i recently set up a 55 gallon aqaurium in my bio class and it is currently has 2 feeder goldfish in it. it has been set up for bout 2 weeks and recieves sunlight from the right corner of the tank. it has a stock light strip on it providing light. blakc gravel on the bottom and no decorations as of right now. the idea is to bring in a pair of kribs in and breed them. the tank has since become incredibly cloudy after i did a water change on friday and has considerable algae growth that is a reddish brown in appearence. the algae even grows on the gravel! a fellow student of mine is going to buy 2 small pl*costomus this weekend for the tank to help control the algae. i plan on putting up a background around the back and sides of the aquarium to prevent sunlight in so wat about the cloudiness is it juss a bacterial bloom or wat? and wat should i do? TIA!
ahh pea soup...
- Thread starter DaPony87
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Christmasfish
Aquarium Advice Addict
Guess I'll be first to ask...
What kind of filter?
What were the readings?
NH
NO
the answer will pour in after you got those posteed.
What kind of filter?
What were the readings?
NH
NO
the answer will pour in after you got those posteed.
i beleive its an aquaclear HOB kind, and i honestly dont kno the NH and NO readings.... 
....i figured juss put in 2 feeder fish get the nitro cycle going and wait a month month and half and introduce to kribs cuz beyond that there wouldnt be much of a bio load cept maybe a trio of guppies....
....i figured juss put in 2 feeder fish get the nitro cycle going and wait a month month and half and introduce to kribs cuz beyond that there wouldnt be much of a bio load cept maybe a trio of guppies.... 
Menagerie
Aquarium Advice Addict
What type of plecos is the student buying? Common plecos can reach a foot in length. There are plecos that like algae--rubber lipped (4-5 inches in length) are great.
As one who taught a general Bio 101 lab (among others during my Master's work), I have a few questions:
Once the tank is established, is the school (high school?) going to keep it going? What will happen to the fish after this semester/year?
WHY?
Why not live bearers—they would be faster?
What will be done with the fry?
What role is the teacher playing in all this?
Is the whole class participating?
Just wondering, if you don’t have all the answers—that’s okay!
I would like to teach general Biology at a university after my PhD and am always on the look out for interesting projects.
The University I taught at had salt-water tanks up kept by the lab coordinator. The tanks were there for "bio diversity." The ichthyology class had goldfish and Oscars and would do behavioral studies with them. They also did something with breeding zebra danios, but I didn’t teach that lab and have no idea what was going on.
More questions/comments! LOL
You really need to test the water for nitrogenous waste DaPony; its cruel to let any fish suffer the effects of ammonia and nitrites, and without knowing the levels, its impossible to know how often to water change and how much to remove. How often do you water change?
Its likely a bacterial bloom; typical for a newly cycling tank. The heterotrophic bacteria in the tank, which feed on organic waste generally and nitrogen waste when there's little to no organic waste, usually start to party in new tanks. The fish waste, extra food, algae, etc all contribute. It tends to dissipate (sp) when the nitrifying bacterial colonies are large enough to handle the nitrogenous waste.
A plec will likely NOT eat the brown algae. Brown algae is actually diatoms, and not part of a plecs usual diet. It is also part n parcel with most new tanks, and will reduce when the tank is cycled. In the meantime, scraping the glass is about the best you can do. I wouldn't mess with the gravel as some of your nitrifying bacteria is living down there. Oh, and the brown algae actually shows up more with LESS light, not more, so covering the tank may not help it go away (it doesn't use chlorophyll - its brown - so doesn't need light).
Do not add any fish till the tank is cycled. Its unfair to expose even more fish to the stressful condition of a cycling tank. You really will want to QT new fish too; never know what kinda disease/parasites they bring with em, and it would suck to wind up killing or getting all the fish in the 55g sick.
Ooo breeding kribs? Cool! What sorta project is it?
