I have a few lace java ferns that unfortunately are a bit close to the lights in my tank. I have no where else to put them and I really like them where they are, but they are getting covered in brown stringy algae! They seem to be the only plants affected. I try to rub it off between my fingers but have broken off a few pieces of the plant and am wondering if there is a better way to go about this? I don't want to use Excel in my tank (even though I've heard it gets rid of algae) because I have vals that are going crazy and really don't want them to melt. I am going to try shrimp again this week, just ghosties though because they are cheap and the last time they didn't work out. If they survive, I will get a couple amanos. I have otos, corys, female bettas, MTS and ramshorns in the tank.
Any advice is appreciated, sorry I don't have pics at the moment.
How long are your lights on each day? Is the tank close to a window? I've never heard Excel gets rid of algae, I use it periodically, usually once a week with a water change.
I have my lights on a 12 hour schedule and other than that little bit of algae it's working great. Great idea Olympia, I will have to go buy a fresh toothbrush for my tank, lol!
You may want to lessen the light time. Mine are on 8-9 hours per day & my plants are growing great. I had an algae problem, I reduced my light time by an hour every week or two until my algae was under control.
I'm hesitant to do that because the oxygen levels in my tank drop by a lot at night...all of my fish breathe air so that's not a huge issue but my shrimp seem to be suffering! I suppose I could just run an air stone at night and see what happens.
I will say though, that my otos are thriving with all the algae in the tank. Unfortunately they don't seem to eat it off the java fern. They refuse to eat any food I provide for them so I kind of need the other algae for them to live, lol.
I agree with shellieca, 8ish hours is as much as you'll want / need. If you want to battle the algae temporarily- go with a split 4/4. 4 hours on in the morning, 4 hours on at night. If you really want to take it out give the tank a 48 hour black-out.
Unless you're running injected CO2 I wouldn't worry about oxygen levels all that much. A little bit of surface agitation goes a long way.
Finally, if you want to go the chemical route - Seachem's Flourish Excell does an excellent job at eliminating algae while helping plants flourish. Careful though, it's easy to OD and is quite a nasty biocide.
Two points of advice: get some nerite snails. They can help. Not promising that they will, but mine seem to like eating algae off of leaves.
Also, try to put a short "nap time" into your photoperiod....like, lights on for four hours, two hours off, then another four on. Algae, particularly hair types, don't like this.
Excel only works on hair/brush types of algae I thought. Does nothing to green or diatoms.
Thanks for all your help!!! I will try playing around with my photoperiod. I just like the lights on when I'm home so I will have to find a time period that works best. Will it affect the plants by turning it down or not really?
I do have ramshorns and MTS in the tank, and I did notice the ramshorns hanging out on the leaves of my java fern last night but didn't notice much of a difference in the algae. I haven't been able to find any nerites in the area but I will keep looking!
I put a bubble wall in my tank yesterday too, and was pleased to see my shrimp were not hanging out at the top of the tank this morning. I've read that oxygen levels can drop at night anyway, so I'm glad I put in the wall - plus my corys and otos seem to really love playing in the bubbles. I also just bought 5 amano shrimp online, they will be coming sometime this week. I tried ghost shrimp when I first started up the tank and they all died within about 10 minutes and I'm 100% sure it was oxygen levels in the water because the 6 I bought the other day are doing great (especially now with the bubble wall) and my fish totally ignore them.
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