A few questions for the holiday season...

by **liam1995** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 5:22 am

Hello again.

1. I have this brown algae in my tank that coats the leaves on my plants and covers the back of the tank. It comes off when you rub it and smells very strong. What is it? I read in a book that it is killed by light and that it comes from a lack of light in a tank.
2. Anyone had much to do with clarifiers? I have a bit of a recurring problem. I fed some cooked snapper to my fish which then caused an algae bloom. I used clarifier after numerous water changes did nothing. Is this safe to use?
3. I have a white skirt tetra with a large growth on his bottom jaw and his jaw is off centre a bit which means he can't fully shut his mouth. Is this a growth or has he broken his jaw and it has not healed properly?

Hope you guys deliver the goods like usual..

Thanks

by **Alasse** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 6:06 am

1. Sounds like a diatom outbreak, usually appears in new, unstable, or very low light tanks.

2. If its not doing anything then stop using it *L*

3. Could have broken or could be dislocated.

If your tank is still having an algae bloom, you need to find the cause, using chemicals to control it will only 'fix' it in the short term, why it is happening will still be there

by **liam1995** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 11:00 pm

So the clarifier is safe? It works wonders for me. How do I find the cause? Leave the lights on a bit longer? Put the plants out in direct sunlight?

by **liam1995** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 11:34 pm

http://theaquariumwiki.com/Freshwater_algae

The brown algae on this site looks like my algae.

by **natalie265** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 1:38 am

I agree that you should try and find the root of the problem instead of using the temporary fix that the clarifier is giving you. I'd start by testing for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. Direct sunlight will cause more algae problems than it will fix. How long do you keep the lights on?

by **liam1995** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 3:09 am

This algae has been around in my tank for 5 or so months. It hasn't suddenly appeared. I used to not have any artificial lighting in my tank and there was a lot of algae then. I got a light and it has been decreasing ever since but it is still there. I have a book called "Aquarium Atlas" by Hans A Baensch. It was published in 1987 but the copy I have is a revised one from 1997. It identifies this algae as "algae on gravel" and indicates a shortage of light which seems to fit in with the previous conditions of my tank. It says it generally indicates extra hard water. It says the quantityt of light should be doubled.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Ph 7.0
KH 7

I haven't got around to buying a Nitrate's test kit yet but I will soon.

by **Alasse** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 4:40 am

You may have excess silcates in your tank, diatoms need them to multiply

Do you have sand as a substrate?

by **liam1995** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 5:26 am

No I have gravel , they are pretty small in diametre maybe about .5 cm.

by **DanDman18** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 4:31 am

Well, all this talk about low lighting, what lights do you have and what are their outputs?

by **liam1995** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 5:34 am

Aqua nova NSL 600 15w

A few questions for the holiday season...

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