Brown spots...

[Kaniving2008]

I've gotten that type of algae from too long a photo period like mentioned above.

If it's a common pleco, they can get so big they can barely turn around in a ~50g tank.

The only rooted plants that would benefit from your Seachem flourish tabs are the sword and maybe anacharis. The rest are rhizome plants (water colm feeders)

It's a shame to use and discard comets for the purpose of cycling a tank, but it happens. Some comets can grow up to be real gems.

I have a bud with a pleco, its a little over a foot long. Didnt raise his though, he caught it one night fishing. What is a water colm feeder? As far as the comets go, there are 2 in the group i definitely plan on keeping.. possibly a third because its all silver, not a scale of gold on it. The 2 i want to keep have very nice color pattern going on. But they are some greedy b@st@rds. They eat the pellet that i put in for the pleco.

Since the tank is new, more than likely you have diatoms, or what is commonly referred to as new tank syndrome.

Do the brown spots brush away easily? If so, that's what you have. Nothing to be worried about, they will go away in time.

As to the Flourish tabs, in my opinion ten tabs way too much for a 50 gallon. That's a lot of nutrients that could be leaching into the water column. Watch out for other algae developing.

I figured a diatom bloom might have been the cause, i wasnt sure. I figured that was only something found in saltwater tanks. The spots are shrinking now that i have turned down the light time by 4 hrs. As far as the Flourish tabs, i will remove a few of them, i thought it may have been too much myself but there werent any clear instructions that i could find on how many to use.

 

[Duckie]

Comets are funny that way. Given a chance they will overeat. And they are not picky what they eat as long as it fits in their mouth. What Freshy meant with the mispelled colm - wanted to say water column feeders - meaning they don't feed through the roots in substrate, but through the water only.

 

[Kaniving2008]

I'm following. Well i hope my pleco is eating, i would hate to see it die... i paid 5$ after all. i swap back and forth between dropping a pellet in and a slice of cucumber. i watched a youtube video and read a few Internet articles. Apparently plecos eat pretty much anything... although the Comets are always first to strike the slice i put in there smh.

 

[Duckie]

You can try using 2 different pellets - put a floating kind in that keeps the comets busy, and while they eat put in sinking pellets. Otherwise if only using sinking pellets they may just grab them all before reaching the floor. Always worked for me when I had 2 comets in a 55 and needed to get pellets down for the corys.