onebettanewbie
Aquarium Advice Regular
I have a 5.5 gallon tank. It's been set up for about a month and a half with one betta. It's fully cycled with ammonia 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates stubbornly 20. The PH is a steady 7.8. The water is hard but I don't have accurate readings for it. It had some of what I think was brown diatom algae. The tank has a 14W "aquarium" fluorescent light. It was on for ten hours a day and I just cut it back to nine. The water is conditioned with Prime and I don't put any other chemicals in the tank.
Last week I realized Staghorn algae was growing from the leaves of my 3 java fern plants. I took them out, cleaned off the algae, gave the plants a bath in 1 part bleach to 19 parts water, rinsed them, and now have them growing in conditioned water in a separate container. My question is, does Staghorn algae tend to grow on java fern? The plants are pretty sad looking, and have been since I bought them, with brown spots and now holes in them from cleaning off the algae. I kept them because they were just starting to grow healthy new leaves.
The tank also has 2 anubia, which are healthy and growing new leaves, and some wisteria which is also healthy and growing new leaves and roots. If I put the java fern back in the tank is it just going to grow more Staghorn algae? Would I be better off getting some other plant? A crypt of some sort perhaps? I am not going to install a CO2 system. I had one in the beginning and it caused the PH to drop. The plants are there for the betta so I don't want to experiment with dosing with Excel. I want easy to care for plants that help keep the water healthy.
So, to summarize, would a different variety of plant be less likely to grow Staghorn algae? Any other adjustments I should make to avoid algae in general? I'd really appreciate your advice.
Last week I realized Staghorn algae was growing from the leaves of my 3 java fern plants. I took them out, cleaned off the algae, gave the plants a bath in 1 part bleach to 19 parts water, rinsed them, and now have them growing in conditioned water in a separate container. My question is, does Staghorn algae tend to grow on java fern? The plants are pretty sad looking, and have been since I bought them, with brown spots and now holes in them from cleaning off the algae. I kept them because they were just starting to grow healthy new leaves.
The tank also has 2 anubia, which are healthy and growing new leaves, and some wisteria which is also healthy and growing new leaves and roots. If I put the java fern back in the tank is it just going to grow more Staghorn algae? Would I be better off getting some other plant? A crypt of some sort perhaps? I am not going to install a CO2 system. I had one in the beginning and it caused the PH to drop. The plants are there for the betta so I don't want to experiment with dosing with Excel. I want easy to care for plants that help keep the water healthy.
So, to summarize, would a different variety of plant be less likely to grow Staghorn algae? Any other adjustments I should make to avoid algae in general? I'd really appreciate your advice.
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