Plants and Clowns

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Tracey
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:39 pm

Plants and Clowns

Post by Tracey » Sat Jan 02, 2010 8:27 am

I recently added some plants to my tank and the clowns are not eating them thankfully but since I've changed the lighting for the plants, I have alot of algae. it looks rusty all over them and there are also little tuffs of it growing on the plants. Before my tank was totally free of it. I know why its there but I am having trouble getting rid of it. What is safe to use with my clowns? Should I decrease the lighting during treatment to help get rid of it? My water test fine accept it is somewhat hard. How does this factor in with the care of my loaches and plants? The loaches seem to love the moss balls I added they are soft and move around. They like dashing around them and moving them. Its very funny to watch.

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chefkeith
Posts: 2646
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2006 9:37 pm
Location: Detroit

Post by chefkeith » Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:21 pm

You probably need to decrease the lighting. Or move the lighting farther away from the surface of the water.

If you are using plant fertilizers, they'll help algae grow more too.

Diana
Posts: 4675
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:35 am
Location: Near San Franciso

Post by Diana » Sat Jan 02, 2010 10:51 pm

Rusty looking algae is often Diatoms, and these tend to grow in lower light than most other algae. The tufts could be any of several algae species.

Are you adding any CO2 or Excel for a carbon source?

Which (if any) fertilizers are you adding?

What kind of substrate do you have?

What size is the tank?

What kind of lighting? Watts? Bulb type? K rating? This info is very likely on the bulb.

Hard water is not a problem for most aquarium plants. There are a few very specialized ones that are usually only available from other hobbyists that really do not like hard water. Probably you do not have any of these plants. Some plants can actually use the carbonates in hard water as a source of carbon.
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.

Happy fish keeping!

Tracey
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:39 pm

Post by Tracey » Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:41 pm

Thanks for the suggestions.
My tank is 75 gallon, no fertilizer, I cannot find the watts but the lights are coralife colormax-I remember the box said for optimum plant growth, regular gravel substrate. I'll see if I can find the other info when I take the bulb out tomorrow and clean my tank. I tried using algae gone but it doesnt seem to work. I cant seem to get one of the plants to stay down and they have eaten the root almost gone.

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