trennamw
Aquarium Advice Addict
Ok probably a rookie mistake. I've been trying to move toward a low tech heavily planted Walstad or Barr type setup. I thought I had a good thing happening with all the fish waste seeming to get broken down and tilled under by a bunch of snails ... I don't vacuum and yet the surface of the white sand always looks great, a little darker but no solid pieces of debris.
But I don't have all that many plants and now I'm seeing a few spots of algae about 1/4" below the sand surface. They're tiny, two green one black, but I bet if there are 3 against the glass there are more elsewhere?
Maybe it was a really bad idea to till nutrients down under the surface when you don't have plants to get them back out?
Huge water changes were stressing out my Otos and loaches, and had nitrates at 0-2. I started doing 30% per week which keeps nitrates around 10 and the fish don't seem upset after a change.
My first impulse was to pull everything apart, vacuum the substrate a lot, and do a huge water change. But maybe that's going to have unforeseen consequences.
I did get a chunk of dwarf hair grass from Petsmart and just stuck it in. Maybe I should pull it into lots of small pieces so its roots can start getting down into the substrate?
Low light, ammo and nitrite zero, 3 crypts nothing else with roots buried.
Sent from my iPhone with three hands tied behind my back.
But I don't have all that many plants and now I'm seeing a few spots of algae about 1/4" below the sand surface. They're tiny, two green one black, but I bet if there are 3 against the glass there are more elsewhere?
Maybe it was a really bad idea to till nutrients down under the surface when you don't have plants to get them back out?
Huge water changes were stressing out my Otos and loaches, and had nitrates at 0-2. I started doing 30% per week which keeps nitrates around 10 and the fish don't seem upset after a change.
My first impulse was to pull everything apart, vacuum the substrate a lot, and do a huge water change. But maybe that's going to have unforeseen consequences.
I did get a chunk of dwarf hair grass from Petsmart and just stuck it in. Maybe I should pull it into lots of small pieces so its roots can start getting down into the substrate?
Low light, ammo and nitrite zero, 3 crypts nothing else with roots buried.
Sent from my iPhone with three hands tied behind my back.
