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Kick
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Saturday,
July 07, 2001 - 11:00 am
Direct sunlight is the biggest culprit for algae. Is there
any way that you can cover with a sheet the section of tank
that gets this light from the window over the door. Or how
about a curtain for the window that lets light through but
does not allow the rays to hit directly on the tank? I assume
we are talking about green algae here, as the brown does NOT
like the light and you do just the opposite to get rid of
it. Also your pleco won't touch this type of algae. Oto
cats are the best for the brown.
You mentioned that your fish look like they are sleeping?
Does this mean they are sluggish and not as active. Or is
it that with the lights off, they continue to think it is
night? Direct sunlight will raise the temp of the tank so
be sure that it is not too warm. 72 to 76 is a pretty good
temp., and with higher temps, you will see less activity and
more algae.
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Mandi
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Saturday,
July 07, 2001 - 03:21 pm
The tank temp stays around 76 and it doesn't really get direct
sunlight - it's more diffused. I do have a "sheer" type
treatment over the window so it lets some light in but not the direct
sunlight. The fish act like it is night; not really sluggish because
when they see me they perk-up and look for food! Not all of them
"sleep" when the lights are off, but more than when they
are on!
It is definitely green algae and it isn't taking over, but I
can see some. I do not have any live plants so I don't have
that going for the tank.
Also, are Oto cats the ones that eat snails too? I need one or two
of those!
Where's Jeff? I haven't offended anyone somewhere along
the way have I??? ...and is curt on vacation? I haven't seen
much of him lately.
Thanks guys! (Y'all)
Mandi
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jeff
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Saturday,
July 07, 2001 - 05:33 pm
hi mandi...algea huh?..and it's green?..how about a bit more
info on it so we can help...and don't worry about your brain
cells..I just got back home and mine are on impulse power still..
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joycedonley
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Saturday,
July 07, 2001 - 07:21 pm
Mandi as you can see Jeff is here, but I don't know what happened
to Curt??? Last I knew he was doing exams and then just didn't
come back. Maybe he is taking the summer off.
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jeff
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Saturday,
July 07, 2001 - 11:36 pm
actually I think curt said after exams he was heading to hawaii
for a vacation..ah the summer..
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Kick
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Sunday,
July 08, 2001 - 10:17 am
If you can keep oto cats living, they are absolutely great for eating
most types of algae. There are only a couple of kinds that they
won't eat. AND they seem to get along well with bettas (so
far)!!. I will tell of my experience. A 10 gallon, divided betta
tank I have consistently is plagued with green algae. It's favorite
place to grow is on the dividers, making the tank look horrible.
I have fought it since about two weeks after setting this tank up,
but just cleaned regularly as I was "afraid" to try to keep
anything in with my bettas. About 3 weeks ago, I decided I had an
enough and bought 3 oto cats for this tank. WOW! They started munching
right away. You can see all these "white" squiggles running
through the algae where they are eating to their heart's content.
Talk about algae eating machines. Depending on what you have in
this tank, these might be an option for you. For a 55, you will
need several. You might have room for a pleco, however, they get
too large sometimes to eat algae off the leaves and some decorations.
One thing: the otos are not very big, remain small and you want
to make sure there is nothing in your tank that will enjoy them
for lunch. Good luck. BTW, Jeff, glad to see you back "again"!
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jeff
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Sunday,
July 08, 2001 - 11:12 am
thanks kick.. and I agree on the otto's.. it does seem to be
a bit of a problem finding these guys though..maybe we should start
breeding and selling them..ha..ha
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Mandi
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Sunday,
July 08, 2001 - 02:06 pm
I do have one pleco in the tank but he is very small. The only fish
that I have that are semi-aggressive are the tiger barbs. I have
3 regular tigers, 3 albinos and 2 green tigers. They are usually
the most interested in other fish mainly when a new fish is added.
They nearly killed a male guppy I put in there once. That was when
I only had the 3 regular tigers. Maybe they will be less aggressive
to others now that their "school" is bigger.
