Algae issues in Leopard Puffer tank, and plant prob.

[Tympst]

I have a light end brackish setup. 20 Gal. I am having a hard time growing my plants and I have algae growing like weeds. I do not have any algae eaters since most are either sensitive to salt or can not live with a puffer. I do weekly water changes and cant seem to keep the algae down.
My plants look sad and unhealthy I use flourish and plant fertilizer which I know doesn't help with the algae but I am trying everything I know . I have also used root tabs. The plants should be able to tolerate the salinity of the water. I am posting some pictures so you can see whats going on in the Tank

also I know my Leopard puffer is going to need a bigger tank, I am planning on upgrading once he gets bigger and I move to somewhere more permanent.

If anyone has any advice for me I would really appreciate it. Thanks

 

[angelvelez87]

U have co2? Or are u using excel??

But by the way...that is a good looking tank!! May be someone can advice you better than me!! But im actually using potassium, excel, iron, fertilizer and co2!!

 

[Tympst]

Thanks and no I do not have a co2 setup right now, I am using Excel for the time being.

 

[angelvelez87]

Ok! I dont know what are the lights requirements but what have been told if you have high light you don't have to use a lot of CO2 for some plants but if you don't have high light you might have to use CO2! The other thing you can do is to make a DIY CO2 set up which is very simple a mixture of sugar water Yeist and some baking soda I think!!

 

[Tympst]

I have T5 lights N.O. , all my lvls are normal. I had a homemade co2 set up but it stopped working so I started using Excel (once daily)
I just dont get whats going on lol.

 

[Alkane]

If your tank is relatively new I wouldn't worry about the algae too much. It's part of the cycle. Just keep on top of your water changes and siphon out as much as you can. It should eventually go away.

What kind of plants do you have?

DIY co2 only lasts about 2 weeks, you have to replace the sugar so the yeast have some food to eat . If it gets cloudy and smells like sulfur then it has been contaminated with bacteria, if this happens you gotta start all over.

 

[angelvelez87]

Plus i had once a problem with algae and i think it was because they were more than a year long!! Does that builds more algae problems?

 

[Tympst]

I have some Anacharis, leopsis, Java moss on volcanic rock, a moss ball, and Lysimachia nummularia.

 

[Monkey Magic]

You could try dosing excel in higher quantities ive heard algae is not a huge fan of that. inserting fluval clear max into your filter which will remove phosphorus will also keep your algae levels down also how long is your photoperiod more than 10 hours?? Is the tank near windows?

 

[CorallineAlgae]

What substrate are you using? Most planted brackish tanks need lots of iron in the substrate. Also, maybe try an Anubias berteri and a crypt wendtii. Those are both great true brackish plants. What's your salinity?

 

[aqua_chem]

Have you double checked that all the plants you have are brackish tolerant? It looks like brown algae, which is extremely common in tanks that have been set up for less than 4 months or so. Does that describe this tank? What substrate are you using?

 

[Tympst]

I am using a live white sand substrate I cant recall the name brand of it, my t5 lights are set on a timer that is set for 8hrs. The tank is not by a window but is in the living room and does receive a little natural light. as far as I can tell my plants should be able to tolerate my salinity which is 1.004

 

[Tympst]

I started out totally fresh water and have been slowly adding salt week by week with water changes(20% )adding 1.005 salinity water.

 

[Tympst]

Oh and I found the substrate on line it was Caribsea

 

[Alkane]

leopsis = Lilaeopsis?

 

[Tympst]

yes, sry there was some miscommunication between my boyfriend and I on the spelling

 

[aqua_chem]

How old is the tank? T5NO or T5HO?

 

[Tympst]

T5 No and the tank is about a month and a half with fish in it and about two months running

 

[Tympst]

Does anyone know of any Brackish algae eaters? I have not been able to find any

 

[aqua_chem]

If you just have brown algae, I would just let it pass. It's going to be a pest for a few weeks or so, but will eventually go away. I highly discourage stocking algae eaters to eat algae because 1) some algae eaters won't eat algae 2) some will only eat algae when they're young and 3) people often stock algae eaters when they have a bunch of algae, but then once the algae problem is fixed the fish don't have enough food.

You're always better off fixing the root of the problem if you can, or in the case of brown algae just waiting it out. Brown algae is caused by silicates in your water. Most sands are at least partially silca based, so they will be leeching silicates for the first few months of use.