Green Algae gone wild...ready to do away with plants...

moboe said:
My tank is a 6g Eclipse. Glad to hear I'm not the only one with this problem...but sorry to hear it, too! I can add an air stone to add more circulation to the water. Do you think this would help with the algae?

What is RO water? Can I create it at home? Is RO short for something, like LFS? I like the idea of cutting down on the nutrients in the water...makes sense.

Thanks again for all the help.

Moboe
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RO=Reverse Osmosis.
You can do it at home but the equipment can run up to and beyond $300.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question29.htm
Basically, if you go to your local grocery store, its the water dispenser that takes 1 gal or 5 gal jugs.

the airstone may help with the alage problem but I would probably do 2 water changes a week for your tank and watch the feeding.
 
I noticed one of your comments was about bettas and otos. My betta and oto get along just fine. No problems whatsoever. Same with the shrimp... however... I have heard that once the novelty of the shrimp in the tank wears off, the betta might start to get interested in the shrimp. For me, so far so good. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for sure. I've got an algae problem as well, and now have to deal with fin rot on top of that. Keep the great ideas coming, guys!
 
jparnell said:
I noticed one of your comments was about bettas and otos. My betta and oto get along just fine. No problems whatsoever. Same with the shrimp... however... I have heard that once the novelty of the shrimp in the tank wears off, the betta might start to get interested in the shrimp. For me, so far so good. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for sure. I've got an algae problem as well, and now have to deal with fin rot on top of that. Keep the great ideas coming, guys!
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I have only kept ottos in larger plant tanks, such as 55 gallons, with a large school of them, atleast 8.
I tried to keep them in my 6 gallon tank with my Betta's and you know, it just never seemed to work. They just perished. The only critter that did well was Amano shrimp. If ou give them plenty of cover and places to hide, you will not need to worry about your Betta. They just get curious and want to check out their tank mates. Betta's are not that aggressive to other tank mates as people tend to believe.

As for your fin rot, I think you do have a water quality issue going on here. So start doing more water changes, pick up some of the RO water I recommended and use that for all changes and top offs.
When fish get sick, its do to being stressed. What causes fish to get stressed are roughly 2 things.
Water Quality or a agressive tank mate and from what you have told us, it sounds like water quality.
 
Thanks to all for the help. I really appreciate it. I forsee my algae overrun ending soon. Really, I can see it now...

JParnell, I nursed my betta through a really bad case of fin rot last March, shortly after I got him. I got some great, GREAT advice on this forum, and from http://beautifulbettas.com/forum/ I isolated him in a 1g hospital tank, changed the water every other day, added salt, and used Maroxy and Maracyn. He lost his entire tail fin, and much of his dorsal fin. He's now thriving, and I think his tail fin is even longer than it was before the fin rot. I could not have done it without the great help I received on these forums. Good luck!!!
 
Hi moboe,
You used both maroxy and maracyn? Both at full dosage? I'm hesitant to move him to a hospital tank as he just got acclimatized to a cycled tank. Moved him in a week ago, and the stress of it is probably what's caused all this. And he only just recovered from fin rot in his half gallon

Keep us posted on your algae... I've been tracking this thread ... good info!
 
Hi JParnell,

Yes, both Maracyn and Maroxy. I was given specific information from a member of this board, Celura. Here's a link to our correspondence of 3/04.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25726

I too was concerned about putting him in an unfiltered environment, but with water changes every other day, it isn't a problem. And, I had him only a week or 2 before the rot began, so his was definitely stress induced. I followed her advice to the letter, and today Red is thriving (back in his 6g) and has a beautiful tail and dorsal fins to show for it.

Hope it helps. And, thanks for the algae help. This thread and forum, as usual, have been of amazing help!

Moboe
 
An update on my green algae...

I have determined, after measuring my pH and KH that my CO2 is about 9...not too high, and maybe a little low. I'm going to add some Seachem Flourish to the tank and see what happens.

I've also purchased a tap water filter so that I can put water with all nutrients removed in the tank when I do water changes. It's not exactly like RO water, but my LFS highly recommended it, especially for the water we have in this area.

I've also added Java fern to the tank...it looks lovely! I'd like to add an algae eater of some sort to the tank to eradicate my current algae, (see how hopeful I am that it won't come back?) I asked my LFS about amano shrimp, and they were unfamiliar with it. They mentioned ghost shrimp and one other kind of shrimp. They also have CAE. Don't know what will be best for algae, and for my betta.

I'm optimistic that things will improve. Thanks for the help. I'll report back.
 
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