I will check with my LFS to see if they have any. It is a pretty
small place, but there is another larger place not too far away
(besides Petsmart, Petco, etc...)
I might also check into that tank divider. I have thought that it
would be nice to have one in my 10gal tank so that I could add more
molly babies (if they don't all get eaten again the next
time).
Welcome back Jeff!
Oh yea, do the otos eat snails?
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jeff
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Sunday,
July 08, 2001 - 05:45 pm
thanks mandi..you are right do not put guppies in with those barbs..I
would have at least 6 to keep them chasing each other and not the
other fish..and your otto cat is an algea eater, never heard of
it eating snails..
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joycedonley
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Sunday,
July 08, 2001 - 09:12 pm
Mandi the only place I could find my otto was at Petsmart. The one
here seems to keep their tanks clean. Other people on the net sometimes
have problems with them. We only really have large chains around
except the one mom and pop with really strange hours that mostly
sell ferrets now....anyways unless I switch to saltwater I have
to deal with the 'chain' petshops. You may be only able
to find the otto at a large chain.
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Mandi
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Monday,
July 09, 2001 - 09:10 am
There is a Petco close to me so I might try that if I can't
find them anywhere else. I was trying to find information on Ottos
but don't see anything listed under that name. What type of
fish are they and what is their actual name?
I have had reasonable luck with Petco. There is one guy there who
reaaly seems to know what he's talking about. He DOES push buying
stuff in order to fix problems but he has sound advice most of the
time.
Is there anything I should know about an Otto before I get one?
I guess they are good in a community tank, don't get too big,
like normal water conditions...
Thanks!
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Kick
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Monday,
July 09, 2001 - 10:02 am
What you need to look for is otocinclus affinis or dwarf sucker
catfish. They only grow to about 2 inches. They are a great community
fish. As they eat the algae, you can see their little tummies round
out. Very neat and I think you enjoy!
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joycedonley
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Monday,
July 09, 2001 - 05:25 pm
Mandi I was really suprised how small they were. I was a little
afraid my angelfish would eat mine, but they were only interested
in the plastic bag it came in. Anyways they are really cute little
guys and I may get some more this fall. They seem to like perching
on the leaves of my java fern when they aren't sucking on the
glass. They also cost a lot less than my pleco.
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Claude
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Monday,
July 09, 2001 - 08:47 pm
YIPPIE I CAN FINALLY POST!!!!
Mandi..
Im in the same boat as you. I do bi-weekly water changes, little
or NO Phospates, less than 7 ppm of NITRATE (usually less than
5 ppm)
I have about 60% of my tank planted. I have two dwarf plecos, two
siamese algae eaters and 3 (used to be 4 but my Black skirt
teras ate one...caught him with the Otts head in his MOUTH).
I only feed once ever 2 days, and only enough food that they can
eat with VERY little going to the bottom.
I (my tank at home) and my wifes tank at work ARE PLAUGED
with algae.... I thought it was STAGHORM alae...looks Long and BRANCH
like.. and green.
Otherwords I need help too. Are there any chemicals (as I have
tried the bleach method)\ that will work and have minimum plant
deaths?
Claude
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jeff
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Tuesday,
July 10, 2001 - 02:14 am
claude ..it's jeff..god ..why didn't you say you still have
this problem...look if it's down to the last resort thing..I
will tell you how to get rid of the red algea ..firstly as I have
said Co2 will help...if you are finally using it I do not know...so
you have done the bleach,you have done the cutting, you have done
the algea eaters and have good iron, and you have done your best
with nutrient control?..so...now you have chosen the last resort..
I will recommend is copper as the last resort...it will kill the
red algea..maybe some plants too but you have nothing to lose here..you
do not have to break down the tank..but you do have to remove the
fish...use a copper sulphate solution maintained at .5ppm for 7-10
days..you can use copper compounds or med solutions to do this..a
copper test kit would be good...so it's your choice but I have
been there and this works.. or break down the tank and start again..which
really sucks if it's over 15 gals...so I know you probably hate
me for this but as I said, last resort measures are up to you...sorry
bud....jeff
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Mandi
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Tuesday,
July 10, 2001 - 08:25 am
I feel better now. All I have is just a little algae beginning to
grow in a couple of spots on the glass. The stuff on the plants
is tolerable. I hope to never be in Claude's shoes!
