Sunlight’s tank journal

[Sunlight]

Don't feel bad, green or black algae are a natural thing and normal in small amounts in healthy tanks. If anything the back or sides are a great place for it, and you have a living, natural backdrop. Cyanobacteria on the other hand... I wouldn't remove the real algae from the back, just siphon the BGA off the glass to keep it in check.

I don't think my siphon is strong enough to do that lol but I'll try my best in a few days when I do my next water change

Side note: does anyone know of any cool things you can feed bettas/ADF? I feel like it'd be cool to make a video of feeding Reggie/Eddie different types of bugs or chopped up shrimp or chopped earthworms and anything else that's cool (but only meats because they are both carnivores). I have a lot of time on my hands to scrounge up some cool foods so why not

 

[Amazoniantanklvr]

Side note: does anyone know of any cool things you can feed bettas/ADF? I feel like it'd be cool to make a video of feeding Reggie/Eddie different types of bugs or chopped up shrimp or chopped earthworms and anything else that's cool (but only meats because they are both carnivores). I have a lot of time on my hands to scrounge up some cool foods so why not

I'e heard that some people use lie insets to condition hatchet fish to breed them. Just an idea.

 

[the loach]

BGA isn't really attached as algae it comes off in sheets... you should be able to easily siphon the BGA of the glass, otherwise just use a hose that will work for sure.
You can try ants for your betta, or even better, ant larvae, if you are in a (sub)tropical climate.

 

[angelcraze]

I have removed BGA with my fingers in gelatinous sheet pieces. Yes, I get it as well...

Manual removal and regular water changes seems to keep it away, then sometimes I do a h2o2 spot dosing where it was. A place it seems to get caught is in between the glass and substrate. That's where I do the spot dosing. 1ml per gallon max, but you shouldn't need that much. Another alternative is to tape the glass in the section the substrate presses on the glass. But first try to manually remove what you can from the glass too.

FYI, h2o2 sinks in the water, so not so effective on the glass or plants. Best to remove that by hand and spot dose the effected substate. BBA and green spot will stay attached to the glass. But honestly I would rather remove all the algae (and with it bacteria) and regrow the algae because you don't want that cyano gaining any head speed.

 

[angelcraze]

Sorry I meant to say taping the glass is to prevent the light from accessing the anaerobic sections.

 

[Sunlight]

A mini update for today. Everything is finally reacting to the CO2 like it used to. Everything is pearling, even my red tiger lotus plant (yes and algae too, it’s a work in progress.)



And some pictures of everyone to brighten these rather depressing times






The last pic is Eddie hiding in his leaf pile (you can see his flipper under all the leaves)

 

[Amazoniantanklvr]

Looks good (except for the algae of course). How do you plan on getting rid of it?

 

[Sunlight]

Looks good (except for the algae of course). How do you plan on getting rid of it?

not really sure tbh ?‍ I guess just manual removal each water change (2x/week) and spot treating excel on any super bad spots. The blackbeard and green algae give my wood and rocks a weathered and natural feel (which I like), it's just the cyanobacteria that I want to get rid of. I guess I'll just play it by ear and then if it gets super bad to where the tank is ruined, I'll tear down the tank and clean/disinfect everything (except the filter media) and put everything back together.

 

[the loach]

What is your pH and KH and have you checked nitrate and phosphate levels? You have a lightly stocked tank but with CO2 and probably medium to high lighting. Cyanobacteria do thrive on very low nitrate levels... they use it before the plants can get to it. That is noticeable for example on your Ambulia, that should be a medium to fast growing plant yet it has some Cyanobacteria on it.

 

[Sunlight]

What is your pH and KH and have you checked nitrate and phosphate levels? You have a lightly stocked tank but with CO2 and probably medium to high lighting. Cyanobacteria do thrive on very low nitrate levels... they use it before the plants can get to it. That is noticeable for example on your Ambulia, that should be a medium to fast growing plant yet it has some Cyanobacteria on it.

I'm not going to lie, I haven't tested my water in a while because this tank used to be extremely consistent and I never had any sort of issues, especially not with cyano. But then I didn't water change or refill my CO2 kit for a while. I got lazy, and now I'm suffering because of it with cyano (but it's really not THAT bad). But now things seem to be back on the right track hopefully.

The last time I tested my water, my results were 0|0|5-10 (and had consistently always been those levels for about a year, so I figured "why check if nothing seems off"). I have always had trouble getting higher nitrates than 10 (and it was even rare to get them up to that) in this tank. But I dose quite a bit of fertilizers...

My cabomba (and everything else really, besides maybe anubias) has never really had algae ever and grew like crazy until my stupid laziness took over (as previously mentioned). That's when cyano appeared.

My pH is 6.4 out the tap, but I also run CO2 and have tons of tannins in the water so it's likely much lower. I've never noticed any issues from anyone though, even my nerite's shell looks perfect. I've never tested for GH, KH, or phosphate so I'm not sure about those.

Thank you so much for helping me out.