Wy Renegade
Aquarium Advice Addict
So as most of you know, I have lots of tanks (over 10) in my classroom, which I've had students maintaining for the past 20+ years. Over my period of keeping tanks, my own interests have evolved and the tanks with them. Over the last 5 or 6 years, several of the tanks have acquired plants - all low light, low maintenance plants; java moss has done well, as have the assorted Anubias. Not so much luck with most of the others, including anacharis which I just can't seem to keep long term in any tank. I'm not very good about consistently testing parameters, and since they are cared for by students, loss is not uncommon (a surprisingly high number do not seem to grasp the basic differences between a terrestrial and aquatic plant). Certain plants do better in certain tanks than others, while others slowly fade out, but do well in a different tank. I don't fertilize or dose and tanks are typically stocked lightly.
Anyhoo . . . to the topic at hand. I have a 29 gallon tank that has been set up in it's current iteration since about 2011, under the concept of an African river tank biotope. I planted heavily with Java fern and various anubias plants, added more wood than rock, and stocked with a school of Congo tetras, some upside down cats, and a couple kribs, hoping the kribs would eventually breed. The Congo's have been very hardy and have done well, although we recently added a group of 10 small ones with the remaining from the original school. The upside down cats faded out over the years, and the original kribs never bred and were removed after a couple years. We replaced them last year with two yellow kribs, which also never paired, although we recently added two more in hopes that we will get a pair. The Java ferns faded away, but the various anubias have taken off, and grown like mad. However, they had a black growth of what I assume is some sort of algae on them. It didn't seem too detrimental, as the plants were consistently putting out new growth, and the old growth was doing ok. Lighting is currently two 36" fluorescent strip lights; one with a 10,000K daylight bulb and other with a Floramax bulb. We just recently replaced bulbs and have a bit of vigorous growth from both the black and normal green on both the tank surfaces and the plant leaves. I'm considering a switch to a 36" LED strip by Aqueon, but don't want to blow the algae growth up even further, so looking for suggestions on the best way to do this and not affect the algae growth while perhaps improving the plant growth. Filtration is an undergravel filter powered by a Maxi-Jet 900 Powerhead, which I'm considering switching over to a Aquaclear, as I am considering switching up the substrate. Sorry for the book, but appreciate any input on the algae, lighting and substrate.
Anyhoo . . . to the topic at hand. I have a 29 gallon tank that has been set up in it's current iteration since about 2011, under the concept of an African river tank biotope. I planted heavily with Java fern and various anubias plants, added more wood than rock, and stocked with a school of Congo tetras, some upside down cats, and a couple kribs, hoping the kribs would eventually breed. The Congo's have been very hardy and have done well, although we recently added a group of 10 small ones with the remaining from the original school. The upside down cats faded out over the years, and the original kribs never bred and were removed after a couple years. We replaced them last year with two yellow kribs, which also never paired, although we recently added two more in hopes that we will get a pair. The Java ferns faded away, but the various anubias have taken off, and grown like mad. However, they had a black growth of what I assume is some sort of algae on them. It didn't seem too detrimental, as the plants were consistently putting out new growth, and the old growth was doing ok. Lighting is currently two 36" fluorescent strip lights; one with a 10,000K daylight bulb and other with a Floramax bulb. We just recently replaced bulbs and have a bit of vigorous growth from both the black and normal green on both the tank surfaces and the plant leaves. I'm considering a switch to a 36" LED strip by Aqueon, but don't want to blow the algae growth up even further, so looking for suggestions on the best way to do this and not affect the algae growth while perhaps improving the plant growth. Filtration is an undergravel filter powered by a Maxi-Jet 900 Powerhead, which I'm considering switching over to a Aquaclear, as I am considering switching up the substrate. Sorry for the book, but appreciate any input on the algae, lighting and substrate.