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Claude
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Tuesday,
July 10, 2001 - 04:49 pm
Jeff,
Thanks again as always..... what do you use for the copper solution
(medication..ect).
I think I am at the drastic stage....as I have tried everything.
Plants are growing like MAD with CO2 addition...but the algae seems
to be flourishing as well. Though I dont know what my IRON measurement
is. Need to check that.
I have a spare 10 gallon that will do as a Temporary home. Ill just
have to areate the hell out of it as I have WAYYY to many fish for
a 10 gallon. Then after mine I will have to do the wifes.
Jeff Any ideas where to get the copper soulution and test kits?????
Oh and after the 15 days....do I just do a 50% (or more?)
water change, then put fish back in?
Mandi....you better hope you dont get this stuff. My algae eaters
are doing a GREAT job keeping the brown and green algae down. I
just have traces of it. But this Tree Branch like algae (jeff
says its a RED algae) is terrible. I trimmed all my plants down
to try and get rid of it. Didnt see a trace of any for 2 weeks then
BOOM...its everywhere again!
Claude
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Mandi
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Tuesday,
July 10, 2001 - 04:55 pm
It must be plant-related or something. I have all artificial plants
and don't see anything that sounds like that.
What causes that kind of algae?
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lboy
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Tuesday,
July 10, 2001 - 08:48 pm
Claude, the algae blooms in your tank are probably caused by a nutrient
imbalance. Did you know that limiting fertilization can actually
encourage algae growth? You're just gonna have to somehow strike
the balance that will prevent the growth of any algae in your tank.
I can't really tell you how to acheive that balance, I usually
just achieve it by luck ;)
I will have problems with algae for a while then suddenly, out of
the blue, I'll do something that will cause it all to stop and
I won't see as much as a hair of algae for a very, very long
time. I usually do simple things like a water change or trying to
be more regular with my biweekly addition of fertilizer and I have
found that those two things are sufficient to limit algae growth
in my tanks.
Nutrient deficiencies can encourage algae growth because if plants
are deprived certain nutrients, they won't utilize others, a
fact that many algaes exploit.
After my tanks hit this state of algae free "equilibrium,"
it usually takes a while before the algae actually disappears, because
it has to die back and get eaten/cleaned off/filtered away first.
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jeff
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Tuesday,
July 10, 2001 - 11:44 pm
Iboy..I totally agree with what you are saying..algea control is
nutrient control,howerver as you know achieving this can take a
long time..I believe we have covered most of it with claude and
unfortunatly once red algea begins taking over the balance we try
to achieve can be almost impossible to attain..most like likely
he got it from some of the plants he introduced at one time..the
usual overfeeding,high phosphates,high nitrates,not enough nutrients
to achieve adequate uptake,or to much nutrients have been adressed,sometimes
high light levels and too much iron can be a contributing factor..I
like to see iron levels at .5-1ppm..higher levels can be contribute
to the red algea..that's why I never add it directly to the
water column..and I further believe the more plants you have the
better...he is using co2 and algea eaters to no avail...his nitrate
levels are good and should keep down the return of the cyanobacteria
crap...substrate and lighting is good..now what's left?..well
lots you say..I thinks it has been covered in the past and I was
tryin real hard for him to get that balance...sure he can keep trying
to achieve "the nutrient balance"...but the poor guy might
watch his whole tank get taken over by red algea...so again as a
total last resort, other than breakin down the tank..I felt copper
is the route to try...but again this is only my opinion.. not to
be taken as rock solid fact..just pure experience and research...now
claude if you chose this route you can use copper meds like Kordons
copper..or 'had a snail product' is copper sulphate at 1.63%
dilution..get a copper test kit!..you will need it..follow direction
to get you at 0.5ppm for 7- 10 days...do a large water change before
starting...keep testing daily to keep the levels up...return the
fish only after you have no detectable levels...good luck if you
decide on it...
