Almost a month later, I had removed the bad and the plants are flourishing and making new plants. I still have the algae growing on the live plants and it has even moved onto the fake plants, and along my filter intake. I'm tempted to try a chemical fix, but also thinking about getting either invertebrates or some type of fish to combat the algae growth. I've had one lyretail molly pass away since I last wrote- had some white feces and passed away a couple days later. I've laxed on checking my levels recently but am going to recheck right now and probably do a 30% water change regardless of the result. I've captured 3 wag platy fry and they are doing well in a breeding net. I'm still concerned about the algae, somewhat at a loss on how to get a handle on it. -update on update- I have also been picking out snails that hitched a ride into my tank from an unknown source, some are getting larger and I know a few are ok to have but I've noticed some goopy snail eggs on my heating element for the tank. I may save up some money and purchase a larger tank to transfer my fish into as this tank is developing too fast for me to keep up...