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Re: Brown Algae out of control!
>Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 17:47:08 -0700
>From: "Jeff Malmquist" <jmalm at uclink4_berkeley.edu>
>I seem to be having a problem in my tank. It is a 20 gallon tank that I
set
>up about a month ago. I planted several plants, including Ludwigia,
Bacopa,
>don't get the bubbling on the leaves that I hear about. Even worse, in the
>past week or so, I have gotten a brown algae invasion on my tank. It is
>My fish are: 8 cardinals tetras, 5 rummy-nose tetras, 3 GreenGold Cory's,
3
>Cory punctatus, 2 Algae eating Shrimp, a Singapore Shrimp, and three
>swordtails (added a day or two ago). Im thinking of getting some
>algae-eating fish to combat the algae.
You already have 25 bodies in a 20g tank and you're thinking of getting some
more? Do the fish even have room to swim with the plants in there?
What about cycling? Did you use filter media or water from a cycled tank?
What kind of filtering do you have anyway? Plants can take some load off of
bio-filters but you're going to have a hard time squeezing enough plants in
a 20g to take care of all the waste from 25 fish. I suspect the algae is
responding to the available nutrients that the other plants and bio-filter
can't take fast enough.
>My first question is why aren't the plants growing? Am I doing something
wrong?
just wait a little while?
> Is the bacteria sucking up the CO2 and nutrients? I thought I was
>getting plenty of light with 45W, but I've read that brown algae means I
>need more light. Second, why so much algae? Too many nutrients?
Too many nutrients seems pretty likely.
Will
>Hillstream Loaches or Flying Fox SAE's get rid of the brown algae? I
prefer
>to avoid Oto's or Pleco's.
I see hillstream loaches mentioned here from time to time. Do these really
eat algae or is this just some rumour/assumption?
Shannon