PlanetCatfish.com

Hello,

Water Properties:

40 gallon long. 48x12x16
80 degrees
Ph 7.7
Gh 60ppm
KH 50ppm
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrate - Unknown

The tank has been set up for almost a year. I have 11 penguin tetras, 3 L066 Pl*co's, and 5 (3f 2m) Apistogramma Cacatuoides. Feeding has always been once daily. I feed NLS food for them all. Flake for the Tetra's, H20 Stable Wafers (not algae wafers) for the Pl*co's, and Chichlid Formula for the Apisto's. I have switched feeding to every other day this week because one of the pl*co's was looking very fat. I was worried it might be bloat so I fed them less and every other day and he is looking slim and trim. The little pig. I change 10 gallons once a week. I use AquaSafe to treat the water. The substrate is play sand. I use drift wood and fake plants.

FTS


I have some nice green algae growing on my sand bed. It's not a terrible issue and is far from out of control. But I wouldnt mind using it as an exuse to get a Bristle Nose Pl*co. Would they eat this algae off the sand and what little is on the wood? Another question. In your opinion would I be over stocked if I bought a BN?

Close up on the sand.


What about this brown algae on the house.


2 of my L066

I'm about 80% sure that those are "blue-green algae", which is NOT the right food for bristlenoses.

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Mats

MatsP wrote:I'm about 80% sure that those are "blue-green algae", which is NOT the right food for bristlenoses.

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Mats

Thats not good.

If that is blue/green it means I have too much organic waste in my water. I am 99.9% sure that would be caused by me feeding every day. I have now switched this to once every other day and about half what I was feeding. I change 25% of my water weekly. Should I increase this? I plan on scooping as much of it out of the tank as I can. I have read that for saltwater applications skimmers usually keep organic compounds in check. Does it work the same for fresh water? Does anybody have any other suggestions for ridding myself of this bacteria?

Thanks MatsP
Jason

25% water change a week may be sufficient, or not enough. It's hard for me to tell. Most forms of algae, including the "non-algae" cyanobacteria (Blue-green algae) are an indication of two things:
- nutrients.
- light.
These are the two things that all forms of algae needs to live. Reduce one, and the algae problem reduces - but of course, if it's caused by too much nutrients, then reducing the light will just stop the algae from growing, not actually fix the original problem.

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Mats