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Black Brush algae Hell
In my 75 gallon, I'm going through the algae-break-in period, despite having
3 Oto affinis, 1 Oto flexilus, and 1 "false" (dammit) SAE. My plants are as
follows: 1 large A. Sword, 2 Apon crispus, 1 Barclaya Long., a bunch of
Pennywort, 1 bunch of Lloydelia somethingoranother (the pond penny plant),
Pink Macranda (which doesn't seem to be growing very fast), and 3 bunches of
Sunset Hygro. I have Java Moss and Glossostigma E. on order, should get
them Friday.
I measured phosphates and nitrates during lunch today. Immeasureable
amounts in both cases. I have a LaMotte nitrate kit in the mail, so I'm
using up my Aquarium Pharm nitrate kit which measures in 20ppm increments.
I get the yellowist-yellow on that kit, which is 0. 20ppm is a faint
orange. GH is 6d, KH is 5 or 6ds. I plan to lower both to 4ds. My fish
are 16 neons and 4 Blue Rams, and 2 Swartz corys, in addition to the above.
But the problem is black brush algae growing on the outer edges of the Sword
and Longifolia plants. Real SAEs are hard to come by, so I may have to
resort to mail-order fish, which I've never done before. Pulling the stuff
off doesn't seem to keep it from coming back. Being an
instant-gratification kinda guy I may try some sailfin or black mollies.
I fertilize with Duplaplant tablets at water change, and Dupla drops (3
drops a day). I didn't have time to measure iron today (got a LaMotte kit
for that), but the last time it was close to .2ppm. This tank is CO2
injected, of course, 220 watts of VHO URI AquaSuns.
I'm not asking any question in particular, but make whatever comments you
like.
Kelly Beard, Cat IV, Team Allanti
President, Allanti Cycling Club - http://www.allanti.com
I/T, IBM Global Services