Planted Tank Dilemma

[JohnAddis]

For my planted 20 long, I'm thinking a group of about 12 harlequin rasboras, rcs, a couple nerites, and some dwarf cories. Maybe a pair of dwarf gouramis if there's room. I'm taking it slow. I added 3 rasboras last week and they're doing great.

I've been working on the tank for about 3 weeks now. (Longer if you count my first attempt where the plants all died and the only things that lived were the dozens and dozes of pond snails.) I seeded it from my other tank and did the fishless cycle with ammonia. Substrate is a mix of EcoComplete and Floramax (which is the same thing only cheaper) plus a nice beach of PFS for the cories. I've got plenty of light (Finnex FugeRay) and DIY CO2. Plants are mostly water sprite which has turned into a jungle in the past week or so, plus some hygro, one small crypt, and some hair grass that might actually grow if I could stop uprooting it every time I clean or WC.

So my dilemma is this: Algae. Lots of it. I'm pretty sure it's watching me when I sleep. I need a cleanup crew. Big time.

But... I don't know how I feel about putting snails/fish/shrimp from the LFS directly into the tank without QT. There's not much livestock in there, just 3 rasboras, but I don't want to "catch" anything that could @#$% up my tank.

So, my options are:
* Cross my fingers and put in some snails/shrimp
* QT the snails/shrimp and hope the algae doesn't evolve fast enough to eat me in my sleep
* Other?

Any suggestions?

 

[ddavila06]

waht kind of algae? pictures?? might be easier if u cut down the hours ur lights is on..how long btw? just three fish and u siphon the tank?...??unnessesary imo for planted tanks..

 

[JohnAddis]

waht kind of algae? pictures?? might be easier if u cut down the hours ur lights is on..how long btw? just three fish and u siphon the tank?...??unnessesary imo for planted tanks..

I've got the normal green stuff growing on glass and on rocks. Not too worried about that. I'm more concerned with the dark (black? green?) stuff growing on the leaves. It comes off easily if I wipe it; if I don't it will eventually kill the leaves. Hard to photograph, but I gave it a shot. The leaf on the right is clear, the one of the left not so much.

Lights are on for a total of 7 hours, with a break in the middle. I originally had them on longer; cutting it down did seem to help a little.

 

[hollyfish2000]

The brown algae is normal for a new tank. A little BN will take care of that, no problem. The black beard algae or some variation of that is just a pain in the a$$. I've always been of the "outcompete the algae" school of thought. Lots of fast growing plants don't leave much nutrients for algae. A jungle of water sprite is a really good start.

If lots of plants don't work, a few other suggestions:

Overdosing with Excel will kill BBA. If it's on equipment or rocks or wood, you can remove them and dunk them in a n Excel solution. The algae will turn red and die. It's highly satisfying.

For plants, you can also dip leaves (not roots) in a diluted Excel solution. Or just remove those with BBA. Siamese algae eaters will eat BBA, but they get lazy and big and I don't recommend them.

Also -- do you have new lights? As they age, their usefullness for plants lessens and may give algae a toe-hold.

No amount of RCS will make an impact on BBA IMHO. (is that enough acronyms??)

 

[JohnAddis]

The brown algae is normal for a new tank. A little BN will take care of that, no problem. The black beard algae or some variation of that is just a pain in the a$$. I've always been of the "outcompete the algae" school of thought. Lots of fast growing plants don't leave much nutrients for algae. A jungle of water sprite is a really good start.

I've got a BN in my other tank. Wouldn't want to move him though, as he's just now starting to not be such a scaredy cat. (See what I did there?)

If lots of plants don't work, a few other suggestions:

Overdosing with Excel will kill BBA. If it's on equipment or rocks or wood, you can remove them and dunk them in a n Excel solution. The algae will turn red and die. It's highly satisfying.

For plants, you can also dip leaves (not roots) in a diluted Excel solution. Or just remove those with BBA. Siamese algae eaters will eat BBA, but they get lazy and big and I don't recommend them.

Is BBA what's growing on my hygro leave there? How much Excel does it take to kill it?

Also -- do you have new lights? As they age, their usefullness for plants lessens and may give algae a toe-hold.

They're brand new.

No amount of RCS will make an impact on BBA IMHO. (is that enough acronyms??)

AFAICT, yes.

 

[ddavila06]

is hard to tell from the photo. any chance u can take one less blurry?? it could be blue gree algae (cyanobacteria) and antibiotics will kill it. also it could be BBA and excell will kill it. bushy nose plecos help a little but is not what they fest of... they will help with diatoms though (that slippery brown stuff that sometimes shows up in new tanks)..

hope this helped

 

[JohnAddis]

Here's a slightly better picture of it. Couldn't get it to focus before...

 

[JohnAddis]

Link to full-size picture here.

 

[ddavila06]

could be black bear algea.. i treat that w excell.. but excell can melt some plants. whats in the tank? any crypts or vallisnerias?

 

[JohnAddis]

No vals. One crypt, but I'm willing to risk it.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and info.

 

[mchambers]

Can also treat BBA with hydrogen peroxide.

 

[hollyfish2000]

In the past, I've pulled anything that is "hardware" with BBA and dunked in Excel. Then cut off any leaves with it. with anubias, I pull it out and swish the leaves in a dilute solution (maybe 25 percent excel). Then I double dose excel every other day until I'm happy! The only thing I've found sensitive to that dose of excel is BN fry. Otherwise I've not had an adverse impact. If you have new lights and the algae came after the new lights, you may have suddenly increased one quotient of your tank parameters, to the algae's liking. It may get back in balance when youre other plants get going. and you can always stuff a few more plants in there to soak up the light (or put some floating plants on top to filter the light.)

 

[JohnAddis]

I did a little experiment last night... took out a couple stalks of hygro, swished the leaves in Excel, and replanted. We'll see how it goes. I've also reduced the lights to 6 hours/day and am dosing with Excel.

Thanks to all for the info.