kaiofcanada
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Since this is my first highlight planted tank experience I have a question.
A couple weeks ago, two to be precise, I was battling hair algae and also using that scubby wand to remove film algae from the glass every three days. (I have done this since the beginning of my high light adventure.) Otherwise the glass looked foggy and you could see the green film on the sides accumulating.
I made some changes as a final measure to control hair algae but it seems the film algae also went away nearly completely. The hair algae is completely gone,which is good. But, I am concerned that my nutrients might be off and my plants might show this later since teh film algae is gone?
This is what I changed...
-4 weeks:
added even more plants and started doing water change every 3 days
planted Seachem Roottabs
-3 weeks:
changed lighting timer to run only 10.5hrs turning off for 1.5 hour in middle of day and then back on (5hrs on/1.5 off/5hrs on/13.5hrs off)
added 3 3" rosy barbs, 1 Fiddler crab and 2.5" rubbernosed pleco
-2.5 weeks:
took out rosy barbs who are great at eating hair algae but not too gentle with very delicate foliage, added 3 large fancy tale male guppies from another tank ( they pick at the barely there hair algae)
I dose my tanks daily with Flourish excel and every 3 days with Flourish Comprehensive. My light is 3.5wpg. Temp maintained at 84F.
My tanks is stocked with 4 mystery snails, 3 otos, 1 rubberlipped pleco, three guppies, and 1 fiddler crab in addition to my juvenile angelfish (who do nothing for algae). This is my cleanup crew. They all seem very good at doing their jobs.
I guess my question is, can a pleco actually eradicate film algae as well? Or is it possible that I have finally added enough plants to outcompete the nutrients in the water? Have I unbalanced something?
A couple weeks ago, two to be precise, I was battling hair algae and also using that scubby wand to remove film algae from the glass every three days. (I have done this since the beginning of my high light adventure.) Otherwise the glass looked foggy and you could see the green film on the sides accumulating.
I made some changes as a final measure to control hair algae but it seems the film algae also went away nearly completely. The hair algae is completely gone,which is good. But, I am concerned that my nutrients might be off and my plants might show this later since teh film algae is gone?
This is what I changed...
-4 weeks:
added even more plants and started doing water change every 3 days
planted Seachem Roottabs
-3 weeks:
changed lighting timer to run only 10.5hrs turning off for 1.5 hour in middle of day and then back on (5hrs on/1.5 off/5hrs on/13.5hrs off)
added 3 3" rosy barbs, 1 Fiddler crab and 2.5" rubbernosed pleco
-2.5 weeks:
took out rosy barbs who are great at eating hair algae but not too gentle with very delicate foliage, added 3 large fancy tale male guppies from another tank ( they pick at the barely there hair algae)
I dose my tanks daily with Flourish excel and every 3 days with Flourish Comprehensive. My light is 3.5wpg. Temp maintained at 84F.
My tanks is stocked with 4 mystery snails, 3 otos, 1 rubberlipped pleco, three guppies, and 1 fiddler crab in addition to my juvenile angelfish (who do nothing for algae). This is my cleanup crew. They all seem very good at doing their jobs.
I guess my question is, can a pleco actually eradicate film algae as well? Or is it possible that I have finally added enough plants to outcompete the nutrients in the water? Have I unbalanced something?
