Trioracles
Aquarium Advice Activist
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2013
- Messages
- 153
Youre problem with plants dying is because of the sand most likely. Only specific plants can really grow in that stuff. Especially if you have fine sand that compacts hard. If you get plants for sand its actually best to have assasin snails in there to stir up the substrate. But i will be honest i think your tank the way it is now, looks great and adding green plants will take away of that ice/snowy looking theme you got there
Anyway i dont see the algae your talking about, can you take a close up of the algae please. From what i can see the algae is on the tips of that fake plant looks like green spot algae to me. That stuff nothing will eat.. Nerites, apple snails, siamese algae eaters, otto's no one will touch it trust me.. and its impossible to scrap off without some muscle.. Turn down the lighting period to 5-6 hours a day and in a few weeks to month it will vanish trust me. As for cleaning the glass. Get yourself an algae magnet those will clean up any brown algae and clear film that builds up on the glass easy, the green spot algae your going to need a fresh sponge with the rough surface on the other end to get rid of it. JUST DONT go to far to the sand, if you get sand in the sponge or the magnet... stop and toss it and get a new one.. Or youll enjoy a thousand tiny scratches
That or bleach the effected plants
Otto's will only eat mostly brown surface algae/diatoms , they tend to stay away from hair algae.. Otto's are also hard to keep when you first get them.. They are usually frail and starving from the stores so you could buy 6 of them and have 4 die in a few days or week.. But when you get ones that live they almost never die.
Thank you so much. I enjoy the snowy look as well haha. The algae usually sorta forms and sits on top of the sand. I use a rake to clean up the algae that forms on top of the sand. About the sand scratching glass... Ugh.... I learned that the hard way on my main tank..... Thank you for your input!!
080215 Yopoipoi, rest in peace. May the river of light guide your soul to the celestial waters above.