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lboy
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Wednesday,
July 11, 2001 - 03:42 am
Hmm...
Last time I heard, even small amounts of copper are toxic to plants,
not just to algae. I guess if you do it right it can work; Jeff
has outlined his instructions really well :-D
As for my experiences, I have usually let tanks with algae outbreaks
just reach the balance on their own. That's why I don't
know what conditions my "balanced" tank are under, because
I usually stop caring about all these damn nutrients to test for
;)
My most recent algae outbreak started in March, when I increased
my ten gallon's lighting to 4.8 watts per gallon (power
compacts are amazing!). I first got a horrible outbreak of green
hair (red?) algae. I bought sixteen algae eating shrimp,
which dindt' touch the algae at first. However, two weeks after
I added the shrimp, they began to eat the algae and cleaned the
tank out in three days.
Then, a month later, after being home for a week during spring break,
I came back to find my tank covered with a slime algae (blue
green?). It was horrible. When it was scraped off the glass,
the pieces floated of, landed somewhere else, and formed another
carpet. The slime even grew over plants and strangled them! It was
on the glass, there were filaments of it floating in the water (yes,floating!),
and it was everywhere and it grew so fast that even though I would
vacuum some of it off, it would grow back a few hours later. You
know what I did? I stopped caring and just let the tank go. I stopped
fertilizing, I stopped cleaning, and I stopped paying attention
to it. Lo and behold, one day I looked at the algae (3 weeks
after I stopped doign anything to the tank) and it was dying
back. The snails were even eating it (trails through the carpet
were visible). It hasn't come back since and I really don't
know what caused it to die. My plants weren't in great shape
due to the lack of fertilization but at least they could start growing
again.
So anyways, I dont know if what I just told you will help, it's
just an interesting experience to me that's all ;)
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jeff
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Wednesday,
July 11, 2001 - 04:29 am
well that's interesting Iboy..god I wish I had your luck plus
access to shrimp and ramshorn snails to help..I never did and god
I tried it all..even ignored it like you said and low and behold
it GOT WORSE!!...aha ahah I went mental..broke down tanks..tried
again and it came back..just like the darn cat!..slow but back..so
I figured drastic measures or die tryin..erythromicn for cyanobacteria
and copper for red algea...only as last resorts..and you are right
copper can damage plants but not all of them....vals are bad...and
fish..well that's why we take em out to treat...god ya know
nutrient balance can get so techy with so many variables it can
drive one mental...now after many years, with a little luck, patience,thinking
and understanding of what going on in my tank I have finally accomplished
it as you said..
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Mandi
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Wednesday,
July 11, 2001 - 09:51 am
Whew! I sure hope I never get that type of algae. I definitely don't
think I'm patient enough to deal with it like you did! Like
I said earlier; hopefully it is related to live plants and, since
I don't have any, I won't get any of that stuff!!!
What experts!!!
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jsopel (Jeff)
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Thursday,
July 12, 2001 - 05:19 am
oh mandi..pray for the land of cyanobacteria never to visit your
tank..cause it doesn't need plants...chuckle,chuckle..jeff
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Mandi
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Thursday,
July 12, 2001 - 09:10 am
...now I will have nightmares...
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claude
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Friday,
July 13, 2001 - 08:02 am
Jeff,
I think you hit the nail on the head. I noticed the last time I
went to the place where I buy my plants at that they had a small
bit of both cyano bacteria and this "branch" red algae too!
What I SHOULD have done is a bleach rinse on all my plants BEFORE
I planet them in my tank....oh well....live and learn. I think that
the copper treatment will be my only alternative being as both my
tanks are INFESTED with this algae. Good news is since I treated
my tanks with eurthromaycin I havent noticed aBIT of cyanobacteria.