You really need to test the water for nitrogenous waste DaPony; its cruel to let any fish suffer the effects of ammonia and nitrites, and without knowing the levels, its impossible to know how often to water change and how much to remove. How often do you water change?
Its likely a bacterial bloom; typical for a newly cycling tank. The heterotrophic bacteria in the tank, which feed on organic waste generally and nitrogen waste when there's little to no organic waste, usually start to party in new tanks. The fish waste, extra food, algae, etc all contribute. It tends to dissipate (sp) when the nitrifying bacterial colonies are large enough to handle the nitrogenous waste.
A plec will likely NOT eat the brown algae. Brown algae is actually diatoms, and not part of a plecs usual diet. It is also part n parcel with most new tanks, and will reduce when the tank is cycled. In the meantime, scraping the glass is about the best you can do. I wouldn't mess with the gravel as some of your nitrifying bacteria is living down there. Oh, and the brown algae actually shows up more with LESS light, not more, so covering the tank may not help it go away (it doesn't use chlorophyll - its brown - so doesn't need light).
Do not add any fish till the tank is cycled. Its unfair to expose even more fish to the stressful condition of a cycling tank. You really will want to QT new fish too; never know what kinda disease/parasites they bring with em, and it would suck to wind up killing or getting all the fish in the 55g sick.
Ooo breeding kribs? Cool! What sorta project is it?
William
Aquarium Advice Addict
Menagerie said:
More like 2 feet or larger, I saw a monster one a few months back. I swear the thing had to be 2 and a half, maybe even 3 feet long.
he was giagantor! 8O
It would be a common pl*co and im aware of how large theyd grow so if and when they go to be that big thill be shipped off to a lfs for them to find a home for it. the tank will be kept going and after the yr is over itll more than likely be brought to my house seeing as no one in my class is gunna wanna do the work involved. my teacher wanted to breed some egglayers instead of livebearers i tried convincing her to do livebearers so we oculd study genetics etc but she wanted to study the eggs if they layed them and knowing i would have to take of the fry which will prolly be put in my 55 gallon at my home till they are big enough to be given to a lfs i decided that convicts would be too aggressive so i got the next easiest egglayer the kribs (i was told they were easy to breed for egglayers). the teacher really wants to do this as fast as possible along with the rest of the class and ive been trying my hardest to tell them itll take time so i had to give in and put two small feeder fish in the tank. i did around a 10% water change after the tank was set up for two weeks (saying 10% but im not sure how much was taken out it a hose was put right into a sink so i cant figure out how many gallons i brought the water level down about 2 inches from the frame on top) and this is when the cloudiness came in. i hate saying this but im in the honors class and all the ppl are book smart kinds of ppl they wont listen to me when i try explaining stuff and complain to the teacher that we dont have the fish in there yet or that the tank is "dirty" :x
Oh bummer DaPony; sounds like your teacher might need a lesson herself (himself?). Theres a great article on the nitrogen cycle here; maybe if you copied it and handed it out some of the folks there would get a clue? http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html
Maybe combining that info with the fact most fish won't breed in less then optimal conditions might open their eyes...
Maybe combining that info with the fact most fish won't breed in less then optimal conditions might open their eyes...
thanks..lets hope it does..as for my tank i think ill bring in a small stocking full of my substrate from my tank to help getting the cycle going and wat about the algae will that go away after awhile after the tank is more established? and yea she could use a lesson she juss thinks we need the temperature regulated for them to breed :?
Menagerie
Aquarium Advice Addict
Oh my!!! This is an honor's class in which the student is schooling the teacher!!!
Personally, I have a problem with this. IMO, this is the equivalent of buying a bullmastiff puppy and saying when it gets older you'll just give it back and it's their problem. :?
Is it possible to tell your fellow student not to purchase the pleco? You shouldn't add any fish to the tank at this point and it probably will not help with the algae. In addition, it will not further the "lesson" of the kribs egg laying. It will simply increase bio diversity, which is not what you need right now.
