Re: [APD] extra plants - ALGAE ALGAE ALGAE

["S K" <syl2005 at verizon_net>]

Hi Vaughn,

The 55 aquarium was set up for several years now. Flourite/laterite 
substrate ... it's been run with high light and lots of plants, and 
maintained for about a year with somewhat more subtle lighting and a lot of 
hardy plants not requiring co2. I never had major problems with it as I have 
in the last few months. I threw in plants from a lake locally and it's been 
a nightmare since. I stocked it with plants, fixed some lighting problems 
and no cure. I tried CO2, but I do the DIY method, and finally gave up. My 
water was never conducive to good CO2 output for some reason, but more 
reasonable on the 29 than the 55. I'm also recalling that I thought an 
overhaul would be helpful on the 55 to subdue algae growth. Substrate 
cleanup, refresh with flourish tablets ... and the problem got worse. In any 
case, that tank is down and fish got moved to a 29 gallon. At least the 
algae cleanup doesn't take an entire day, but I'm tired of it, and the 
plants have slowly and steadily been reduced, in spite of restocking, to a 
few sparse sprigs.

I created a massive algae growth spurt with water column fertilization 
(flourish as well as a small trial of npk, since I was low on fish and some 
water testing indicated a need). Bringing in 2 bolivian rams & a hemichromis 
also caused more serious problems. Made the tank more interesting than a 
bunch of croaking gouramis, but I swear the jewel cichlid brought in some 
really tenacious and fast growing horrible algae. The timing was too 
coincidental for the worst of the problem. I stemmed his initial tendency to 
fin nip with heavy feeding in the 55, but that was several water changes, 
and a tank ago.

In any case, my best guess is to stock with stemmed, healthy plants, that 
will outcompete the algae. I'm trying to keep things simple.

Thanks,

Sylvia




>
> You didn't tell us enough about your aquarium.  Were  you using CO2?
> DIY or pressurized?  Were you fertilizing, using Excel?  Fertilizing
> with what?
>
> Vaughn H.
>
> On Friday, January 20, 2006, at 10:43 AM, S K wrote:
>
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I've recently downgraded a 55 gallon to a 29 gallon tank. The 55 was
>> constantly over-run with algae, since I brought in some local plants
>> from a
>> lake. Finally, gave up, the weekly tear down and clean up was too much.
>> Couldn't bring myself to part with my fish, so I went down to a 29
>> gallon. I
>> have 80 watts (AH Supply) over 55 gallons. I tried moving my plants
>> (cleaned
>> up) in there, bleached the driftwood, and set up -- totally clean.
>> Looked
>> beautiful. A few days away, returned to a green mass of bright green.
>> I went
>> to a LFS and bought up pots of plants--mostly stemmed, some rooted.
>> Same
>> thing happened. At this point, I'm losing my plants, and down to a few
>> sprigs only. I'm at the point of 1) giving up and adopting out the
>> fish 2)
>> going to the LFS and investing in a massiver amount of plant matter
>> (they
>> look better than the stuff you might wind up with online, which will
>> only
>> contribute to mush--aka plant food) or 3) redoing the hood (wooden
>> canopy
>> hand-made and wired with AH Lighting) to make it low-light, sparse
>> plants.
>>
>> I thought I'd check here first. I know when I was heavily into plants
>> (esp.
>> w/ co2) I had to throw out pounds of good re-plants on cleaning day. I
>> thought, rather than go to the LFS, perhaps if it's cleaning day,
>> someone
>> might have a large amount of plants (obviously I'd pay) ... but I
>> don't want
>> to take my chance with internet ordering. AZ gardens is great with
>> quantity
>> and price, but it could be mush. At this point i need quantity, or
>> I'll wind
>> up with green again (not green water, btw). Plus, I did major clean up
>> yesterday. Very clean tank, but nothing to put in there, so the algae
>> will
>> return in short order.
>>
>> By my experience, this particular tank can do okay without CO2,
>> provided
>> there is high enough plant material.
>>
>> Please respond to my personal e-mail. TIA!
>>
>> Sylvia
>>
>> _______________________________________________

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