Sasquatch
05-10-2007, 02:56 PM
This is part of the continuing saga with our 10g tank. Though things have been pretty quiet lately, I'm starting to have enough with our chronic algae problem and I don't know what to do about it.
Here's the situation:
- The tank is already fully stocked, so I don't want to add large algae eating fish and the only small fish we could add (oto cats) would probably get munched by our catfish.
- It's a planted tank with lots of Hygrophila, so algaecides are out, they'd kill the plants too
- It's cycled, so ammonia and nitrites are at 0
- pH is around 8.0, hardness around 100
- Nitrates are 5-10 mg/L and phosphates 0.25-0.5mg/L
- We fertilize with a micronutrient supplement that also has 0.15% nitrogen, our chelated iron levels range from 0.1-0.5 depending on when we've added the fertilizer and how much the plants consume
- Photoperiod is at 13h light:11h dark
- The platies pick a little bit of algae and we have a bunch of small snails, but they can't even begin to keep up.
The algae are absolutely rampant in the aquarium. They form a skum on the ornaments and on the plant leaves which can become so thick that it traps particles. We would have to clean the glass twice a week to keep it clear. The skum on the plants can't be good for them either and it stunts the new leaves.
So what can we do? Would cutting down on the photoperiod help? Perhaps stop fertilizing? Any advice would be welcome.
Here's the situation:
- The tank is already fully stocked, so I don't want to add large algae eating fish and the only small fish we could add (oto cats) would probably get munched by our catfish.
- It's a planted tank with lots of Hygrophila, so algaecides are out, they'd kill the plants too
- It's cycled, so ammonia and nitrites are at 0
- pH is around 8.0, hardness around 100
- Nitrates are 5-10 mg/L and phosphates 0.25-0.5mg/L
- We fertilize with a micronutrient supplement that also has 0.15% nitrogen, our chelated iron levels range from 0.1-0.5 depending on when we've added the fertilizer and how much the plants consume
- Photoperiod is at 13h light:11h dark
- The platies pick a little bit of algae and we have a bunch of small snails, but they can't even begin to keep up.
The algae are absolutely rampant in the aquarium. They form a skum on the ornaments and on the plant leaves which can become so thick that it traps particles. We would have to clean the glass twice a week to keep it clear. The skum on the plants can't be good for them either and it stunts the new leaves.
So what can we do? Would cutting down on the photoperiod help? Perhaps stop fertilizing? Any advice would be welcome.