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Old September 15th, 2012, 01:28 PM   #1
Bonnie
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Default Algae help

I have a 40breeder that's been running about 7 months now. There are 6 Rasbora Espei,6 psudomugil Iriani Reds,7 punctatus cory's(never seen) and 4 pygmeous cory's. It sounds like alot but they hardly take up any room in the tank. Also I now have alot of ramshead snails- thank you-due to a plant purchase I made, there must have been eggs on the leaves I just didn't notice. No Ammonia, PH is 6.4-6.8, nitrate-5.0ppm and nitrite 0. there is low lighting in this tank
maybe 1.25 watts per gallon, just some mosses and low light plants,anubias, sunset hygrow,crypts.
About a month ago I started noticing some hairy stuff on moss, long and flowing,not the short tufts that sometimes grows on plants etc. Am I doing something wrong? How do I get rid of this? I usually
clean the tanks once a week, however during the summer more like every 2 weeks. Any help would be
great, thanks.
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Old September 15th, 2012, 11:08 PM   #2
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Sound like hair algae, which is common in planted tanks.
The plants can be pruned to remove, the rocks or ornaments can be removed and cleaned with a bleach solution 1 part to 20 parts water. Be sure to rince untill there is no bleach smell.
The more plant u put in the more they will consume the nutient instead of the algae.
Keep in mind the algae needs the same as the plants to grow
Keep feeding to a minumum, watch the amount of light, and also make sure u have the right color lamps, I like 6700 and 10000k. Also old lamps will contribute to algae growth, you should change bulb every 12 monthes. hope this helps
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Old September 16th, 2012, 07:29 AM   #3
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I have alot of plants in that tank, I'm going to fill it with more plants. It's a very low light tank so I don't think it's that. I might be over feeding the fish. Yesterday I cleaned the tank and pulled out alot of it on the longer stems, pruned alot of it too. It looks better now but it's still on the moss and some plant stems. Would it be a bad thing to do
2 water changes in a week? I also added flourish excell hoping it will kill off some of it too. It worked in my other tank with the tufted type of hair algae.
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Old September 16th, 2012, 11:23 AM   #4
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Default planted tank

First my rule of thumb is feed only what your fish consume in 1 minute. If there is still food after 1 minute then you fed too much.
Second it is perfectly fine to do 2-3 water changes a week, as long as you make sure the ph and temperture are the same as your tank.
we have a member that would change 75% of his water every week, and had some of the best sucsess with plant I have seen
You have to keep on top of the algae before it gets out of hand with constant trimming and cleaning.
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Old September 17th, 2012, 04:25 PM   #5
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I think I'm overfeeding then, I'm always worried the bottom feeders aren't getting anything to eat. I put fresh zuchinni in my bigger tank but the 40g has cory's and I've never seen them tought anything green. More water changes and less food, thanks for the input!
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Old September 17th, 2012, 07:12 PM   #6
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Default feeding

If you are worried about bottom feeders drop a couple of sinking wafers every 2-3 days.
Cories usually do not eat zucchini, there is probably enough food on the bottom for th
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Old September 17th, 2012, 10:45 PM   #7
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Wow, every 2-3 days,I drop sinking shrimp pellets in everyday! Will stop that, I know it I'm overfeeding.
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Old September 18th, 2012, 11:02 AM   #8
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Default feeding

overfeeding is probably the number 1 problem in the hobby
You want those bottom feeders to clean and search for food
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Old September 18th, 2012, 07:53 PM   #9
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Default Hair algae issue

Another thing you could do is add baby barbs such as Rosy barbs or Cherry barbs because they love to eat hair algae.

Joe
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Old September 19th, 2012, 04:28 PM   #10
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Default hair algae

is that all barbs or only cheery and rosy barbs
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