Mordachai
Aquarium Advice Regular
Hi - new member. Been lurking for a few days - great site!
I'm looking to try to understand better why my tank tends to grow too much algae and not enough plants, and what I can do to improve things for my fish and plants.
Quick History: I have a 55g planted freshwater tank that I've kept various community fish in over the past, for a length of time stretching about 8 yrs. It was, in some respects, quite successful with minimal maintenance required. A year and a half ago, we had a freak ice-storm here which wiped out power to millions, and put my tank into a deep freeze for about 10 days... all fish ceased to be.
I basically ignored the tank and allowed things to cycle for the last year and a half. My lights died, but the back-of-tank filter continued and there is significant indirect daylight on the tank. So the algae became dominant, and everything else dead.
I just decided to get it all going again two weeks ago. I did two 90% WCs in a row, got out all of the globs of algae (or whatever that stuff is), cleaned the sides with a razor blade, cleaned the filter put in new activated charcoal, added 20lbs of nutrient-rich substrate, bought a new 2x28W T5 light (48") w/ a 6700 and a 10K bulb. Also got a new, ceramic heater. Tested water, added 2 swords, 4 grasses, 4 java ferns, and 2 large Anacharis. A week later, after testing water again added 4 ruby tetras and 4 clown barbs.
PH is a bit high (7.5ish), no nitrites, no ammonia, iron is abysmal, KH is around 5-6.
I am already getting brown algae and green algae on the sides of the tank. Water is very clear. Plants are alive, but not thriving. Plants are beginning to get a hair-like growth on their leafs.
I've added quite a bit of plant fertilizer to the water, along with a stress-coating substance when I added the fish.
The fish seemed mildly stressed for a couple of days, but now seem to be quite happy.
---
Questions:
1, What is the white hair-like strands that grow on my plants? A kind of algae? What might I do about it?
2. I am hesitant to buy and build the necessary components for a CO2 injection system. Short of that, what can I do to improve the livability of the tank for both fish and plants?
3. Other suggestions?
_____
My apologies for being too **** verbose.
I'm looking to try to understand better why my tank tends to grow too much algae and not enough plants, and what I can do to improve things for my fish and plants.
Quick History: I have a 55g planted freshwater tank that I've kept various community fish in over the past, for a length of time stretching about 8 yrs. It was, in some respects, quite successful with minimal maintenance required. A year and a half ago, we had a freak ice-storm here which wiped out power to millions, and put my tank into a deep freeze for about 10 days... all fish ceased to be.
I basically ignored the tank and allowed things to cycle for the last year and a half. My lights died, but the back-of-tank filter continued and there is significant indirect daylight on the tank. So the algae became dominant, and everything else dead.
I just decided to get it all going again two weeks ago. I did two 90% WCs in a row, got out all of the globs of algae (or whatever that stuff is), cleaned the sides with a razor blade, cleaned the filter put in new activated charcoal, added 20lbs of nutrient-rich substrate, bought a new 2x28W T5 light (48") w/ a 6700 and a 10K bulb. Also got a new, ceramic heater. Tested water, added 2 swords, 4 grasses, 4 java ferns, and 2 large Anacharis. A week later, after testing water again added 4 ruby tetras and 4 clown barbs.
PH is a bit high (7.5ish), no nitrites, no ammonia, iron is abysmal, KH is around 5-6.
I am already getting brown algae and green algae on the sides of the tank. Water is very clear. Plants are alive, but not thriving. Plants are beginning to get a hair-like growth on their leafs.
I've added quite a bit of plant fertilizer to the water, along with a stress-coating substance when I added the fish.
The fish seemed mildly stressed for a couple of days, but now seem to be quite happy.
---
Questions:
1, What is the white hair-like strands that grow on my plants? A kind of algae? What might I do about it?
2. I am hesitant to buy and build the necessary components for a CO2 injection system. Short of that, what can I do to improve the livability of the tank for both fish and plants?
3. Other suggestions?
_____
My apologies for being too **** verbose.