planted tanks snce they deprive plants of co2 unless you are only growing java fern or anubais get rid of it and get a internal or canister filter, and it would be helpfull to know what plants you are growing so i can recomend to get what easy to grow or get rid of any hard to grow plants

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Permalink Reply by Lucy on April 25, 2012 at 5:08pm

Oh my....  60 gallons for six angels?  Don't think I can handle that right now...  I have always had at least four angels in my 55 gallon community tank without a problem.  That was when it didn't have real plants. 

I have taken out all of my plants and rocks and washed them gently, removing most of the algae. I also lightly vacuumed my gravel.  I have cut back on my lighting and feeding. I removed the five angels. Added co2.  Since Sunday, the plants actually look more green and healthy, although some are a bit yellow.  I still have green algae beginning to grow on the glass, so there is still more that I need to do, otherwise I'll be cleaning the tank twice a week to keep up with the green algae.

I just added java moss and tall jungle val's to the tank.  I have two anubia's, two swords, one micro sword, anacharis (not doing well...disappearing).  I have two other species that I think are Heteranthera Stargrass, ligwigia,

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on April 26, 2012 at 2:30am

Algae is a plant. (at least for the purposes of this discussion it is) So your planted aquarium is actually doing quite well and your tank conditions are perfect. But like 99% of the hobbyists out there you find the "algae plant" unsightly.

Basically what you need is a plant that will simply out-compete the algae since everything you're doing to hurt the algae is also hurting your plants. By far the best plants for this job are floating plants. Floating plants get their Co2 from the air and, because air holds much more Co2 than water, the floating plants "cheat" in their competition against algae and beat it. They grow much faster and rob the water of all it nutrients - the algae starves to death and disappears. I use water cabbage for this purpose and have to dump out 20-50 plants a week because it spreads so fast and kills ALL my algae. I like the sides of my aquarium covered with algae; so when the algae starts receding I dump out more cabbage. 

I did notice a few other things about your post.

1) 10,000 kelvins is overkill and the T-5 size bulbs concentrate light instead of distributing it throughout the tank. It seems like whenever somebody gets an algae problem its always with those damn T5s.

2) Co2 infusion is completely unnecessary and unnatural. Scientists use it (and radiation) to grow freakishly large plants. Your freshwater plants have evolved over billions of years to use the amount of Co2 that is normally available in all bodies of water from the size of a puddle to the ocean. Surplus Co2 will only encourage algae. At the very least it is neither helping nor hurting.

3) Gravel has no CEC (cation exchange capacity). That's a fancy way of saying your nutrients are floating around in the water instead being held in the substrate for the plants roots. Advantage : algae. I know you don't wanna dirt the tank, but adding some Eco Complete, Flourite, or non-clumping clay kitty litter will suck a lot of the nutrients out of the water column and into your soil where your plants' roots can grab them. According to Dustin plants absorb between 4-400 times more nutrients from their roots than from their leaves. The leaves are there for photosynthesis. 

 

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Permalink Reply by Lucy on April 26, 2012 at 6:00pm

Thank you! Bummer that my $80 new light wasn't necessary.  I can shut off one lamp... Will do. I just got some java moss that I tied to a rock. I think that can float.  I'll go to fish store and get other floating Plants. Your description of my tank dynamics was so logical and very educational.
Is it possible to add kitty liter to an established tank?  I would consider this because of the clumping nature of the medium. It wouldn't "muddy" up the water.... Right?

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