New to this Site - General Questions

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Clare

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Nov 16, 2009
Messages
123
So, I am back into this hobby after a long hiatus - my tanks are doing great and the fish are thriving - I am indeed grateful that I had some prior knowledge before I set them up.

However, I do have fish now that I never kept in years previous and have a couple of questions, so here are goes:

1. Will my khuli loaches eat the occasional red flatworms that show up in my 40G planted tank? I don't seem to be overfeeding and don't see them often - just wondering as I seem to bring them with new plants on occasion. This tank also has 2 bolivian rams (old, slow & living out their retirement here), 1 female betta, 2 albino blue eyed long finned bristlenose plecos, a nice group of fancy guppies, 1 corydora concolors, 1 corydora arcuatus and the 2 khulis. It is a moderately planted tank with lots of mopani wood and no algae issues and a seemingly under control snail population (thanks to an assassin snail who loves his job; I do a 20% PWC weekly and I have an Eheim ECCO 2236 canister on it. I just find those flatworms gross LOL

2. My 100G hex is deep - 36 inches - and is only scaped with plastic plants & mopani wood (lots of it) at this point & is heavily stocked. It has a brown algae issue which is getting better with the introduction of 4 nerites snails. My water tests are consistently good: NO2 0 ppm; NO3 10 ppm, NH3 0 ppm, PH a bit high at 7.8, but all fish, even my pair of apistogrammas agassizii, are thriving. Bimonthly PWCs and filtration is a Eheim Pro II 2026 canister and an Aquaclear 110 HOB. I am having trouble with temp - cannot seem to get it below 84 even with the heaters set at their lowest settings - this is a contributing factor the the algae, right? Do I just live with it? Add more nerites? Anything else I can do about the brown algae without chemicals?

3. I have a female betta in the 40G with the guppies - no issues regarding cohabitation but she is constantly full of eggs and her oviductor in always showing - does she see the male guppies as possible mates??? I do not want to breed her with my male betta - will she be okay in this condition long term? Or do I need to remove her into her own tank?

Okay, I think that it is for now - any replies would be greatly appreciated. So glad I found this site. Thanks!

Clare
 
1 i would assume they might though i never had red flatwoms before.
2 what is the temp of the room? have you tried unplugging them maybe the heaters are stuck on. i would add a couple more nerites 4 isnt much for a 100 gallon.
3 should be fine.
 
Thanks for your reply, mgamer.

The room temp hangs between 78-82 in the summer- I use fans to lower it to match the more consistent 68-72 in the winter. I am concerned about turning them off and having the water temp change too quickly. Will add more nerites in the meantime for the algae.

I appreciate you taking the time to reply. BTW, love your avatar - Top Gear is a fav show around this house.

Cheers,
Clare
 
a 40 gallon tank will hold the heat for some time. it shouldnt drop too fast i wouldnt worry about that. if the room is 82 its possible for the tanks to be hotter with the lights on a planted tank. also if you are using like a digital thermometer those are known to be off a little here and there.

putting a fan over the tank to help increase evaporation and/or keeping the lid off the tank will help cool it.
 
Thanks for the advice - the 100G seems to be the tank with the biggest heat issue; taking the glass cover off is not an option because of my peacock eel - he is 9 inches long and very capable of jumping out. I lost my smaller eel in the 40G that way when I removed a panel from the hood to add a powerhead.

I do keep a fan on most of the time and it at least keeps things from getting warmer. Will try keeping the lights off on the 100 as well though they don't seem to generate much heat (Corallife T5s). The 40G planted tank uses the same lighting and I will try cutting back the time on by a few more hours. I use regular mercury thermometers & they seem pretty accurate :) Thanks for heads up on the digital ones.
 
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