Hopefully the copper tratment will do the same and kill all this
stuff. Oh and now it looks as if this algae is a Beard algae. Hell
I dont know....maybe Ill go home and take some pictures and post
them so you all can see.
So where is a good place to buy the copper test kit and copper solution??
any reccomendations? Oh and will my fish be OK for 10 days or so
in a 10 gallon?? I am not near the bio load for my 75 gallon....but
a 10 gallon will be WAYYY overloaded
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Claude
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Friday,
July 13, 2001 - 08:09 am
Oh...one more thing, has anyone tried this SERA ALGOPUR????? AZ
gardens sells this, and I have heard that it is safe on plants (minor
deaths of some species) and fish. But will kill all algae, even
beard algae but may take several weeks to show results.
thanks
Claude
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jeff
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Friday,
July 13, 2001 - 12:40 pm
will hello again claude..firstly..that algecide you mentioned from
az-gardens is a COPPER based algeacide..a little more diluted but
does the same thing I am telling you to do...only it takes a little
longer to work..you can go that way if you want..same thing really...but
you also need to do 20-40% weekly water changes with your treatment(
if you keep fish in)..I still would not have the fish in the
tank...an go my way but whatever you prefer..also be sure you have
no phosphates in your water system!..or be sure you are removing
them(phosphates) with treatment..and keep light down to
9 hrs per day...as far as your fish in that little tank..yep you
are right..too many...test levels do as many water changes as needed...be
sure you 02 levels are high and you can add some Amquel for the
ammonia...oh I have already talked about your copper in my last
posts so you can re-read it...be sure you are always running your
tests to aviod problems..that should cover it for you..good luck
my friend....jeff
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Claude
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Friday,
July 13, 2001 - 02:21 pm
Jeff,
So what is a good way to remove Phosphates?? I have the emporer
box filters that have those nifty media containers.... is there
a granule like media out there (like carbon) that I can
use?
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lboy
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Saturday,
July 14, 2001 - 05:33 am
Yes, there is a media that you can use that removes phosphates.
I think it's called Green-X. It takes out phosphates and I've
heard is great at helping control algae. I think the famous Conlin-Sears
paper mentions limiting phosphates as a means of algae control...
but that's another story.
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lboy
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Saturday,
July 14, 2001 - 05:41 am
Yes, there is a media that you can use that removes phosphates.
I think it's called Green-X. It takes out phosphates and I've
heard is great at helping control algae. A friend of mine recently
told me that he was able to eliminate a green water problem in only
two days with the aid of Green-X.
I think the famous Conlin-Sears (or is it Sears-Conlin?)
paper mentions limiting phosphates as a means of algae control...
but that's another story.
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Claude
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Monday,
July 16, 2001 - 07:41 am
Iboy and Jeff,
I went to Petsmart (of all places) and got GOOD ADVICE (on
top of the good advice here of course)!!!! Can you believe it?
first the HELPFUL (again can you believe it) lady there
told me that the ROSY barb is good at hair, beard and staghorn algae
removal without damaging plants. To prove it (as I was a skeptic)She
then took several plants from thier stock they just recieved that
had algae on them and put them in a tank full of Rosy barbs. THE
FISH WENT NUTS and tore into the algae. She said she does this all
the time to clean them up.
So at this point I will try anything and bought 4 for my aquarium
and 2 for the wifes. And in 3 days I would say 50% of my hair/staghorn
algae (and there was allot of it) is GONE!!!! With NO CHEMICALS.
I also bought 2 packs of GREEN X (thanks Iboy) so as to
remove any phosphates. I hope this does it.
Leassons learned:
1) Get ottos or SAEs for green and brown algae
2) Get Rosy Barbs (actually I have the long finned kind
and they are BEAUTIFUL) to remove hair/staghorn algae. They
love this stuff.
3) CONTROL phospahtes.
and of course other leassons. Thanks Jeff, Iboy and others...I know
I have been a "Algae problem" and hope this is it!
