Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:38 pm GMT   Reply      

Great source Spongbob!!! Looks like I'll be getting co2 going soon as soon as my lazy ass can figure out the recipe for DIY yeast produced co2.

SAE's arn't avaliable in my local aquarium stores yet, but I'll get some for my 35 gallon long tank as soon as they're in.

I guess I'll take the wood, rocks, and filter equipment out and soak in bleach solution again. I'll see if I can soak my live plants with the algae in a diluted bleach solution too and maybe it'll kill the algae before killing the plants.

Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:47 am GMT   Reply      

Extra post!!!! OOps!

Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:39 pm GMT   Reply      

Peter, I was reading up on algaes and it seems some algaes (not sure about brush algae) come about from big disturbances to the substrate... do you think this might be magnifying your algae problem?

Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:40 pm GMT   Reply      

It could be because the 2 tilapia I have are digging holes all over the place. I think it's just coming back from when I knocked it back before. It's like it's doubling every day. When it was a micron long I didn't notice 2 microns. When it's a centimeter long it's easy to see that double.

It's not actually doubling, but you get the idea.

It may also be that I need to do a major cleaning. I need to clean the gravel of all poop and crud. The undergravel filter just puts poop juice into the water.

I have to do another damned bleaching and total cleaning. I'm going to remove fish and, well , I'll post how crazy I get with the bleach.

Don't worry. I'll make sure there's no residual bleach in the tank when I return the fish. I'll see how many of my plants I can save, and after I finish it may be a good idea to get a DIY co2 system going to 1) grow the plants back and 2) to stay ahead of the algae like the article says.

Sat May 31, 2008 8:21 pm GMT   Reply      

Well,-I-never-did-the-big-clean-in-the-100-gallon-and-the-algae-basicly-stopped-growing-except-for-it-covering-some-large-areas-of-wood-with-beautiful-furry-dark-red-purple-velvety-patches.....I-wish-I-had-a-camera-as-it's-really-nice-in-this-respect....The-smaller-planted-tank-where-I-transferred-many-of-the-plants-is-looking-pretty-good-too.....The-brush-algae-on-these-plants-has-been-pretty-much-eradicated-by-the-Ottos-and-SAE's.

I-guess-all-that-was-needed-with-the-brush-algae-in-the-100-gallon-was-to-remove-the-big-eaters,-the-14-inch-Arowana-and-big-Tilapias,-and-now-I-use-probably-1/6-the-amount-of-food,-cutting-the-bioload-considerably.

Since-removing-many-of-the-plants-the-Java-moss-has-grown-in-a-lot-wafting-in-the-current-a-foot-long-from-it's-attatchments-on-the-wood.

No-more-GF-so-no-camera......Somday-I'll-get-one-and-take-some-more-pics.