DaPony87--stand your ground with the class and do what is right for the fishes. If there are any good basic fish breeding aquarium set-up books in the library, possibly get one or two out and show them to your teacher. Or simply find one or two sites on breeding kribs and print them off. It sounds like she could use a FEW lessons on fish husbandry!
Good luck with the project!
ok im in class right now and i found a dr foster test kit and did the tests the water parameters are
pH 7.4 and comes 7.0 out faucet
Nitrite is less than .25ppm
Amonia is less than .5 ppm
gH is around 7
I came into class and scraped off as much red algae as possible and told fellow student a pleco would not eat the red algae and as of right now i can barely see the other side of the aquarium its that green...im gunna do daily tests to see wats happenin for the parameters but wat should i do now? a water change? let it run its course cuz its still in the cycle? or wat....never had these dumb problems when i cycled my tanks (55 gallon, 20 XH, 10g) at home when i juss added two little fish to get some waste in the water....
pH 7.4 and comes 7.0 out faucet
Nitrite is less than .25ppm
Amonia is less than .5 ppm
gH is around 7
I came into class and scraped off as much red algae as possible and told fellow student a pleco would not eat the red algae and as of right now i can barely see the other side of the aquarium its that green...im gunna do daily tests to see wats happenin for the parameters but wat should i do now? a water change? let it run its course cuz its still in the cycle? or wat....never had these dumb problems when i cycled my tanks (55 gallon, 20 XH, 10g) at home when i juss added two little fish to get some waste in the water....
Menagerie
Aquarium Advice Addict
*breathing a sigh of relief*
Do water changes--25% a day and watch the fish!
Others will be better able to help you at this point. I've never had cycling problems (never really knew what it was until I came to this site!).
QTOFFER
Aquarium Advice Addict
As an alternative to breeding kribs, may I suggest zebra danios? Scientists have been using them for years as a model because they are cheap and easy to breed. Here are two links that may be helpful.
http://zfin.org/zf_info/zfbook/zfbk.html
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/danio.htm#bred
http://zfin.org/zf_info/zfbook/zfbk.html
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/danio.htm#bred
ok zebra danios do seem alot easier then waiting for kribs to get ready....so wat im thinkin is ill set up a 35 gallon breeder i believ eit is and fill it up half way with water and take most of the gravel from the 55 and put it into there and get a heater for it or something and then put danios in the 55 to breed with marbels on the bottom
but wat do i do bout the pea soup? is it gunna go away eventually when the cycle gets goin? anbd ill keep postin the daily paramters
but wat do i do bout the pea soup? is it gunna go away eventually when the cycle gets goin? anbd ill keep postin the daily paramters
Ugh. Not a bacterial bloom. Sorry bout that; I sorta assumed it was. What you have is an algae bloom. How much light reaches the tank; sunlight as well as artificial? And how often are you water changing/feeding? Algae blooms exist on light and nutrients. Sometimes you can stop the bloom by removing the 2 things it needs to exist on; in my case, when I had a bad algae bloom, I had to run a diatom filter to get rid of it.
theres only like 40 watts on the entire tank and mayb 3 hours of direct sunlight cuz we one the backside of the building and theres a huge hill behind the skool. ive only been doin a once a week water change. idk how much feeding id have to ask the teacher.
QTOFFER
Aquarium Advice Addict
They are probably overfeeding - alot. 
That and even indirect sunlite = big time algae bloom.
The solution is to cut down on the feeding and do more frequent water changes. And Allivymar mentioned a diatom filter - that would clear up the water fast, but they are very expensive. Some lfs rent them, tho....
That and even indirect sunlite = big time algae bloom.
The solution is to cut down on the feeding and do more frequent water changes. And Allivymar mentioned a diatom filter - that would clear up the water fast, but they are very expensive. Some lfs rent them, tho....
Similar threads