Claude
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jeff
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Monday,
July 16, 2001 - 10:32 am
hi..claude..wow..never heard of rosey's doing that..all they
ever did was eat my plants!...now cherry barbs eat algea..but heck
if you got it working great..as far as your phosphates..did you
ever check your levels I can't remember?..try to keep them <
1.0mg/l...you can pre-treat your tap water too if you like...products
like green X, phosguard,phos-Zorb,phosvec all do about the same
thing..also if you really wanted to you can add substrate heating
coils to generate macro-nutrients..the phosphates are brought down
into gravel binding to the iron in your laterite or flourite thus
removing it from the water column..
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Claude
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Monday,
July 16, 2001 - 10:39 am
Ughh,
that would mean tearing apart the tank to install heating coils.
I may look into that if I do a tear down in the future. Wish I would
have laerned more about live plant tanks so I could have done everything
right the first time. but then again..I would have missed out on
all this funHeck, after Im through with all this I may be considered
an algae "expert" like you and Iboy and others
I never got my Phospahtes checked.... but I did call my local water
plant and they said they will be sending me a report on my water.
I see AZ gardens sells a phosphate test kit for $15..... do these
work. My LFS says that phospates require expensive test. But as
you know I DO NOT trust my LFS....
And so far the rosy's are not eating the plants. But they are
a bit rough on them while tearing the algae off them.
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jsopel (Jeff)
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Monday,
July 16, 2001 - 10:50 am
yep..claude your are right..it's just info tha's all..yeh
like you need more huh!...and a good phosphate kit is the Lamotte
Kit PAL code 3121...check that tap water you may be surprised..and
be sure you are using low phophate fish food too..
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Claude
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Monday,
July 16, 2001 - 12:57 pm
WHEW.... $56 for the Lamotte Phos test kit! I guess my LFS wasnt
lying on this count. It is expensive...but I guess thats the price
for assured accuracy! I could take a water sample to my LFS and
they will test it for $3... maybe take a sample of my tap water,
and a sample of aquarium water (using the GreenX to remove phospahtes).
The kit AZ gradens has is from Seachem...and its like $20 for 10
tests....so I guess the Lamotte is cheaper per test as it has 50
tests.
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jeff
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Tuesday,
July 17, 2001 - 11:29 am
oh sorry claude..I just thought you would want a good tester..some
kits just do not cut it in this area...jeff
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Claude
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Tuesday,
July 17, 2001 - 12:04 pm
I guess either way a good phospahte kit will cost some $$. I may
just go with the Lamotte as $ per test is CHEAPER than the Seachem.
And If you say its a good one....I BELIEVE you!
Should I also get an iron, O2, CO2, and copper test kits (as
I can afford them....)and would you reccomend any others?
The test kits I have now are Ph, No2, No3, Nh3 and4, KH, GH.
Claude
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jeff
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Tuesday,
July 17, 2001 - 01:14 pm
claude..one of the things I have learned over the years is careful
observation can tell you more than anything what is going on in
your tank..a journal is the best thing I ever did..I test very little..test
kits a great to finalize and rule out stuff but if you keep a whole
bunch of tests they can just get stale and unreliable...however,
hell if you got the cashola..then iron,potassium, are handy..forget
02 and C02..just chart it..(copper for..well you know)again
I would go with lamotte...again, sometimes it's just better
to hunker down and slowly balance that tank...always the best of
luck...jeff
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Claude
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Tuesday,
July 17, 2001 - 03:08 pm
Agreed Jeff. My dad has a saying "You Pay for what You get".
And I really dont have the cashola....I would rather take that cash
and buy a better CO2 system
I guess what I could do is if I need any of the off tests done...Ill
just go to my Lfs...
Claude
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cq
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Tuesday,
July 03, 2001 - 12:22 pm
Noticed something weird in my tank today as I was feeding. I noticed
one of my fish going after what looked like a really tiny piece
of flake. I was amazed to find that the "flake" avoided
the fish and darted away. THis happened a couple more times until
it dove down into the substrate. Upon closer inspection, it looked
like a really tiny white speck in sort of a triangular shape. Does
anyone have a clue as to what this might be?
