Newly bought emersed Java Fern introduced to tank. Need to inject CO2 and add Excel?

[Clausura]

Hi guys,

For the past 2 weeks, my tank was taken over by BBA. I tried to clean it up by spraying Excel directly onto the java fern leaves but only managed to burn the leaves and turned them brown. I cut off the dead leaves, leaving only the rhizome but still the algae took over.

So I removed the driftwood and cleaned it up, gravel vacuumed the tank, cleaned the algae and bought new java ferns for the tank. I bought them from a LFS and they were just in a plastic bag attached to a piece of wood.

Now that they have been placed in my tank, as my tank has a pressurized CO2 setup, should I still inject CO2 and add Excel to the tank so that the BBA does not take over again?

Or should I just let the java fern be, without CO2 and Excel?

How long will they take to acclimatise to being submersed?

 

[CorallineAlgae]

CO2 is fine to add. Flourish is a fine idea if you have other faster growing plants otherwise you won't need much with only ferns unless you have lots of them. What fish or other animals do you have in there? If your having a bad time with algae you could always temporarily add something else to compete with the BBA like duckweed. True Siamese Flying Foxes are the only fish I've seen that eats BBA so that's a short term option if your tanks at least 20g. Amano shrimp sometimes eat it. How old are your bulbs? Old lights or the wrong type can help algae out compete your plants for nutrients, too. How long has your tank been set-up?

 

[aqua_chem]

BBA usually indicates high light and low CO2. What kind of lights are you using?

 

[Clausura]

Ok my tank is a 55 gallon, with canister filter and lighted by 2 T5 lights, each 52 W. I only use 1 light, bringing the lighting to just under 1 wpg.

It is stocked with
5 zebra danio
6 harlequin rasboras
2 neon tetras
2 otos

I am injecting about 2 bps of CO2 into the aquarium. It turns on with the lights. The lighting schedule is
12pm - 4pm : ON
6pm - 10pm: ON
as I will be around in the house during the time.

So is the lighting and CO2 injection ok or should I change something?

I feed the fish once every other day though.

 

[Jennie L]

I have an overstocked 15 gal aquarium wich is heavily planted + 3pieces of drift wood, 1 is the spindaly type of de & the other to are the softer darker wood. I have 2 otos catfish, 1 dwarf gourami, & 11 tetra, along w/2 sm. snails & run my tank w/ flourish & 2 T5 50wt bulbs. I don't have an algee problem at all, run my tank w/ a fluval c3 hob filter & an aqueon 20. I do weekly 1/3 water changes & clean filters etc. at that time also of course.

 

[Jennie L]

I'm not sure if that helps, yet I believe its frequent water changes & filtration...

 

[CorallineAlgae]

I'm not sure if that helps, yet I believe its frequent water changes & filtration...

The water changes and keeping your filter clean certainly helps but I imagine it's the abundance of growing plants that are keeping the algae under control. Keeping lots of plants as opposed to just a few makes every difference.

Claursa, maybe adding some new plants that'll grow well in your system like crypts would turn the tide on that algae. They'll take up excess nutrients that the algae are using. In your setup they'll do great and might be fun. Plus crypts are commonly available and pretty cheap. They're lots of other options though. I've seen true Siamese Flying Foxes eat up BBA. If you can find one it'll be fine in a 55.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Splitting up the light schedule is fine and often good for algae control. Maybe you could try feeding your fish more often but only a little at a time. These guys eat more often than people do in the wild but very little at a time. An old adage says that many aquarium fish have stomachs about as big as their eyes. One small feeding, each light cycle, might well be better for the filter system than a larger one every two days. Your fish will appreciate it!