My 75-gallon has dirt on the bottom, topped by gravel. The plants are doing great. It was set up about 9 months ago and the plants in the pix are 'real,' in the sense they been in there a long time. The only addition is the lily pad bulb about 3 months ago (it grew!). The other plants are 3 amazon swords, an anubia from the 55- gallon tank, some crypts from the first tank I ever owned (10-gal, 2001) and vallisinaria. The latter grew like heck in my 55-gallon and are stating to establish themselves, as you can see, blurrily, given my rudimentary photography.
I ran through a few buches of plans that didnt' have real roots while the above plants established themselves. The 'pretty plants' died.
After I moved the compact fluorescent from my 55-gallon to the 75-gallon, my 55-g plants essentially croaked.
3 weeks ago, I splurged for another CF for my 55-gal. I bought a blob of wisteria for the green drama, and hoped my old Vallisinera roots and stubs would come back to life. But they haven't. The only persistent thing is the streamy brown algae. I scrubbed off the wood last water change, and it just came back; sending out thin streamers until it became a fuzzy happy family again.
SO...
Given that my 55-gal is plain gravel substrate,
How to get rid of the gooies in the 55-gallon?
I was thinking of moving one of the swords into the 55gal.
Should I buy a bunch of tall, rooted plants and hope they win?
The books say I should "plant heavily" to combat algae...but I want to plant and win. any suggestions?
On the pix:
In real life, my tanks are the brightest things in the room, but this fancy camera makes them look gloomy. They really aren't, unless you count the gooey algae in the 55-galon. I hope I figured out the upload thing OK.
I ran through a few buches of plans that didnt' have real roots while the above plants established themselves. The 'pretty plants' died.
After I moved the compact fluorescent from my 55-gallon to the 75-gallon, my 55-g plants essentially croaked.
3 weeks ago, I splurged for another CF for my 55-gal. I bought a blob of wisteria for the green drama, and hoped my old Vallisinera roots and stubs would come back to life. But they haven't. The only persistent thing is the streamy brown algae. I scrubbed off the wood last water change, and it just came back; sending out thin streamers until it became a fuzzy happy family again.
SO...
Given that my 55-gal is plain gravel substrate,
How to get rid of the gooies in the 55-gallon?
I was thinking of moving one of the swords into the 55gal.
Should I buy a bunch of tall, rooted plants and hope they win?
The books say I should "plant heavily" to combat algae...but I want to plant and win. any suggestions?
On the pix:
In real life, my tanks are the brightest things in the room, but this fancy camera makes them look gloomy. They really aren't, unless you count the gooey algae in the 55-galon. I hope I figured out the upload thing OK.