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peter
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Tuesday,
July 03, 2001 - 05:16 pm
have you ever watched or read "Horton Hears a Who"?
If you turn off your filter and stay quiet for a while, you may
be able to hear them faintly chanting, " We're here! We're
here! We're here!"
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jeff
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Wednesday,
July 04, 2001 - 12:01 am
cq..flat with kinda arrowhead shape head?..could be planaria...feeding
on waste in substrate..
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cq
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Wednesday,
July 04, 2001 - 09:35 am
Thanks Jeff. Are they dangerous to fish? Should I be doing anything
to get rid of these things? I noticed more today
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Kick
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Wednesday,
July 04, 2001 - 09:44 am
Testing to see if I can post here. I can't seem to post on any
of the other topics but this went the first time so will try to
help here.
If you have live plants, they may have entered the tank in this
way. They will not hurt anything as long as their numbers are kept
in check. Siphoning the gravel surface, "underfeeding" the
fish or getting a gourami to eat them will help reduce them. I don't
know of a product right now that will kill them, but maybe Jeff
will have an idea.
Overfeeding and poor maintenance of a tank are the reasons these
critters develop and mulitply.
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jeff
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Wednesday,
July 04, 2001 - 11:21 am
cq..you didn't confirm that's what I described..if it is
planaria(most likely)..as kick said usually overfeeding
is the problem..simply stop feedin for a few days of try the blue
or 3 spot gourami as kick suggested..
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cq
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Wednesday,
July 04, 2001 - 02:28 pm
I really don't know Jeff. How big do planaria get? These things
look like little triangular shaped specks. I did a little research
on planaria on the net and the pictures I saw don't really correspond
to what's in my tank. They literally are little tiny specks.
I will keep a close watch and let you know if I see anything new.
At any rate, thanks for all your help
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jeff
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Wednesday,
July 04, 2001 - 03:56 pm
cq..no prob..I just wanted to be sure is all..planaria can get to
about 1/2" long..if you can just suck some out of your substrate
and look at them through a magnifying glass if you can..then we
will know for sure
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Kick
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Thursday,
July 05, 2001 - 10:01 am
It may not be planaria or maybe they are in the juvenile form right
now and eyeballing them can't tell you exactly what they are
yet. As Jeff mentioned, if you can catch one, look under mag glass
and describe further, you many have some kind of "bug" instead.
At any rate, if it "avoided" the fish, maybe the fish you
have in the tank will eventually eat them. But I would hold back
on the feeding some to diminish their food supply. If you think
planaria is not what you have, email me and I can send you some
pictures and maybe you can decide from there what is swimming around
"unwanted" in your tank.
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Anonymous
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Friday,
July 06, 2001 - 01:26 pm
It sounds like it could be a sea monkey (juvenile ghost shrimp).
Do you keep any shrimp? They make good food if that's what it
is.
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cq
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Friday,
July 06, 2001 - 01:50 pm
Don't keep any shrimp. I have been keeping my eyes peeled for
these things the last couple of days and have seen nothing. Maybe
my platies are eating whatever they are (God knows they eat
everything else that gets in their way). BTW, I now have a tank
full of platies: 3 originals, 3 juveniles that survived from the
last batch of fry, and around 10-15 new fry and one of my females
is pregnant again! Very overwhelming. Should have done more research
on livebearers before I bought them. I either need to find a fish
that thinks little platies make a great afternoon snack or find
someone to take all these fish off my hands when they grow up!!
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cq
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Friday,
July 06, 2001 - 01:50 pm
On the bright side, looks like all the posting problems are fixed.
No problems today or yesterday
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joycedonley
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Friday,
July 06, 2001 - 10:49 pm
Cq sometimes the parents will eat the fry. Are you saving them all
or are your platy just being 'nice' parents? I know if you
had swordtails in there they would chow them down. Platy are less
likely to eat fry than most of the other livebearers.
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