[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

algae



Hi, I'm having a terrible algae problem in my 25 gallon tank. Here's the
setup: 25 gallons, cool water, two goldfish, two hillstream loaches, one
onion plant, one bunch (well-eaten) cabomba, water sprite, two annubias,
one amazon sword and some dwarf sword grass. The substrate is: 11/2 in.
sand mixed with gravel, 2 inches gravel, tetra root tablets added
(occassionally). I add half the recommended dosage of tetra liquid
fertilizer each time I change some water or my sword gets yellow.
Lighting: 2 15 watt lights (cannot be increased, built in to Eclipse
hood) on 12.5 hours a day. Filtration: Eclipse filter: 200gph plus
biowheel. No ammonia, no nitrite, ph at 7.6. I need to purchase a
nitrate test by mail, since I can't get one around here. Should I be
testing anything else, regarding algae? The only additional decoration
is a piece of driftwood and some river stones. I am attempting a CO2 DIY
thing, but it isn't very successful, I'm going to check for leaks this
weekend. One side of the tank receives a lot of natural sunlight, so I'm
going to buy a nice piece of black cloth and let it hang on the side to
keep light from penetrating from the window. Anyone see anything else I
could do to cut down on algae? The onion plant and my annubias are
absolutely covered in black algae. I must scrape them twice a week and
it's right back. The scraping isn't doing them any good, nor is the
algae. Help! The hillstream loaches eat a little algae, but not very
much. They are cold water fish, and I'm wondering: is there a fish I can
add to a cool water tank (65-75 degrees) to eat algae? Can I cut down on
it any other way? My cabomba is being eaten so quickly that I doubt it's
removing much from the water. Should I pull it out and add another,
hardier plant? Or two? My dwarf swords are also being choked with algae.
I need help now! Thanks, Jess.