alge on my plants [Archive]

bigmatt76

01-13-2005, 11:20 PM

Darkblade48

01-14-2005, 12:13 AM

hey guys i really need your help on this one. can i put alge fix in my 29 gallon tank because i have alge on my sword plant leaves and some of them are dieing. will alge fix solve my little problem.

matt

Chemical warfare is hardly the best way to go about eliminating problem algae, as it may just come back in the future if you don't correct the problem now. What kind of lighting do you have? Water parameters? Substrate?

Blinky

01-15-2005, 12:41 PM

Matt, there are lots of things I'd try before using a nasty chemical that may hurt your plants.
Can you post the tank's parameters, ferts, light, etc. as well as what fish you've got?
If they'll work in your tank, otocinclus catfish are, IMHO, unsurpassed at cleaning up soft green and brown (diatoms) algae (they won't clean up hair algae). I recently bought a few more, and placed one (they're best in groups, this little guy won't be alone for long) in my 10g and the rest in the 65g. One oto cleaned up all the algae in my 10g within a week - he's amazing. They scrub each plant leaf clean without hurting the plants, clean algae off the top of the gravel, the glass, airline, filter intake tubes and decorations.

bigmatt76

01-16-2005, 10:15 AM

i have a sword plant and many others but the sword plant is the only one with alge on its leaves. i have cichlids. an electric yellow and a texas cichlid. i have a 29 gallon tank with just standard flourescent lighting

matt

Blinky

01-16-2005, 10:20 AM

Ah, so otos aren't an option!
Sounds like the tank is a bit out of balance - if the plants have everything they need to grow well, they should outcompete most of the algae (there will always be a little). Are you using CO2? Sometimes a little CO2 is all that's needed to give plants the upper hand. You can easily make DIY CO2 for almost nothing (if you're interested, there's a link in my specs where I've posted my fertilization routine - just click on 'DIY CO2' and it should take you to a page all about how to set it up).
It's also very possible your plants aren't getting enough light - one standard fluorescent bulb is seldom enough, I'm sorry to say. It depends on the plants, some have higher light requirements, but while some will survive under very low light, few will thrive.

bigmatt76

01-16-2005, 8:25 PM

ok i started out with jsut my plants and then they started getting alge on them so i bought some fertilizer and put that in. its clled flourish and its working ok. then i bought a co2 injector and its working but its only been in operation for about a week. there is still alge on my plants so i really dont know what to do. all of the other plants i have are fine. its just my sword plant.

matt